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Curious about #FreeLibraryofPride?: A Successful Collaborative Story
- 1. Curious about #FreeLibraryofPride?: A Successful Collaborative Story Presented by Mary Marques and Sara Palmer, Free Library of Philadelphia, at the Public Library Association Annual Conference in Philadelphia, March 2018.
- 2. Description
- 3. Free Library of Philadelphia’s mission
- 4. Talk to your neighbor Take the terminology quiz! Join at kahoot.it with Game PIN
- 5. The Story Creativity, innovation and change: Reaching out to universal values such as love, family and pride
- 6. Promotional Tools #FreeLibraryofPride Tag and LGBTQIA+ Storytime Traveling Trunk
- 8. The Programs
- 9. Programs on a Shoestring: Free or low-budget “Free to Be You and Me” “Do I Sound Gay?” “PROUD TO BE YOU AND ME--We are family!!” “LGBTQ Collaborative Art Project” “Get Your Gayme On” …we supply the games, you bring the Fabulous!
- 10. Programs around the Neighborhood Libraries
- 12. The LGBTQIA+ Traveling Trunk
- 13. Programs after #FreeLibraryofPride celebration in June
- 14. News Coverage & Feedback A few responses from the staff survey: ● Libraries are a safe place ● #acceptance #love
- 16. Challenges: The Language Minefield ● Name of the event: #30DaysofGay versus #FreeLibraryofPride ● No structured committee for LGBTQ events: Librarians just agreed, “Let’s do something!” ● Rationale for the name #30DaysofGay? Reclaim the word “gay” long used by youth culture internationally as a pejorative. Also: “Free Library of Pride” could be any kind of pride. ● Protests from the right: Patrons complaining to librarians that they didn’t want their kids to see the word “gay” on a library program. Protest from the left: LGBTQIA+ community complaining that the word “gay” only implies cisgender gay men. It’s exclusionary. ● Protest from some about using the “gender unicorn” image to promote “gender identity” programs for children ● Pressure of the Office of LGBT Affairs, City of Philadelphia, to seek agreement in the language that is being used to identify the city-wide event and the promotional tools ● Internal staff conflicts with programming participation around discomfort with the name #30DaysofGay
- 17. Lessons and further developments ● Start earlier than February of a given year to get June Pride events in place. ● Set up clear guidelines for how to handle challenges and make them available to all staff; as much as possible, collaborate with community partners and encourage their input; have an advisory council including members of LGBTQIA+ community as well as City representatives ● Printed booklists - find funding and coordinate well ahead of time ● Return for BiUnity Day in September--Library tabling warmly received in 2017 ● Additional drag storytimes (with reuse of logo) ● LGBT Affairs spoke to training of library supervisors during the job class meeting ● LGBT Affairs spoke to the staff of all job classes at monthly cluster meetings ● Increase awareness among library staff ● Create programs during LGBT History Month
- 18. Talk to your neighbor Take the history quiz! Join at kahoot.it with Game PIN
- 19. Resources Professional and Literary, Senior, Academic/School, and Other ● American Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table (GLBTRT) and other ALA-connected organizations, including REFORMA,, ALSC, and more ● AARP and other organizations’ special services to LGBTQIA+ community; National Resource Center on LGBT Aging ● LGBTQIA Resource Center Glossary UCDavis ● GLSEN, “working...to improve school climate and champion LGBT issues in K-12 education),” and their Tools for Librarians ● PFLAG, "the extended family of the LGBTQ community",
- 20. Contact Us Mary Marques Library Coordinator Free Library of Philadelphia marquesm@freelibrary.org Sara Palmer Children’s Librarian Free Library of Philadelphia palmers@freelibrary.org
- 21. Thank you, and never forget...
Editor's Notes
- MM: Goal of workshop is to encourage and empower other libraries to replicate and develop their own Pride-related programming. #pla2018 #freelibraryofpride
- MM: “Pride” month was the inspiration of three librarians, at the Free Library of Philadelphia, to build a collaborative event for the LGBTQIA+ diverse community in June 2017. #FreeLibraryofPride motivated librarians, across the city, to create a quilt of diverse programming for all ages. In only three months, a logo, flyer shell, city wide brochure, and Multi-Age LGBTQIA+ Storytime Traveling Trunks were created to promote more than fifty-five programs across the Philadelphia area. At the end of this session, participants will: 1: Learn to connect and work with community resources for future programs. 2: Build collaborative efforts across all staff levels to promote inclusion and diversity. 3: Promote library services to a target audience with a variety of programs for all ages.
- SSP: The mission of the Free Library of Philadelphia is to advance literacy, guide learning, and inspire curiosity. Its vision is to build an enlightened community devoted to lifelong learning. Inclusivity Statement (adopted 2017) The Free Library of Philadelphia is a welcoming and inclusive public space and strongly believes in promoting understanding and community engagement. All 54 of our libraries provide a safe haven for individuals of all ages and backgrounds, providing homework help, ESL classes, supportive job search assistance, and much more. We encourage and host conversations about differences and complex social issues. The library exists to provide opportunities for discussion supported by educational resources, access to a vast array of information, and ideas that transform communities, open minds, and promote inclusion.
- SSP: Two minutes per person in a pair responding to these questions What resources are there for LGBTQIA+ folks in your community? What resources are available at your library? What are some of the challenges you think you might face in presenting programs on the topic? We will give you a warning at 2 minutes to exchange roles and then we will ring these bells to call your attention back.kahoot.it kahoot.com Kahoot quiz on LGBTQIA+ terminology: https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/d7cc66b5-66bf-4ce2-b55d-8af58d25c9b4 Note scores, etc.
- MM: Background: Isolated branch participation during previous “Pride” month with local programming and low key promotion Independence Library staff helped coordinate sporadic outreach at Philadelphia’s June PrideFest and October Outfest celebrations prior to 2017 The Story The email that started it all (from Marianne Banbor):“I am going to try to organize “30 Days of Gay” for June Pride with GLBT programs at whatever branches would like to participate. I remember reading Pride Month descriptions from D.C. libraries a few years back. Twelve or so branches had an LGBT program. It was impressive. The goal would be minimum effort/maximum effect. No crazy headache extra work! The splash would be sharing a flyer.” Blog post prior to “Pride” month that promoted the idea of the city-wide event: Curious about the Free Library of Pride? Grassroots programs that promoted inclusivity and diversity with more than 55 city-wide events for all ages: Drag Queen Storytimes, Gender Identity, Health Information, Pride Storytime in Neighborhood Libraries Thematic Book Displays: “Read with Pride: Open Your Mind and Promote Inclusion,” “Free to Be You and Me” Creative programs with no additional budget: Get Your Gayme On, Jeanette Winterson Book Discussion, some films; LGBTQ all-ages collage design at QMB Partnership with community organizations: Attic Youth Center, William Way Center, Linda Creed Breast Center, business org, The Colours Organization, Philadelphia FIGHT, Philadelphia Gay News, Radio Podcasting and Youth Making Media internship Involved the City of Philadelphia Office of LGBT Affairs Developed a culture of awareness and cross-cultural communication: Teen Sexual Health: LGBTQ+ Cultural Competency Creativity, innovation and change: Staff motivation and reaching out to universal values such as love, family and pride Risk of failure! The Programs Children (15), Adults (16), Teen (11), Films (12), Games (1), Traveling Trunk (1), Book Displays (16)= 72 programs Programs= 55 Book Displays= 16 Attendance and door count for June= 2105 Community partners= 8 Budget for pair of LGBTQ Traveling Trunks= approx. $750 Additional budget for programming= approx. $1050
- MM: Pre-marketing blog post: Curious about the Free Library of Pride? in April Blog programming announcement: Celebrate Pride Month with Free Library! at the end of May Logos: #30DaysofGay and #FreeLibraryofPride.--note about naming Buttons City-wide brochure: Mirroring OBOP brochure Programming shell: Uniformity in the print and digital flyers Free Library of Pride tag on the FLP website for easy programming search Guerrilla Marketing: Social media promotion 6 weeks before the event Word-of-mouth promotion: Everyone was talking about the “Pride Month” at FLP! Creation and updating of Facebook page #FreeLibraryofPride Storytime Traveling Trunk to support home based programs at Neighborhood Libraries LGBT-Free Library webpage: https://libwww.freelibrary.org/explore/topic/LGBTQ
- SSP: Identify the connectors within your organization and in the community Allow participants creativity in planning their programs (going outside the box) Allow the staff to be fully invested in the event: Every step is a contribution to the success of the program We allow the partner organizations to share their own story (uniqueness) Explain to community partners the “vision” and “objectives” of the general project--why? Life cycle of a task (specifics commitments made by organization and by FLP (room reservations, equipment, publicity, etc.) We aimed to get more done with fewer resources--programming budgets are minimal
- SSP: Movies--many of our library locations have a license to screen movies. Here are a few titles that were used to promote Pride Month at the Free Library of Philadelphia: Happy Together, Moonlight, Brother Outsider, Do I Sound Gay?, etc. Table games with a “catchy” name: “Get Your Gayme On” Book displays with a “captivating” title. 15 libraries participated in #FreeLibraryofPride with thematic book displays: “Read with Pride: Open Your Mind and Promote Inclusion”; “Free to Be You and Me,” “Rainbow World,” “The Many Colors of the Rainbow—A selection of Gay and Lesbian Fiction for Teens and Adults,” “Out of the Closet Books,” “Reading Our Way Out,” “LGBT Books for Teens,” “Over the Rainbow Books,” “Gay YA: LGBTQ+ Books for Teens,” “Celebrating Pride at Wyoming Library.” Storytimes with the #FreeLibraryofPride theme Craft and art project: LGBTQ Collaborative Art Project
- MM: 1--documentary and conversation about “conversion therapy” 2--Business Resource and Innovation Center mixer with Independence Business Alliance 3--Fumo Family Branch Drag Storytime 4--Philadelphia City Institute: “#WERQURVOICE was fantastic! We had 90 people in attendance, many LGBTQ youth but also community members and family members and friends of The Attic Youth Center interns who were presenting their final projects. It was an amazing night. Many people who had never been in our library before attended and several teens signed up for summer reading!” 5--Independence Library: “Reading Out Loud” Barbara Gitting Gay/Lesbian Collection for a reading of selections from the works of LGBT writers 6--Fumo Family Branch lineup of Pride Month programming 7--Chestnut Hill Library: Rainbow Train concert was a great success! Over 70 people attended. “I purchased cupcakes with colored icing and my daughter and I arranged them in the shape of a giant rainbow LGBT Pride flag. I also purchased mini rainbow flags to hand out, and we raffled off a rainbow beach towel, a rainbow tote bag, and a copy of this book: [Gay & Lesbian History for Kids].”
- SSP: Pictured: FFB, QMB, RGR Other: FSH, CCD, OGN Story from Tuesday Chalmers, then at David Cohen Ogontz: “Our After School Leader was friends with the drag queen we requested. His name was Christian (drag name Ari) and he was amazing! We had had PHantazia from the Attic Youth Center who did a program two weeks before, explaining some of the issues in the LGBTQIA+ community to our kids. Drag storytime was scheduled afterwards, and probably 15 kids attended, including some who came with their parents. I provided the books for Christian to read, including a favorite, Be Who You Are.”
- SSP: $740 spent on two identical trunks and their contents Bulk of non-book materials aimed at preschool through early elementary; emphasis on celebration and imaginative play; laminated cover images of teen books with synopsis on reverse Hatching Innovation. “A competitive funding pool for staff-led projects.” In 5 years 112 ideas were submitted by the staff that led to 24 pilot programs and service models. Strategic Plan 2012-2017 Review and Analysis. Videos taking things out of trunk Discussion of how things were used Featherless Boa, magenta Plastic trunk Tiaras Pearl necklaces Fairy wings Rainbow parachute 12'/12 handles Prism Felt mustaches Navy Tie Therapy Tangle Galactic Globe Drum Jingle Bell Set Top hats (Black Velour Topper) Bubbles Rainbow Wrist Ribbons Rainbow Beanbag Scarves Wands Families, Families, Families! Gaston Gay & Lesbian History for Kids: The Century-Long Struggle for Lgbt Rights, with 21 Activities I Am Jazz It's Okay to Be Different Red: A Crayon's Story This Day in June Worm Loves Worm CDs Rainbow Train by Chana Rothman Family Album by Two of a Kind
- MM: Drag Queen Storytime at Parkway Central Drag Queen Quizzo at Fumo Family Library. Popular program returning for a second round in March. Support Group for Asian LGBTQ Community at Independence (bilingual Chinese/English)
- SSP Drag Queen Story Hour ALSC Blog “From the Philadelphia Free Library, Children’s Librarian at the Queen Memorial Library, Liz Gardiner, says “Philadelphia’s Queen Memorial Library received an overwhelming positive response from our community surrounding Drag Queen Storytime. The program attracted the largest crowd of individual families that we’ve ever had at a storytime.” Staff feedback: “Libraries as safe place,” “Board games that are not boring! In recognition of 'National LGBT Pride' month, Free Library locations all over the city offered programs to Celebrate and Inform throughout the 30 Days of June.”--Bushrod Library “We read Red: a crayon story, Worm loves worm, Families families families, and It's okay to be different.”-- Donatucci Library “[D]rag Queen Brittany Lynn is a gentle giant who towers at 6'5, before stepping into 8-inch heels. Under five pounds of poofy fuschia hair, Brittany Lynn enchanted nearly 70 youngsters and adults on June 6, 2017, as they read three picture books with messages of #acceptance and #love.”--Fumo Family Library “Inspired by similar events in Brooklyn and San Francisco, CCD hosted its very first Drag Queen Story Time in celebration of Pride Month.”--Central Children’s Department. Parkway Central Library. Public LIbraries article by Joel Nichols, "Serving All Library Families in a Queer and Genderqueer Way" (podcast), and other professional library literature on serving LGBTQIA+ community
- SSP: GLBTRT’s Stonewall Book Awards (Barbara Gittings, Israel Fishman Non-Fiction, and Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature) Rainbow Book List of recommended titles for children and youth (GLBTRT) Over the Rainbow Book List of recommended adult titles (GLBTRT) El Proyecto del Arco Iris (article on REFORMA website) Lambda Literary organization promoting LGBTQIA+ literature Queer Books for Teens: A Comprehensive Database of all LGBTQIAP+ YA Literature 2000-2017 GayYA: website and blog dedicated to everything LGBTQIA+ in YA New book from ALA Editions: LGBTQAI+ Books for Children and Teens: Providing a Window for All (Dorr and Deskins, 2018) Selected titles The Angel of History by Rabih Alameddine (from 2018 Over the Rainbow List: Fiction) Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings (from 2017 Rainbow List: Young Adult Nonfiction) En el cuerpo correcto by Morganna Alan Cole Is Not a Coward by Eric Bell (from 2018 Rainbow List: Middle Grade Fiction) Who Are You?: The Kid's Guide to Gender Identity by Brook Pessin-Whedbee and Naomi Bardoff (from 2018 Rainbow List: Picture Books) Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Communityby John Chaich and Todd Oldham (2018 Winner, Stonewall Book Awards - Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award) The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater (2018 Winner, Stonewall Book Awards - Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award) Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers, edited by Cat Fitzpatrick and Casey Plett (2018 Winner, Stonewall Awards - Barbara Gittings Literature Award) Listen, We Need to Talk: How to Change Attitudes About LGBT Rights by Brian F. Harrison and Melissa R. Michelson (from 2018 Over the Rainbow List: Nonfiction)
- MM: History of the connotation of the word “Gay”: Oxford Living Dictionaries (https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/gay “Gay meaning ‘homosexual,’ dating back to the 1930s (if not earlier), became established in the 1960s as the term preferred by homosexual men to describe themselves. It is now the standard accepted term throughout the English-speaking world. As a result, the centuries-old other senses of gay meaning either ‘carefree’ or ‘bright and showy,’ once common in speech and literature, are much less frequent. The word gay cannot be readily used today in these older senses without sounding old-fashioned or arousing a sense of double entendre, despite concerted attempts by some to keep them alive. Gay in its modern sense typically refers to men (lesbian being the standard term for homosexual women), but in some contexts it can be used of both men and women.”
- MM
- SSP: What are some ways you might follow up on this workshop when you get home? What ideas do you have for programming? Kahoot! History Quiz https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/9c52f96b-2f14-4e8b-b397-3cbe0869c33a
- SSP: Philadelphia-Area Resources: LGBTQ Explore Topic on Free Library of Philadelphia site Mayor’s Office of LGBT Affairs, City of Philadelphia William Way LGBT Community Center: http://www.waygay.org The Mazzoni Center: https://www.mazzonicenter.org/ Attic Youth Center: https://www.atticyouthcenter.org/ COLOURS: www.coloursorganization.org Philadelphia Black Pride: http://www.phillyblackpride.org/ GALAEI: www.galaei.org Y-HEP: www.yhep.org
- Invite Q & A
- Image credit: Todd Parr, Be Who You Are https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqegI6wQ2z0