“Say something happens - say a bird hits this window right here. You and I, we’re strangers in our strange costumes. We’ve come to this moment from different places. I might be terrified of the smash and the carnage, recoil as if the bird where a bomb. You might think I’m overreacting and say, it’s just a bird. What’s wrong with me? Or what’s wrong with you? If I don’t share with you my history, if I don’t explain what I brought with me to this moment in time – that to me the bird hitting the windows sounded like a shell detonating – then how could you know me? If I’m shaking, trying to bring myself back to objective reality, saying to myself. It’s a bird, right it’s a bird, right it’s a bird, right? And I don’t share with you my trauma, I alienate myself. I push you away. All the things that we do not say create not just space but a force field between us, a constant energetic pressure. Two people in pain are magnets, repelling each other. We cannot or will not reach across the space to connect.” - The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya @clemantine1 Easing back into social media after a sweet fun time in Paris This is the exact moment I finished this amazing memoir which I devoured while riding the maze that is the Paris metro. I finished it early morning on the balcony of the little flat we were staying in. It’s so intense and good. It offers an intimate and necessary account of the Rwandan massacre. This book tells the story of Clemantine and Clair, two sisters who fled the massacre as children ages 6 and 15, and spent six years wandering through seven African countries searching for safety, family, home. It is both heartbreaking and inspiring. Outside of Afrofuturism and Black Feminist text, Memoirs by Black women are quickly becoming my next favorite genre, I love the unique voice of each writer as they share all the gritty details of their lives, how they resist struggle and survive. It gives me tears and wings. It feels intimate and sacred. 🖤 #book #memoir #goodread #blackwomanauthor #blackbooks #blacklibrary #readingislife #springbreak #havebookwilltravel #thegirlwhosmiledbeads #freeblackwoman #bibliophiles #freeblackwomenslibrary

Blessings and Happy Wednesday BBS!! Thank you so much to all the lovely people who stopped by The Free Black Women's Library this past Sunday!! Appreciate the beauty and brilliance you bring. We had a good and sweet time talking about the book FRESHWATER by Akwaeke Emezi (@azemezi) trading books by Black women, connecting with each other and hanging out in the space. Next month we’ll be chatting about the amazing memoir WHEN THEY CALL YOU A TERRORIST : a Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors (@osopepatrisse) and Asha Bandele (@ashabandele713) Join us on Sunday, April 29th, at 1p. 521 Halsey Street. See you then!! ✌🏾📚💕☺️

I am extremely excited about the first Free Black Women’s Library session of the year!! 🙌🏾💕🙌🏾💕🙌🏾 The library is celebrating the release of MFON Women Photographers of the African Diaspora, Sunday January 28th at 521A Halsey Street, Brooklyn from noon to 5!! The library now has over 900 books written by Black women in its collection. Come through to engage in conversation around the significance and importance of this gorgeous and brilliant new book, Check out the collection and/or trade books with the library. All are welcome!!📚⭐️📚⭐️📚

On this day last year over a 100 people gathered at Brew bar in Brooklyn for the first Free Black Women's Library Pop up of the year. It was a mild winter so we spent the bulk of the day outside talking, laughing and exchanging books with each other. Folks of all ages, genders and races came through to share in the brilliance and magic that Black women bring and It was awesome. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 Featured author Kaitlyn Greenidge read from her amazing debut novel "We Love you Charlie Freeman" which ended up being a best seller and one of the best books to come out in 2016!!! It was a stellar day. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 This year the first pop up is happening on January 19 at Brooklyn Movement Center, located at Stuyvesant and Decatur from 5 to 9pm. This is in collaboration with actions taking place all over the globe in honor of domestic violence survivor Bresha Meadows. Hoping to see you there. ✨🙏🏾💕

H is for Helen 💕 Get into the gorgeous and surreal writing of British born Nigerian Helen Oyeyemi. This award winning writer published her first novel ICARUS GIRL at the tender age of 18, and has gone on to bless us bibliophiles with beautifully written long fiction and short stories that is wonderful, fascinating and strange. Often blending a wide range of themes and drawing from fairy tales and mythology. Love her work. She will take you on a literary trip that will surely blow your mind 💕 Novels include Icarus Girl The Opposite House * White is for Witching * Boy, Snow, Bird What Is Not Yours, Is Not Yours