Zine Archive
The Youth-Led Libraries Zine Archive is a collection of zines created by New York City teens imagining what the libraries of the future could—and should—be. Developed through the Urban Design Forum’s Youth-Led Libraries of the Future project, the zines capture young people’s ideas about belonging, creativity, safety, technology, and public space, turning their experiences and aspirations into a colorful record of youth-led civic imagination.
Youth Led Libraries of the Future
Youth-led Libraries of the Future is an Urban Design Forum project exploring how young people can help shape libraries as spaces for learning, connection, creativity, and belonging. Working directly with teens, the project developed an arts-based curriculum, a zine archive, and nine youth-led design guidelines—reimagining libraries not simply as places for young people, but as civic spaces created with them.
Rajesh Sankat
With roots in Toronto, Canada, Rajesh is a writer, facilitator, and community-centered design practitioner at 3×3 Design. His work sits at the nexus of inclusive design and urban placemaking to translate community insights and aspirations into strategy development, the built environment, and narrative change. Rajesh has had his work and writing featured in AZURE and Afternoon Magazine, and holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Toronto.
Donelle Wedderburn
Donelle is a Jamaican-American writer and audio producer. Her work sits at the intersection of Black history, oral storytelling, and the built environment. She has contributed to developing and producing a range of broadcasts and audio documentaries for NPR, ABC News, Food Culture Collective x Heal Food Alliance, and Ten Percent Happier. In her free time, she loves to write poetry and draw connections between literature and landscape. Black women writers like Jamaica Kincaid, Toni Morrison, and June Jordan moved through the worlds of storytelling, urban planning, and design and showed me it was possible to do the same.
Ayana Smith
Ayana Smith is a native New Yorker and experienced youth organizer whose current practice focuses on implementing participatory creative placekeeping projects as a tool to increase public safety in and around public housing developments. Prior to her current position, she held leadership positions at Teens Take Charge and Student Voice and has served as a youth advisor for several organizations such as Race Forward. Her work has been featured in publications such as the New York Daily News and presented at conferences such as Grantmakers for Education through the National Public Education Support Fund.