How the Somali Community dealing with Mental Illness, Amid Pandemic, Author, and Educator Ruqia Abdi Speaks Out! When Ruqia Abdi settled in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of south Minneapolis, her local library became a refuge. It was a space where she could peruse thought-provoking books, where her children could study undisturbed. Still, Ruqia didn’t think that she truly belonged in the library. “Everyone was white except us,” she remembers. “I knew that I could use the library, and I did, but I didn’t feel like it was for me.” Ruqia’s Somali neighbors seemed to share the same sentiment. Ruqia and her husband had moved from New Jersey — where they felt socially isolated and separated from their community — because they heard that “there is a place called Minnesota where you will find lots of Somali people,” she remembers. However, Ruqia realized, you usually couldn’t find them in the library.

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