Learn About LGBTQ Issues, Celebrate National Coming Out Day At AAMLO Oakland

“Learn About LGBTQ Issues, Celebrate National Coming Out Day At AAMLO Oakland” press release sent by the City of Oakland to Zennie62Media.

Oakland, CA – The public is invited to celebrate the 31st National Coming Out Day on Saturday, October 12 (1 PM) at the African American Museum and Library at Oakland (AAMLO).

The celebration will feature a public conversation on the power of claiming identification as African American lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. Oakland LGBTQ Community Center Executive Director Joe Hawkins along with additional representatives from the Center will lead the conversation. They will explore what life is like for “out” black LGBTQ people, examine their quest for equality, and emphasize how they cope with biases, rejection, and discrimination in the African American community and the larger society.

The celebration will continue the following Saturday, October 19, as AAMLO invites everyone to join writers Natalie and Akilah Devoramonifa at 2 PM for an afternoon themed Love, Literature, Libraries. AAMLO will focus on their publications that engage such topics as culture, the power of silences, the ability to claim uncomfortable truths, and the healing grace of telling stories.

“As part of the LGBTQ+ family, we are committed to supporting the strides made in the marriage equality and equal rights movements,” said the Devoramonifas. “We remain committed as Black lesbian women writers, mothers, and wives to the inclusion of equal rights to all.”

About AAMLO
The African American Museum and Library at Oakland (AAMLO) is dedicated to the discovery, preservation, interpretation and sharing of historical and cultural experiences of African Americans in California and the West for present and future generations. The archives include over 160 collections documenting prominent families, pioneers, churches, social and political organizations. AAMLO has a unique non-circulating reference library for researchers, students and anyone interested in African American history, in addition to a second-floor museum that regularly hosts traveling and original exhibitions exploring the art, history and culture of African Americans. Highlights of AAMLO’s collections include the Ronald V. Dellums Congressional Papers, the Oakland Post Photograph Collection documenting African American politicians, entertainers, athletes and community leaders from the Bay Area during the 1960s, ’70s, and ‘80s, studio portraits of Oaklanders by the photographer E.F. Joseph, and the papers of Oakland cartoonist and illustrator Morrie Turner. Located at 659 14th St., AAMLO is housed in the former Charles S. Greene Library, a historic 1902 Carnegie building.

About OPL
The Oakland Public Library is a part of the City of Oakland in California and has been in existence since 1878. Locations include 16 neighborhood branches, a Main Library, a Second Start Adult Literacy Program, the Oakland Tool Lending Library, and the African American Museum and Library at Oakland (AAMLO). On April 1, 2019, OPL expanded its hours for the first time since 2004 thanks to the passage of Measure D. As of July 1, 2019, OPL no longer collects fines for overdue materials. The Oakland Public Library empowers all people to explore, connect, and grow.