The Free Black Women's Library is a social art project, literary hub, social site, Black Feminist archive, and community care space that features a free store, period pantry, backyard garden, virtual reading club, weekly book swap, w wide array of free public programs and a collection of over 5000 written by Black women and Black nonbinary folks.
This project was started and is run by artist and library worker OlaRonke Akinmowo in 2015.
Throughout Spring 2025, The Free Black Women's Library is excited to host artist and scholar Afi Venessa and Emblematic Elusions - a film series that delves into the historical Black African films of the eponymous educational chapbook series.
Portraying how filmmakers redefine the Black woman’s form in the visual field from the wounded signifier to an embodied vessel for liberation, each edition presents a film and discussion, with a conclusive zine workshop.
A focus on the question of Eros in African cinema allows for an intuitive opening for larger discourses of the erotics of history, philosophy, (post)colonialism, migration and diaspora, socio-economic dynamics, visual culture and much more.
All are welcome to join us on Saturday, May 31st for the closing installment of Emblematic Elusions, a zine making workshop led by our Scholar-In-Residence
Afi Venessa.
