Bat annex

Bat Annex Free School Library was a radical library that was housed in the Belfry Center for Social and Cultural Activities, a collectively run, radical community center in Minneapolis, MN. The Bat Annex Free School Library contained zines, tools, hula hoops, comics and activist and art books available for checkout.

Originally housed in an old garage space behind the Hub Bike Co-op on Minnehaha Ave, the grand opening event on August 13, 2003 included a performance by Dave Roche, Alex Wrekk, Joe Biel as well as offering a show at the accompanying DIY space, MALA, which featured this bike is a pipe bomb and blinkin freddy and the lowbaggers.

At that time, the Bat Annex not only offered a zine/radical book library but also offered free classes on subjects such as Beginning Firespinning, diy underwear, Spanish & French, diy bike maintainance, quilting, creating stencils, yoga, etc, as well as hosting workshops for groups such as SexySpring and The Icarus Project. Some benefits for the space included an evening of train movies and wrestlefest (which featured prominent figures in the local punk/diy/zine scene wrestling in various ways). The space also offered free coffee, tea, internet, local phone access as well as a copy machine for minimal donation.

In 2011, the zine library was combined with the zine collection of the Steven Square Center for the Arts to form the Zine Apothecary in Minneapolis.