Events & Activities | Taiopenga
Suggestions for hosting pride events and activities at your library
Hosting events during Out on the Shelves
During the Out of the Shelves campaign each June, we encourage libraries, schools, museums and relevant organisations to host pride events that uplift rainbow art, stories, histories and communities.
Organising events and activities is an effective way for institutions to support and foster ongoing connections with their local rainbow community. Youth-focused programmes can offer a safe space for rainbow young people to learn about themselves, make friends, and connect with rainbow art and stories. Inviting rainbow young people to volunteer or help facilitate events allows them to exercise leadership and self determination.
Some libraries, museums and community centers will also organise pride events to coincide with their local pride festivals (generally in February and March). These are great opportunities to promote the Out on the Shelves rainbow reading resource, available year round.
Below, we’ve outlined some event and activity ideas for schools, libraries, museums, community hubs and bookstores looking to celebrate Out on the Shelves.
If you are planning on running an event for Out on the Shelves, we’d love to help spread the word! Use the hashtags #OOTS #OOTS2024 #OutontheShelves and tag us @insideoutkoaro so we can reshare on our social media platforms.
If we can support you or your organisation in any way, please email us at outontheshelves@insideout.org.nz
Event & Activity Ideas
Make a Pride Display
Decorate the library and display any LGBTQIA+ literature and media, to show your love and support for the rainbow community.
Hold a Rainbow Book Club
Choose a Rainbow Book for each week of June and hold a Book Club meeting for readers to discuss and meet other keen readers.
Rainbow Reading Event
Host a session for younger community members and families with dress ups, songs and rainbow specific storytelling.
Zinemaking
Host a Zine making session and perhaps even display them in your library afterwards
Staff Training
InsideOUT Kōaro can deliver education to your staff as one way to make your workplace safer and more inclusive for rainbow & takatāpui people. Our workshops cover the fundamentals of sexuality, gender and sex characteristics, including relevant terminology and research. We will explore how different forms of discrimination affect rainbow communities and the importance of an actively inclusive environment. We will develop together practical ways your professional practice and workplace can become or continue to be an inclusive and safe place for those in rainbow communities.
Have a New Zealand author visit your library
Read NZ has more than 200 of Aotearoa’s best novelists, journalists, poets, playwrights, non-fiction writers, storytellers and illustrators registered as part of the Writers in Schools programme. As well as one-off classroom visits, the Writers in Schools programme provides a range of options for participation in creative writing workshops, literary tours, public events, book festivals and more.
Crafternoon
Hold a crafternoon at your library and make bookmarks or button badges. You could provide simple materials or ask crafters to bring their own.
Creative Writing
Hold a creative writing session. You could reach out to local authors in your area or even run a competition.
We also have a Rainbow Writing Competition as part of Out on the Shelves that you could encourage young writers to enter here.
Movie and Book Event
Host a screening of a rainbow movie based on a book. Have time for students to look through a selection of rainbow books and make borrowing the books easy. If there are multiple copies of the book that inspired the movie in the collection, have those readily available. Provide snacks and time for discussion afterwards.