DIVINE ENCOUNTERS: Queer Reads Library x Lơ Lớ Library
DIVINE ENCOUNTERS: Queer Reads Library x Lơ Lớ Library
2026.11.14 (Sat)
16:00–18:00 Talk + Gathering
18:00–19:30 Movie Screening
encounters bookspace
Prinzenallee 60, 13359 Berlin
DIVINE ENCOUNTERS brings together Queer Reads Library 流動閱酷 (Hong Kong) and Lơ Lớ Library (Vietnam) for an afternoon of zine sharing, mobile archiving, and community conversation at encounters bookspace. Together, the two librarians will share their journeys of running independent libraries in their home cities, exploring unique challenges and quiet joys while celebrating the gentle solidarity holding local queer communities together across borders.
Lơ Lớ Library is travelling to Berlin with a suitcase packed with zines and independent publications by Vietnamese creators for a pop-up reading library during the weekend (14–15 Nov). Alongside them, Queer Reads Library will share selected works from their concurrent showcase in the exhibition ‘ADEFRA, NEID & Queer Reads Library’ at Galerie Nord (2026.11.13–2027.01.24), highlighting queer, trans, non-binary, and LGBTQ+ creators from Asia and the Asian diaspora.
Bring Your Zines: We invite fellow Asian queer zine-makers in Berlin to bring your self-published works to share or donate to our mobile collections! Come with your curiosity and a readiness to engage and meet new friends!
Suggested Donations: Free admission, donations warmly welcomed to support encounters bookspace, Lơ Lớ Library and Queer Reads Library.
Movie Screening (18:00–19:30): Stay for the first edition of ‘Queer Reads x Movie Nights’, featuring ‘Lesbian Factory T婆工廠’—a moving documentary on love, labour, and gender identity among Filipino migrant workers in Taiwan.
Lesbian Factory T婆工廠
Taiwan | 2010 | 56min | dir. Susan Su-Hsiang Chen
In 2004, the Taiwan International Workers Association (TIWA) supported the Filipino migrant labourers in their strike against Fametech Electronics, when they discovered that many of the workers had homosexual partners. What has happened since then? The TIWA film crew set out to follow their footsteps across the world, documenting stories of love, of battling gender identity and crossing social boundaries in their changing lives as lesbian migrant workers.
*Queer Reads x Movie Nights (II) will take place on Saturday 28 November, 18:00–19:30.
DIVINE ENCOUNTERS is jointly presented by Queer Reads Library, Lơ Lớ Library, and encounters bookspace to connect queer creatives across East/Southeast Asia and Berlin.
Lơ Lớ Library is a community living library founded by cát nguyên and based in Ho Chi Minh City with the mission to support everyone in their journey of (un)learning together. The library hosts a collection of rare zines and books from Vietnam, South/Southeast Asia, and the West, with a focus on themes including decolonisation, queerness, anti-capitalism, art, music, traditions, folklore, spirituality, and so on.
As a multi-functional space for gatherings, Lơ Lớ Library also organizes guerrilla educational and artistic events focused on decolonial, anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchal, and queer- and gender-centered film screenings, zine launches, listening parties, workshops, and pop-up zine libraries. Lơ Lớ Library also facilitates an artist-in-community residency programme to support cultural workers in developing and sharing their artistic practices, community projects, and collective wisdom.
Queer Reads Library (QRL) was founded in June 2018 as a response to the censorship of ten LGBTQ-themed books for children and young adults in Hong Kong's public libraries. Operating in a mobile format, QRL curates printed materials, visual culture research, zine-making workshops that document dialogues and resistance. The library is currently based in Hong Kong run by Beatrix Pang* and in Vancouver run by Rachel Lau. QRL stands with queer friends across societies who share their stories amidst rising transphobia and homophobia, aiming to connect queer Asian individuals across continents.
*Beatrix Pang (they/them) makes art, books, and spaces for connection. They run Small Tune Press, ZINE COOP, and Queer Reads Library—a mobile reading space centered on queer, crip, trans, and non-binary dialogues through independently published materials.