Celebrate Pride at HCPL

Happy Pride Month! June 1 marks the beginning of Pride, a month-long celebration of the history and impact of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (questioning), intersex, and asexual identifying community. HCPL offers a variety of programs, some year-round, plus books and resources to support LGBTQIA+ individuals and families. Read on to learn more about upcoming programs and recommended titles from our collection to help you learn about and celebrate Pride!

UPCOMING PROGRAMS

• Rainbow Stitching Group
  • Meets monthly, next session: Thursday, June 1, 6:30-8PM at Tuckahoe Library
  • A stitching group for LGBTQIA+ makers! Join us on the first Thursday of each month to create community while knitting, crocheting, sewing, and crafting. Peruse informative books on fiber arts and crafts. Bring your own project to work on, or if you would like to learn the basics of a particular stitching technique, please contact bbroome@henricolibrary.org to ensure we have the supplies and expertise to get you started.

• Libbie Mill LGBTQIA+ Book Discussion
  • Meets monthly, next session: Wednesday, June 7, 7-8PM at Libbie Mill Library & via Webex
  • A young trans woman working at a hostel in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, needs to know: What ever happened to her favorite band, a Beach Boys-esque outfit called the Get Happies? She begins to write to its star, hoping to learn more, and their parallel stories reveal what it can mean to find yourself through art. Join us for Summer Fun by Jeanne Thornton. 

• Crafternoon: Rainbow Tassel Wreaths
  • Saturday, June 10, 2-4PM at Libbie Mill Library
  • Calling all art makers and lovers! Come create with us one Saturday a month and explore a variety of techniques and materials. Bring home a finished project - and check out a craft book or two. To celebrate LGBTQ Pride Month, this month we will be making rainbow tassle wreaths.

• Teen Art Studio: Pride Month Edition
  • Monday, June 12, 6-8PM at Varina Library
  • Drop by our Teen Art Studio for some fun, hands-on creativity! We’ll discuss different styles of art and do a variety of art, craft, and drawing projects. All artistic skill levels are welcome!

• Varina Evening Book Discussion
  • Monday, June 12, 7PM at Varina Library
  • Gay sitcom star, Patrick, lands his most challenging role yet when a family tragedy leaves him as the primary caretaker for his niece and nephew for the summer. “Guncle (gay uncle) Rules” fall by the wayside as Patrick learns to navigate the ins and outs of his new responsibility with humor and patience. Join us for a discussion of The Guncle by Steven Rowley.

• Libbie Mill Forever Young Book Discussion
  • Wednesday, June 14, 7-8PM at Libbie Mill Library
  • Arthur is from Georgia, loves Broadway, has ADHD, and is interning in NYC for the summer. Ben is a native New Yorker, of Puerto Rican heritage, recently single after a big break-up, and stuck in summer school. Can they make their budding relationship work, despite their differences? Join us for a discussion of What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera.

• Rainbow Craft: Embroidery
  • Thursday, June 22, 3-4PM at Twin Hickory Library
  • Kick off summer by celebrating all the colors in the rainbow! Learn to embroider your own rainbow on a canvas pencil case. 

• Pride Pronoun Pin Party
  • Monday, June 26, 6:30-8PM at Fairfield Library
  • Learn how to design your own 3D custom pronoun pins for yourself or your buddies using Tinkercad. Attendees will be eligible for a free print via the library's 3D printing service and will have the opportunity to add a pinback at pickup.

• Libbie Mill Evening Book Discussion
  • Tuesday, June 27, 7-8PM at Libbie Mill Library
  • An unexpected pregnancy sends past and future colliding for Reese, Ames, and Katrina, who strike up a tenuous arrangement to build a family with room for each of them. Join us for a discussion of Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters.

COLLECTION

EASY (Picture Books)

• A Family is a Family is a Family by Sara O’Leary
• Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope by Jodie Patterson
• Federico and All His Families by Mili Hernandez
• Harriet Gets Carried Away by Jessie Sima
• Ho’onani: Hula Warrior by Heather Gale
• Love Makes a Family by Sophie Beer
• Miss Rita, Mystery Reader by Sam Donovan
• Prince & Knight by Daniel Haack
• Rainbow: A First Book of Pride by Michael Genhart
• What Riley Wore by Elana Arnold
• When Aidan Became a Brother by Kyle Lukoff

KIDS

• A High Five for Glenn Burke by Phil Bildner
• Answers in the Pages by David Levithan
• Hurricane Child by Kacen Callender
• It Feels Good to Be Yourself: A Book About Gender Identity by Theresa Thorn
• Pink, Blue, and You! Questions for Kids about Gender and Stereotypes by Elise Gravel
• Pride by Rob Sanders
• Stonewall: A Building, An Uprising, A Revolution by Rob Sanders
• This is Our Rainbow: 16 Stories of Her, Him, Them, and Us by Katherine Locke
• To Night Owl from Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan
• The Whispers by Greg Howard

TEENS

• A Million to One by Adiba Jaigirdar
• A Scatter of Light by Malinda Lo
• The Best at It by Maulik Pancholy
• Bianca Torre is Afraid of Everything by Justine Winans
• The Kindred by Alechia Dow
• My Dear Henry: Jekyll & Hyde Remix by Kalynn Bayron
• Nate Plus One by Kevin Van Whye
• Pride: An Inspirational History of the LGBTQ+ Movement by Stella Caldwell
• Tea Dragon Series by Kay O’Neill
• Twelfth Grade Night by Molly Booth
• We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds
• When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb
• Zenobia July by Lisa Bunker

ADULTS

• 100 Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell
• And the Category Is… Inside New York’s Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community by Ricky Tucker
• Be Gay, Do Comics! Queer History, Memoir, and Satire from the Nib by Matt Bors
• Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins
• Confidence: A Novel by Rafael Frumkin
• Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly
• Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir by Kai Cheng Thom
• Girls Can Kiss Now by Jill Gutowitz
• Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz
• Rainbow History Class: Your Guide Through Queer and Trans History by Hannah McElhinney
• Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell