The Free Black Women’s Library

The Free Black Women’s Library is a social art project that features a collection of over five thousand books written by Black women and Black non-binary writers, a virtual Reading Club, a weekly book swap, and a wide array of free public programs that happen in our Reading Room. Read more: https://www.thefreeblackwomenslibrary.com/

OlaRonke Akinmowo (Ola) is a multidisciplinary artist who works in collage, printmaking, papermaking, interactive installation, and stop-motion animation. She is also a cultural worker, and Set Decorator for both film and television. In 2015 she started The Free Black Women’s Library, a social art project that features a collection of over five thousand books written by Black women and Black non-binary folks, free public programs, a monthly Reading Club, a weekly book swap, and a community care space located in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Through the library, she offers workshops, film screenings, readings, performances, and literary conversations. All ages, races, and genders are welcome to use the space for reading, writing, working, resting, and daydreaming.  In her work, she aims to illustrate and explore the joys, struggles, and complications of Blackness, madness, womanhood, and the undeniable overlap between these constructs. She makes the invisible visible and confronts stereotypical notions around race and gender while offering the potentiality of beauty, resistance, and transformation. She has received artist fellowships and residencies from the NYFA, Women’s Studio Workshop, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Shop, BRIC Arts,  and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Time Out Magazine, Hyperallergic, Teen Vogue, and BUST magazine. She is also a proud mom, union member, community activist, busybody, book fairy, plant fiend, and dance machine. Follow the growth of the library @thefreeblackwomenslibrary or her art life @setdressslay on socials. 

Visual Description: Two blue sofas, two beige couches, a glass top coffee table with a red vase and pink flowers, and a red ornamental rug are situated nearby a large bookcase with books to read.