Film Screening: "Rapbrarian: Reading Came First"

🌼 FILM SCREENING

Rapbrarian: Reading Came First at Oak Park Village Hall

Rapbrary is a living archive founded by Chicago-based rapper, librarian, and cultural worker Roy Kinsey, rooted in the belief that hip-hop is literature and libraries are cultural sanctuaries. 

Join us for a special screening of Rapbrarian: Reading Came First, the documentary chronicling Roy Kinsey’s journey as both rapper and librarian and the creation of Rapbrary as a radical act of cultural preservation. The film explores literacy, hip-hop, censorship, and the library as a site of imagination, survival, and resistance.

Please note: This film screening will take place a the Oak Park Public Library.

About Rapbrary at the Main Library
At Oak Park Public Library, Rapbrary unfolds as a multi-week immersive experience blending live performance, film, installation, visual art, music, and storytelling—centering Black imagination, freedom of expression, and the power of story as resistance. 

The Idea Box installation Deangelo’s World invites visitors into the interior life of a sensitive, creative Black child inspired by Kinsey's book Deangelo and the Dandelion. Through environmental design, books, and visual storytelling, the installation centers tenderness, imagination, and resilience, creating a space where softness and strength coexist.

Related:

• Through March 20: Deangelo's World in the Idea Box

• Thursday, February 26, 6 pm: Rapbrary Closing Celebration

This program is brought to the Oak Park community through a partnership between the Oak Park Public Library, the Village of Oak Park, Oak Park Township and the Oak Park & River Forest Community Foundation.