Dear Friends,

Do you have thoughts about public libraries? Please share them here (by January 31)! Later this spring you might see your words immortalized by American printer, book artist, and papermaker Amos Paul Kennedy Jr., in his show of original posters created with, and for, the library users and workers of Providence, on view throughout the city this April!

From April 3 - 6, Providence will be host to Verified by Proof, the 2024 annual conference of SGC International (SGCI), an educational nonprofit organization connecting artists of original prints, drawings, books and handmade paper. This year’s conference steering committee has selected Amos Paul Kennedy Jr., known for social and political commentary, particularly in his printed posters, to receive the SCGI Printmakers Lifetime Achievement Award.

In response to being selected for the award, Amos invites library workers and users from all around the city to submit brief reflections (10-12 words or fewer) on public libraries, banned books, or political statements on the role of libraries. He will use these to create a series of original prints, which will be exhibited during the conference and throughout April at various locations, including PPL, the branches of the Community Libraries of Providence, the Dirt Palace, and street-facing windows in Olneyville Square. To be part of this exciting project, submit your reflections here no later than January 31 – then look out in the coming months for updates on the progress of the prints, which will also be available to the public as individual prints, and perhaps a collected set to be sold for fundraising purposes for the various libraries.  

Local printer Dan Wood, founder of DWRI Letterpress, and Allison Bianco, a RI print artist who will also be exhibiting at PPL in April, are working with Amos to coordinate the multiple displays around Providence. Dan explained, “The SGCI conference steering committee chose Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. for the Lifetime Achievement Award for his incredible letterpress prints, his lifetime of work using printmaking in the service of the greater community, and because he is an all-around amazing person who has truly pushed the medium forward as he pushes it backward to its roots. His only stipulation on receiving the award was that he did not want an exhibition of his work in a traditional gallery or museum space, as is the custom. Instead, Amos said, "I would like to have an exhibition at the branches of the public library that serve Brown and Black communities. I want to allow those people that we marginalize to see my work. Also, it would be grand for the conference attendees to venture into communities they avoid most of the time.“  

Dan continued, “As we discussed this further, the idea of a community-based project developed, using feedback from those most involved in library service as the basis for the project. We’re so excited to see the quotes already coming, to see how the prints develop and evolve, and to see the Providence Public Library and Community Libraries of Providence engaged together on such a beautiful project!”

We couldn’t agree more! Be sure to submit your brief quote on libraries and the roles they play today, before the January 31 deadline! And we look forward to seeing these many quotes brought to life in the art of Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr., SGCI Lifetime Achievement Awardee. We congratulate Amos, and thank him for honoring the public libraries of Providence with this innovative, generous, communal work.

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Progress is an action that takes continued drive by those who wish it to happen. Sometimes, it’s hard to know where to start. We hope you’ll join us at PPL on Saturday, February 3, from 1:00 to 3:00 pm, for Empowered to Advocate, co-presented by Thundermist Health Center, Youth Pride Inc., and The Womxn Project, to learn how to promote public policies supportive of trans, nonbinary, and gender diverse people in their local communities and the state. 

The two-hour workshop will include: using inclusive language; how to find public meetings and what to expect when you get there; and strategies for effectively communicating with policy makers, including delivering testimony. Participants will receive resource handouts and info on opportunities to stay engaged. 

Staff at Thundermist explain the motivation for this program:

“An engaged community is needed now more than ever as efforts across the country intensify to restrict trans people from public life. Rhode Island, historically a leader on civil rights, is not immune. Within the first two weeks of our state Legislature opening, anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced. More are expected. Meanwhile, there is an effort moving town to town that would have our schools harm the young trans people they are meant to educate. The activists and organizers rebuffing these efforts, while also pushing for policy improvements, need support.”

Visit Lu.Ma/THAT to learn how you can get involved. 

Attendees are encouraged to take a COVID test in advance of the event. Free test kits are available at Thundermist locations in Woonsocket, West Warwick, and Wakefield. 

This event is free! To register, go to Lu.Ma/THAT. If you have any questions about Empowered to Advocate, accessibility needs, or more information on transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse support networks and healthcare, email TransHealth@ThundermistHealth.org. 

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Mark your calendars, and join us Sunday, February 4, from 1 to 3 pm, in PPL’s Donald J. Farish Auditorium for the 29th annual Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading, the opening event of Black History Month celebrations happening throughout Rhode Island! 

While Hughes is famous as the voice of the Harlem Renaissance, this year’s reading will illuminate his life as a poet whose work reflects experiences he encountered all over the globe – from traveling as a steward on a freighter bound to Africa, to seafaring around Europe, to reporting as a newspaper correspondent during the Spanish Civil War. Hughes also journeyed to Haiti, Japan, and the then-Soviet Union (and he had Rhode Island connections, too), but he was a poet not of destinations, but of the journeys themselves – often long, sometimes difficult, always rich in his telling.  

Fittingly, the first reader in this year’s event is also a poet of journeys, returns, and re-returns, Colin Channer, whose 2023 book, Console, features poems that cross the currents from New England to Anguilla, Connecticut to Senegal. 

And it wouldn’t be the Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading without music! This year we’re thrilled to welcome the Exult Choir, and the Leland Baker Trio, led by jazz saxophonist and music educator Leland Baker, who has honed his craft in the great cities of New Orleans and New York City, and here in Rhode Island.

As always, this event is free and open to the public, and is made possible through the generous support of the Beneficent Congregational Church, City of Providence Department of Art, Culture + Tourism, Papitto Opportunity Connection, Pawtucket Credit Union, Rhode Island Foundation, and United Way of Rhode Island.

We look forward to welcoming you to the Library on Sunday, February 4! Library doors will open at 12:15 pm; Auditorium doors will open for seating at 12:30; the event gets underway at 1:00 pm. No registration is needed.

For the safety of all in attendance, face masks will be required at all times, and will be available onsite all day.

In gratitude,



Christina Bevilacqua xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxSophia Ellis

Programs & Exhibitions Director xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxCommunity Partnerships Facilitator