Over the weekend, Librarians Akunna and Maija represented the Bibliocycle team at a program put on by Wee the People and MassArt, "Wee Free Black Mamas". "Wee Free Black Mamas" was an event to create postcards for mothers in jail. They hope to raise awareness and to raise money to bail out mothers who are awaiting trial. The event hosted read-alouds and a teach-in, in addition to the postcard creation stations. The postcards will be sent to the many Black women who aren't able to be with their children and families on Mother's Day because they cannot afford the bail fee. We didn't have the Bibliocycle trailer with us, but we had our t-shirts and lots of enthusiasm for the program.
Elena White, the Associate Director of the Center for Art and Community Partnerships was really generous and engaging. She helped set up a little area for us in their Atrium with a table and a cozy reading nook of soft chairs and tables. We visited with Francie and Tanya from Wee the People as they continued to buzz around the room, greeting people and welcoming everyone.
Francie , the author of Auntie Luce’s Talking Paintings noticed her book was on our display,and she was a little embarrassed. However, we insisted that we champion diversity and want everyone to get a chance to read it while they visited our reading nook. We set up our table with flyers about upcoming library programs in the neighborhoods, and displays of books for children and adults.
Lots of library users, activists, families and teachers and MassArt students dropped by our area to ask us about programs going on around the library system. We watched children get their faces painted and families collaborated on t-shirts and postcards. We got to talk to some familiar faces from surrounding branches about programs that they enjoyed. Akunna helped a few people make new library cards and we checked out a handful of books to patrons. If you'd like to see the books we brought on our visit, check out the list below.
We took the Bibliocycle to MassArt to be part of Wee the People's "Wee Free Black Mamas" program over the weekend. If you missed it, you can check out some of the books that we brought to the event in the list below. Want to check out where we are visiting next? Click on the following link: https://www.bpl.org/bibliocycle/
Add a comment to: Bibliocycle Visits Wee Free Black Mamas