The Free Black Women's Library

06/10/2026

Join us as we celebrate the release of NONBINARY LIFE/AN AUTOTHEORY with author, gender theorist & Black Studies professor Dr. Marquis Bey

Nonbinary Life is an invitation to imagine the possibilities of life outside of gender.

To write, to think, to imagine, to agitate, and to love without regard for gender is to lead a non-binary life. In this genre-defying work of autotheory, Marquis Bey proposes a radical refusal: to relinquish gender as a framework we carry - for ourselves and for others - and to embrace modes of being that exist outside of its grasp.

Spanning questions of pronouns, masculinity, love, family, language, and even the Redwood National Forest, Nonbinary Life blends memoir and theory to provide a philosophical meditation on what it means to live beyond the binary.

Join us as we celebrate the release of NONBINARY LIFE/AN AUTOTHEORY with author, gender theorist & Black Studies professor Dr. Marquis Bey

06/04/2026

June Public Programs at The Free Black Women's Library 💛

Saturday, June 6th at 3pm
Gather and Tell, A Community Storytelling Circle
Led by We The Diaspora & Black Storytelling Week this event invites Black folks of the diaspora to learn about and engage in the traditional art of storytelling. Participants are asked to bring an item or photograph and share a story or memory that is connected to it.

Sunday, June 7th at 1PM
Writing To Rikers/Prison Pen Pals
Monthly Letter Writing Session with Serita Sargent
We meet on the first Sunday of each month to write and receive letters, to and from folks incarcerated at Rikers Prison. Letters are hand delivered. We also have open casual conversations about the prison system, abolition, carcerality, accountability and freedom. All are welcome.

Sunday, June 7th at 3PM
Before It’s Gone/Archive to Survive
Book Launch party with Brooklyn Hi Art Machine!!
We are celebrating the release of the art book and story collection project, Before It’s Gone/Archive To Survive created by artists Mildred Beltre and Oasa DuVerney aka the dynmic duo known as Brooklyn Hi-Art Machine.
Books will be available for purchase. All are welcome.

Sunday, June 7th at 7PM (Zoom)
TFBWL Reading Club
THESE HEATHENS by Mia McKenzie
Our Reading Club meets monthly over Zoom to discuss books written by Black women and Black nonbinary authors. Join us as we discuss the delightful, poignant and refreshing historical novel, These Heathens with author Mia McKenzie. All are welcome, even if you have not read the book.

Saturday, June 13th at 3PM
NONBINARY/AN AUTOTHEORY
A book chat with Dr. Marquis Bey and Jet Toomer
This book is an invitation to imagine the possibilities of life outside of gender. Join us for an author chat and book signing with gender studies professor Dr. Marquis Bey and author Jet Toomer. We will have copies of the book available for purchase. All are welcome.

Sunday, June 21st AT 3PM
The Future is Present/World Building with Octavia E. Butler
A Writing Workshop and Birthday Celebration
We are celebrating the birthday of Octavia E. Butler with a writing workshop inspired by her first published short story Speech Sounds(PDF) and a discussion about her writing in general. All are welcome. Please read the story before coming to this workshop session.

Saturday, June 27th at 1PM
No Name Book Club Monthly Meet Up
The Will to Change by bell hooks
No Name Book Club meets at The Free Black Women’s Library on the last Saturday of every month at 1PM for a guided discussion on a pre-selected text.
Follow for titles and details.
All are welcome!!

Sunday, June 28th at 1PM
Black Banjo Monthly Meet - Up
Black Banjo Reclamation Project meets on the third Sunday of every month at The Free Black Women’s Library for a co-learning session on playing the banjo, as well as to discuss the instrument’s history and importance for Afro-Diasporic People. No banjo playing experience is necessary to join in.

Monday, June 29 at 7pm EST (Zoom)
Black Interiority : A Monthly Creative Study Session with Ola & patrons of The Free Black Women’s Library
Black Interiority is a creative hush harbor inspired study session that invites Afro-Diasporic patrons of The Free Black Women’s Library to read, write, and self reflect on their interior lives using the art, words and images of Black women as muse/inspiration. This generative and thoughtful gathering takes place over Zoom on the last Monday of each month at 7PM EST.

Tuesday, June 30 at 7PM
Joy In Repetition/Speed Dating for Black Bibliophiles
This is an experimental speed dating session for Black book lovers looking for love, romantic connections, or friendship. Bring one to five of your favorite books and spend time (5 to 10 minutes) taking turns discussing them one on one with a roster of folks. Come through and possibly meet your next book bae!!

register on our eventbrite page - https://www.eventbrite.com/o/30831090411

06/02/2026

Join us this coming Saturday at The Free Black Women’s Library for
GATHER & TELL
A Community Storytelling Circle led by
We The Diaspora
&
Black Storytelling Week
🖤🧡🖤🧡🖤

This gathering centers the preservation of personal histories & experiences of Black communities.
We will reflect on the long tradition of oral storytelling across the African diaspora and talk about why telling our own stories remains especially important.

Participants are invited to share a photograph or object that holds meaning for them, an item connected to an elder, family member, or a meaningful moment in their life, and tell the story behind it.

This event creates space for Black folks to connect with one another, reflect on the legacies carried through their families and leave inspired to continue preserving the stories that shape them.

Register at - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1989625121297?aff=oddtdtcreator
🧡🖤🫂🧡🖤

06/02/2026

Join us this coming Saturday at The Free Black Women’s Library for
GATHER & TELL
A Community Storytelling Circle led by
We The Diaspora
&
Black Storytelling Week
🖤🧡🖤🧡🖤

This gathering centers the preservation of personal histories & experiences of Black communities.
We will reflect on the long tradition of oral storytelling across the African diaspora and talk about why telling our own stories remains especially important.

Participants are invited to share a photograph or object that holds meaning for them, an item connected to an elder, family member, or a meaningful moment in their life, and tell the story behind it.

This event creates space for Black folks to connect with one another, reflect on the legacies carried through their families and leave inspired to continue preserving the stories that shape them.

Register via link in bio to attend
🧡🖤🫂🧡🖤

06/01/2026

GATHER & TELL
The Free Black Women’s Library
Saturday at 3PM

This program is a community storytelling circle that centers the preservation of personal histories and experiences of Black communities. We will reflect on the long tradition of oral storytelling across the African diaspora and why telling our own stories remains especially important today, as many histories risk being lost or erased.
Participants will be invited to share a photograph or object that holds meaning for them, something connected to an elder, family member, or a meaningful moment in their life, and tell the story behind it.
This event creates space for participants to connect with one another, reflect on the legacies carried through their families and leave inspired to continue preserving the stories that shape who we are.

GATHER & TELL : A Storytelling Circle

What story lives inside the photograph or object you carry? Join We The Diaspora & You Had Me At Black for a community storytelling circle.

05/28/2026

Register here to attend our African Women in Film Lecture Series https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1988633770139?aff=oddtdtcreator

05/26/2026

Excited for session two of
African Women in Motion
with Afi Venessa 🎥👩🏾‍🎨
Friday May 29 at 7PM
Session 2 : Women of the Image
Labor, Production & Survival

Register via link in bio to attend.

05/23/2026

“She would have liked a lotus, or China asters or the Japanese Iris, or meadow lilies—yes, she would have liked meadow lilies, because the very word meadow made her breathe more deeply, and either fling her arms or want to fling her arms, depending on who was by, rapturously up to whatever was watching in the sky. But dandelions were what she chiefly saw. Yellow jewels for everyday, studding the patched green dress of her back yard. She liked their demure prettiness second to their everydayness; for in that latter quality she thought she saw a picture of herself, and it was comforting to know that what was common could also be a flower.” - MAUD MARTHA by Gwendolyn Brooks, 1953
🌸🌻🌹🌺

“What, what am I to do with all of this life?”
✍🏿🖤👩🏾‍🎨

We are taking a deep dive into this one and only novella written by the great Gwendolyn Brooks on Monday 5/25 at 7pm EST on Zoom.

Black Interiority is a monthly creative hush harbor inspired study session for paid members of The Free Black Women’s Library Patreon.
This is an intimate and experimental space for Black writers, artists, scholars, cultural workers and dream weavers to gather for creation, inquiry and self reflection.
We read, write, study and discuss our interior lives using the art, performance & writing of Black women as muse/ inspiration.
Join via link in bio or at
patreon.com/TFBWL

05/14/2026

Our next writing workshop at The Free Black Women’s Library is being led by one of my favorite facilitators and one of the first to convince me that my own writing praxis was worth the time and energy that it took out of me. 🥹✍🏿💜
Sheena D is brilliant, creative and super thoughtful and i am so grateful to have her at The Free Black Women’s Library this weekend.

Join us for Lorraine Hansberry and The Art of List-making
A Tribute & A Writing Workshop
Sunday 5/17 at 3PM 💜✍🏿💜
Register on our Eventbrite page for tix,

- and for those who are looking to continuously enhance and nurture themselves through various modes of expression, become a TFBWL Patreon patron and join me for our monthly Black Interiority zoom sessions at
- patreon.com/TFBWL.
We meet on the last Monday of each month to read, write, discuss and reflect on our inner lives using the art, performance and writing of Black women as muse/guide.
These hush harbor inspired study sessions offer intimacy, solace, autonomy, multiple creative writing prompts and access to a wide range of new, classic and divergent materials made by Black women and Black femmes.

05/13/2026

Looking forward to our next writing workshop with one of my favorite facilitators coming up next Sunday, Lorraine Hansberry and The Art of Listmaking with the brilliant Sheena D ❤️

Register via Eventbrite link -

A creative writing workshop on the art of list-making inspired by the work of Lorraine Hansberry, led by author/educator sheena daree romero