📚✨ A Celebration of Local Black Authors ✨📚

Join us for an inspiring evening celebrating the power of storytelling, creativity, and community at the Westside Regional Library! 💛✍🏾 Meet and connect with talented local Black authors as they share their journeys, their books,... and what inspires their writing. Discover new reads, enjoy meaningful conversations, and you may even leave with a signed copy!

📍 Westside Regional Library
📅 Friday, February 27
⏰ 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

🌟 Featured Authors & Works:

📖 Candy Christophe, LCSW, LAC
You Can Have Both Book & Workbook Series:
• "Ministry – Spiritual Strategic"
• "Business on the Legacy Ladder"
• "Marriage Make It Last"
• "The Adultery Trap"

📖 Jamar Gailes
• "Loving 42"

📖 Anita Watson
• "My Dog “Chop Chop”

📖 Rodney “Bow Bow” Jones
• "The Adventures of D.J. Bow and Jerome: Beat the Bullies"

📖 Cheron Holland
• "The Bully: Carmen & Artela"
• "Snow Day"

This special event is a wonderful opportunity to support local voices, celebrate Black literature, and uplift authors who are making an impact right here in our community. 💬📚

📞 For more information, call 318-442-2483

#LocalBlackAuthors #CelebrateBlackVoices #WestsideRegionalLibrary #BlackLiterature #AuthorMeetAndGreet #SupportLocalAuthors #RPL #CommunityReads

🎉✨ Candied Yams & Cornbread ✨🎉

Get ready for an uplifting and unforgettable experience as we celebrate the month with Candied Yams & Cornbread, a powerful storytelling program you won’t want to miss! 💛📖

📍King Branch
🗓Saturday, February 28
...⏰12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

🌟 Join us as Sylvia Davis and Rosa Metoyer share spectacular stories that inspire, connect, and uplift the community. This program is always something truly special—come feel the joy, history, and heart behind every word.

🥂 A small reception will follow, so stay, connect, and celebrate with us!

📞 For more information: 318-445-3912

Come listen, celebrate, and be inspired at Candied Yams & Cornbread! 💫

#CandiedYamsAndCornbread #KingBranch #Storytelling #CommunityVoices #CelebrateCulture #LibraryPrograms #RPL

🌟💡 Celebrating Black Women in STEM! 💡🌟

Black women have made foundational contributions to science, technology, engineering, and math—breaking barriers, rewriting history, and shaping the world we live in today. ✊🏾✨ Despite systemic discrimination, their brilliance has... launched rockets, advanced medicine, transformed computing, and inspired generations. 🚀🧬💻

👩🏾‍🚀 Space & Exploration
🌠 Katherine Johnson – NASA mathematician whose calculations helped send astronauts into orbit
🛠️ Mary Jackson – NASA’s first Black female engineer and advocate for women in science
🔮 Valerie Thomas – Inventor of the illusion transmitter creating 3D effects
🚀 Dr. Mae Jemison – First Black woman in space (1992!)

🩺 Medicine & Biology
🏥 Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler – First Black woman to earn an MD in the U.S.
🧪 Dr. Marie Maynard Daly – First Black woman PhD in chemistry, groundbreaking DNA research
🧠 Dr. Alexa Canady – First Black female neurosurgeon in America
💉 Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett – Key scientist behind the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine

📊 Mathematics & Computing
🌍 Dr. Gladys West – Her work laid the foundation for GPS technology
🧮 Dr. Evelyn Boyd Granville – NASA software pioneer and mathematics trailblazer
⚛️ Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson – First Black woman PhD from MIT, leader in nuclear research

🌱 Innovation & Research
🥗 Dr. Flemmie Kittrell – Nutritionist who helped shape Head Start programs
💄 Annie Turnbo Malone – Chemist and entrepreneur, one of the first Black female millionaires
📞 Marian Croak – Tech inventor with 200+ patents, major force behind VoIP

✨ Their legacy reminds us: Black women in STEM have always been here—creating, discovering, and leading the future.

📚 Want to learn more? Stop by the library and explore books that celebrate these incredible pioneers!

#BlackWomenInSTEM #STEMTrailblazers #BlackHistoryMonth #WomenInScience #HiddenFigures #STEMInspiration #LibraryLearning #CelebrateExcellence #RPLPrograms

🌌📚✨ Celebrating Octavia E. Butler — Sci-Fi Visionary & Literary Legend ✨📚🌌

This month, we honor the incredible life and legacy of Octavia Estelle Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006), a groundbreaking author whose imagination reshaped the world of science ...fiction forever. 🚀🖋️

Octavia Butler wasn’t just a writer—she was a trailblazer. Raised in Pasadena, California, she found comfort and inspiration in the library as a shy child, escaping into fantasy worlds and creating her own stories. 📖💫

🌟 Butler went on to win major awards including the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus, and in 1995 became the first science fiction writer ever to receive a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship (“genius grant”). 🏆✨

Her stories explored powerful themes of race, identity, humanity, and survival—leaving an unforgettable impact on literature and culture. 🌍🔥

📍 Stop by the library this Black History Month to discover Octavia Butler’s works and celebrate voices that changed the future through storytelling.

#OctaviaButler #BlackHistoryMonth #SciFiLegend #SpeculativeFiction #LibraryInspiration #WomenWriters #MacArthurFellow #ReadMoreBooks #RPLReads #CelebrateBlackAuthors

📚✨ Preserving History, Honoring Community ✨📚

The Rapides Parish Library is proud to host a book talk and signing with Rev. Larry Douglas Smith featuring his powerful work, “The Rise and Fall of Lee Street: Stories History Forgot”.

📍 King Branch
📅 Saturday, ...February 28
⏰ 10:00 AM – 11:45 AM

This moving book reconstructs the vibrant Lee Street community, its people, culture, faith, and legacy—through personal memories, oral histories, and historical records. Rev. Smith shines a light on stories nearly erased, honoring a neighborhood that helped shape our city and reflecting on the experiences of Black communities across the South whose contributions deserve to be remembered.

📖 Meet the author
✍️ Book talk & signing
🖤 History, memory, and preservation brought to life

Join us for an important conversation about why preserving these stories matters—for today and for future generations.

📞 For more information, call 318-445-3912

#AuthorTalk #BookSigning #LocalHistory #PreservingOurStories #BlackHistory #KingBranch #RapidesParishLibrary #CommunityVoices #HistoryMatters 📚✨