By Kate Budd, Executive Director of the Council for the Homeless
Public libraries can feel like a living room, a soft hug or even a safe haven. They offer warmth, predictability, comfortable spaces and kind people. Most importantly, libraries offer books, which provide individuals the rare opportunity to escape to a new reality with each chapter. Libraries are one of the last bastions of freedom where all who access are offered the same choices and opportunities. People housed and unhoused feel at home in libraries for many of the same reasons.
People who are unhoused typically feel safe in libraries and this fuels the premise behind the new movie, The Public. Breakfast Clubber, Emilio Estevez, directs and stars in the movie, which focuses on a Cincinnati library that welcomes people experiencing homelessness on a daily basis, just like those across Clark County. One day, in the middle of a bitter winter storm, they realize that all shelters are full and there is nowhere to go for a safe sleep. The people who are unsheltered refuse to leave the library at closing time and the drama heightens from there.
The movie has received rave reviews and the Hollywood Reports described it as a “scrappy feel-good drama.” Estevez is quoted as saying, “It may inspire people to look at mental illness differently, at homelessness differently, to actually go into a library.” People experiencing homelessness, “…just want to be regarded. Smiled at. Said hello to. Valued. Seen and heard. And that is an act of compassion that costs you nothing.”
Council for the Homeless agrees any opportunity for our community to increase compassion for people who are unhoused is a good one. The movie is showing at the Kiggins Theater April 12-16. Council for the Homeless, Fort Vancouver Regional Library and Community Services NW will be at there on opening night April 12. Doors open at 6pm and the movie begins at 7:30pm. Ticket information is at https://www.kigginstheatre.com/movies/the-public/.
Then, join us again on May 2 from 6:00pm-7:30pm at the Downtown Library to hear from a panel discussion about the movie. See you at the movies!