A Source for Pride

A Source for Pride

IN OBSERVANCE OF PRIDE MONTH,

the Forsyth County Public Library’s Lounging with the Library discussion series will focus on the LGBTQIA+ community with a panel moderated by Jonathan Furr (he/him) access services supervisor and Julie Crouse (she/ her) branch supervisor. “Lounging with the Library: LGBTQIA+ Community Resources and Challenges,” will be held on Tuesday, June 8 at 7 p.m. This edition of FCPL’s Read to Right Wrongs initiative will focus on the challenges and resources available to LGBTQIA+ members of our community. This program will be hosted via Zoom and livestreamed on Facebook.

Panelists include: Rebby Kern (they/them), director of education policy for Equality N.C.; AJ Mazaris (they/them/theirs), assistant vice president for equitable policy with the office of diversity and inclusion and director of the LGBTQ+ Center at Wake Forest University and Deb Marke (she/they), board member of the North Star LGBTQ Center in Winston-Salem. A representative from Winston-Salem Pride will also join the panel.

In recent years, library staff have explored ways to better serve the LGBTQIA+ members of our community. FCPL has made it a priority to increase its collection of materials that include LGBTQIA+ voices, characters and topics. Over the last couple of years, FCPL has also had a presence at the local Winston-Salem Pride Festival.

In 2019, FCPL chose “Speak No Evil” by Dr. Uzodinma Iweala as the featured title for its annual On the Same Page

Winston-Salem Pride Festival 2019.

program. “Speak No Evil” is a coming-of-age novel that features an LGBTQIA+ character as its protagonist and significant LGBTQIA+ themes. The programs surrounding the book choice included a conversation with the author, Dr. Uzodinma Iweala, as well as a special panel at the Bookmarks Festival of Authors on the importance of inclusive characters in literature. I| S

— JONATHAN FURR (he/him), library supervisor