The Free Black Women's Library

Happy Friday Friends!!
Whoohooo!!
I am so excited for Sunday!!

some FYIs for the newbies, quick notes on how the library works • • • •

It is a free open space welcome to all open hearted book and Black women loving people. Black women and girls are the center and celebration of this space.
ALL OF US in our sacred, glorious and diverse ways of being. ALL.

You are welcome to come alone, with your boo, family, friends and hang out all day to read, write, draw, eat, nap, talk, chill, whatever, be you!!

It is a trading library, this means for every book you bring you get to take one. Please bring good books written by Black women that you would be happy to receive, this is a chance to connect and exchange. We are gifting each other with good fortune.

PS books about Black women but not written by Black women no matter how good they might be, don’t qualify.

You do not need to bring a book to attend or enjoy.

Feel free to take pics and post, pls tag The Free Black Women’s Library in your posts.
Ps if you are taking pics of someone you don’t know ask permission.Let them see the pic before you post. 😉

This month we are talking about FRESHWATER, an incredible debut novel written by Akwaeke Emezi. If you haven’t read it you can still be apart of the conversation but there will be spoilers ☺️
* TW this specific book contains moments of sexual trauma and self abuse. We will hold you energetically as best as we can if you need. Say whatever you need to say * Book talk starts at 4.15.

Trading starts at 2.15 and happens all day.

Be easy with me I’m a one woman operation 😂

Thanks for the support and love and messages and donations and shout outs. I appreciate it all more than words can say.

✌🏾 & 💕 & 📚

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“Some periods of our growth are so confusing that we don’t even recognize that growth is happening. We may feel hostile or angry or weepy and hysterical, or we may feel depressed. It would never occur to us, unless we stumbled on a book or a person... — “Some periods of our growth are so confusing that we don’t even recognize that growth is happening. We may feel hostile or angry or weepy and hysterical, or we may feel depressed. It would never occur to us, unless we stumbled on a book or a person who explained to us, that we were in fact in the process of change, of actually becoming larger, spiritually, than we were before. Whenever we grow, we tend to feel it, as a young seed must feel the weight and inertia of the earth as it seeks to break out of its shell on its way to becoming a plant. Often the feeling is anything but pleasant. But what is most unpleasant is the not knowing what is happening. Those long periods when something inside ourselves seems to be waiting, holding its breath, unsure about what the next step should be, eventually become the periods we wait for, for it is in those periods that we realize that we are being prepared for the next phase of our life and that, in all probability, a new level of the personality is about to be revealed.” - Alice Walker/Living by the Word
Blessed Equinox Beloveds, now is a time of transition and deep learning, touched with sadness and confusion. These words of Alice Walker are like a balm to my soul. As Spring approaches, many of us are feeling an alignment to nature’s cycle, shedding and releasing shells and skins, bursting and blooming into something fresh and new. I am feeling both overwhelmed and excited by the changes. Currently in my last semester of an MFA program, working on my final portfolio project and investigating the legacy of radical Black librarianship. I am both in awe and inspired by women like Jewele Mazique, Mayme Agnew Clayton, and of course audre lorde. There is a long standing tradition in our community of finding liberation, healing, empowerment, community and joy through our words and stories, and the folks who take time to archive and provide access to them are my role models and inspiration.
Want to wish you a powerful and love filled Spring season as well as invite you to the next Free Black Women’s Library session.
We are back at cozy Bailey’s Cafe located in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, 324 Malcolm X Boulevard. Its Happening on Sunday, March 25th from 2pm to 7pm.
We are discussing the mind-blowing debut novel from Akwaeke Emezi entitled Freshwater.
This is a gorgeous and deep read, that explores the metaphysics of identity and being, the layers of mind, body and spirit. It is a heavy and powerful story that caused a psychic shift in me upon reading. It’s now on my list of favorites.
All are welcome to take part in the conversation about the book and its characters, the conversation starts at 4pm.
(please keep in mind the book contains scenarios of physical trauma, suicidal ideation and sexual assault so most likely these topics will be discussed)
Also feel free to save the date for our April edition of the library which is happening on Sunday, April 29th from 1pm to 6pm at Ancient Song Studio, located at 521 Halsey Street, Brooklyn.
We are discussing, When They Call You A Terrorist, A Black Lives Matter Memoir, the amazing memoir by Patrisse Khan Cullors and asha bandele.
This book is an amazing testimony, a brave and precious offering and reflection on Black womanhood, state violence, the criminalization of poverty, mental health disparities, relationship accountability, vulnerability and the power of community. This book taught me the same way Assata’s memoir taught me about Black Feminism, community organizing and I am so grateful for its existence I look forward to talking about it with you next month.
This conversation is open to all, reading the book before attending is highly recommended.
** I have consumed 8 books this year, and these are my two favorites so far!!
My next read Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, is a YA fantasy novel that melds contemporary issue with West African mythology, its generated quite a buzz and I’m looking forward to diving in.
Please feel free to drop me a message letting me know what you are reading these days, as I would love to know!!
Thanks for all the sweet support via kind messages, book donations and financial contributions!!
and let’s continue to stay connected through social media, Instagram, Facebook & Tumblr…..
Here’s to blooming in love, language and creativity!!
and my sincerest apologies if you are getting this message twice!!
Peace!!

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What an amazing day!! Thank you so much to everyone that came through for today’s pop up library at Brooklyn movement center!! Special shout out to Liza Jessie Peterson for reading excerpts from her amazing debut “All Day” and dropping infinite truth bombs on the prison industrial complex and the criminalization of Black youth!! The book is available on Amazon for pre-order!!
Please save the date for next month’s pop up March 11 at Weeksville Heritage Center!! Thanks!!

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Really excited to share with y'all that the brilliant award winning writer Angela Flournoy is the featured author for April’s Free Black Women’s Library Pop Up session!! Come on through to Nurture Art Gallery, 56 Bogart Street, Brooklyn and take part in the conversation!!
Angela will talk about her writing practice and read excerpts from her best selling debut novel “The Turner House” on Sunday April 2nd.
Feel free to come by, trade books, listen in and take part in the conversation.
The library opens at at noon and I will have hundreds of books of every genre all written by Black women available to trade.
Bring a good book written by a Black woman to get a good book written by Black woman. 📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚
Light Snacks & Refreshments will be served.
This event is free and open to all. See you there 😉

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May the Goddess continue to bless me with gorgeous days like today. Thank you so much to everyone that came out to visit The Free Black Women’s Library mini pop up at TAMA street fair. Today was delicious and sweet 💕 see you tomorrow at Black Love Fest at Sugar Hill Museum

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Beautiful Saturday, next pop up is Sunday August 26th at The Bedford YMCA in Brooklyn from noon to 5.

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“After all, my life, as I saw it, was a thing divided in three; There was Brooklyn, U.S.A.,and specifically the tight, little, ingrown immigrant world of Bajan Brooklyn that I had fled. Then, once I started writing, the Carribean and it’s conga line Ig islands had been home off and on for any number of years. While all the time, lying in wait across the Atlantic, in a direct line almost with tiny wallflower Barbados, had been the Gulf of Guinea and the colossus of ancestral Africa, the greater portion of my tripartite self that I had yet to discover, yet to know”

🌍⭐️🖤

Recently finished TRIANGULAR ROAD the memoir of award winning best selling bold and astute Caribbean writer Paule Marshall. I make no secret about how I love reading memoirs (of Black women) and this one is no exception. I was quite tickled to find out that like many of our other faves (Zora, Audre, Toni, Maya), Miss Paule also worked at a library. ☺️ And currently living in Bedstuy I can’t help but think about her Bajan family moving and living through the same streets that I occupy in present day. I gagged when she dropped the bomb about attending Hunter college for free as a NYC resident. FREE college y’all!!! Whew!! Can you imagine?!

Most of all she talks about how her life, culture and travel influenced her writing and worldview. It starts in 1965, with her as a fledgling new writer and mother, without any warning she receives an invitation to join the Peoples Poet, Sir Langston Hughes on a cultural tour of Europe. She shares lovely moments from this spontaneous journey and the years that follow which found her writing/living in various parts of the Caribbean and eventually Africa. While traveling she goes through a process of constant self discovery and inspiration. She explores issues of identity, heritage and history, all of which plant seeds for the classic novels she gifted us, BROWN GIRL, BROWNSTONES, PRAISE SONG FOR THE WIDOW, THE CHOSEN PLACE, THE TIMELESS PEOPLE..Her voice here as in her stories is witty, affectionate, absorbing, amusing and real. More than anything it reminded me of the secrets & pleasures that can be uncovered when we remain open, ready and down for adventure!!

Adding this to my reads for The Free Black Women’s Library Reading Challenge - a memoir or autobiography 🖤👌🏿📚

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This old photo I took while sorting The Free Black Women’s Library three years ago got me to thinking.

I started collecting books by Black women to share with my Brooklyn community years ago, and from the very beginning each time I’ve sorted the collection one author whose book I’ve had more than any other is Toni Morrison. Her book BELOVED to be specific but all her work is often present in multiples. I was wondering why this is?

Obviously she has been outrageously prolific throughout her literary career, but could that be it?

Or is it her genius of style and storytelling?

What do you think?

Can we say that this random fun fact establishes her as something very specific within the Black Woman’s Literary Cannon?

What word can we use to describe this status/post?

I would easily say genius but I’m biased. 😆 🤓

I would place Maya, Alice and Ntozake in that same circle, as well as Gloria and Zora. They all gave us jewels of beauty where the essence of Black womanhood is shown & known. 🖤📚⭐️

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We are back at one of our Bedstuy faves for this month’s pop up!! Join us for some freshly brewed tea and liberating literature based conversation on Sunday, December 22nd from noon to 4 Brooklyn Tea

Come check out and enjoy The Free Black Women’s Library vast gorgeous collection of books written by Black women

Bring a good book written by a Black woman to donate or trade.

Purchase a TFBWL T-shirt, button, sticker or poster.

This is our last installation in what has been a long, busy challenging and amazing year.

So grateful for the growth, support and appreciation!!

Sending so much LOVE to all our patrons on Patreon without you this project could not be, thank you so sooooooo much!!

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4 years ago today, I took 100 books by Black women and set them up on a brownstone stoop in Brooklyn. I danced in honor of the sacred beauty, brilliance and creativity that Black women bring and let my community know I was starting a small social art project known as The Free Black Women’s Library. I was nervous AF, I had been sitting on the idea for months unsure if I had the time, capability, and bandwidth to make it happen.

I am a single mother, freelance artist with limited funds, also a loner, extremely shy, introverted, prone to bouts of severe depression, but I was sick of seeing Black womanhood attached to struggle, pain, trauma, victimhood, criminality, violence, poverty, ugliness, incompetence, so much negativity attached to our existence.

I knew different, I felt different and wanted to show proof to myself and my community, so I jumped in and said phuck it, what’s the worse that will happen? People will think, I’m crazy or weird, - that ain’t nothing new.

Black women’s words have saved my life, healed me, nurtured me and provided me with the comfort that I’ve needed in every rough moment of my life and I wanted to share that fact/testimony. I did my first official book swap that day and the rest as they say is history.

Here I am now with a collection of 1200 with branches forming across the country!! 🙌🏿💓⭐️☺️

I had no idea what would happen next, the journey has been both good, tiring, educational, inspiring and complicated. 😂

Thanks to those who show support and love. Extra special love and shout out to all the Patreon subscribers and those that send me books!! You are my angels!!! ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

The financial support you give is needed and deeply appreciated!! This project gets zero funding outside of you!!! I love you for helping me keep this thing going!!

Happy Birthday to us!! 💓💓

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Blessed Black Feminist Thursday Loves!! Excited to share with you that there is a now a mini installation of TFBWL up at JACK, a wonderful award winning performance arts space located at 18 Putnam Avenue in Brooklyn.

From now until late November, you are welcome to engage with this specially curated collection in between, before and after their shows as well as trade books by Black women with the installation. Please check their page and website to find out about all the amazing shows they have coming up for the autumn season. Thank you so much to JACK for inviting us to be part of their beautiful new space and thanks to my dear Naima B for the install assistance!! ♥️♥️📚📚 ⭐️⭐️👌🏿👌🏿

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Last year the folks from @bust_magazine reached out to me asking for a list of 5 books and as you see I had to be a little contrary and give them 6.

I also turned it into a mini writing assignment for myself and wrote out the reasons why I chose each one, I named it 5 Books for Bust and shared it on my Patreon.

Click www.Patreon.com/TFBWL to join

I also spent a couple months looking out for it, and then promptly forgot out about it because LIFE.

They shared my list yesterday 🎉 - “Righteous Recommendations from Olaronke Akinmowo”

it’s a cute teeny tiny feature, linked on my Twitter 📝

But more importantly, I noticed that we can have some serious Word Play, and craft sentences and stories with their titles.

For instance -

⭐️Black futures are filled with thick riotous girls, church ladies and sister outsiders who live secret lives with the stars and the Blackness between them.⭐️

♥️🌹📚♥️🌹

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The Free Black Women's Library — Happy Friday Friends!! Whoohooo!! I am so...

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

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