by Cat Tang
From Thursday, October 8 to Sunday, October 11, 2026, I had the privilege of attending the fifth national Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC) in Spokane, Washington. This was my first time attending the conference, though I have previously been to ALA Annual and the California Library Association annual conferences. Since I recently completed a cross-country move from California to Michigan, my attendance was only possible thanks to partial financial support from APALA, for which I am deeply grateful.
Additionally, I would not have had the opportunity to attend the conference in the first place if I had not been selected as APALA’s JCLC 2026 Rising Star Award recipient. I remember receiving the news back in May, just shortly before I graduated from San José State University with my Master in Library and Information Science, and feeling shocked and overwhelmed with joy. Being honored with the Rising Star Award feels deeply affirming of all the work I have done in the field so far, though I know there are still worlds of possibility ahead of me, especially since I just started my first Librarian position in September. The award is also especially meaningful to me because I was having a very difficult time at the start of this year, and after a number of challenging experiences, I had been questioning whether staying in librarianship was the right fit for me. In January, I couldn’t have imagined how much things would change in a few short months, and I am so grateful to the many people in my support network who gave me the strength and courage to keep going during those tough times. Looking back at this year, it seems that hardship truly blossomed into something beautiful.
The conference kicked off on Thursday, October 8, in the First Interstate Center for the Arts (directly across from the Spokane Convention Center) with an opening keynote session featuring Jason Reynolds. He was incredibly eloquent and inspiring, and I left the talk feeling electrified in that way one always seems to feel at a library conference (before you go back to reality and remember the constraints that bind you). After his talk, I was able to meet him during the Exhibit Hall opening, where he was signing copies of his book Coach. I stopped by a few booths in the Exhibit Hall, grabbed a few bites to eat, bumped into some familiar faces, and met someone new! My new friend Tien and I became so engrossed in chatting that I completely missed the first round of morning sessions. For the first afternoon session, I went to “The Eternal Dumpster Fire,” where Lessa Pelayo-Lozada, Erica Cuyugan, and Amita Lonial shared about the often-brutal realities faced by library directors (and that aspiring directors should be aware of). Then I attended the Chicago Public Library’s “We Will Thrive” session before heading to the APALA meetup. Afterward, I walked from the Convention Center to the Spokane Central Library for the JCLC scholarship reception, mainly to be there in support of my friend and fellow Spectrum Scholar, Ysanne.
The next morning (Friday, October 9), I started my day by grabbing snacks from the Exhibit Hall before heading to the Arapahoe Libraries’ “Immigrant and Language Services Knowledge Cafe,” followed by APALA and CALA members’ “Enlarging Our Tent” session. But my favorite session that day had to be Sheridan Cazarez and Luisa Leija’s “Canta Conmigo!” It was really fun to spend an hour singing and playing together; the room was filled with so much joy. As someone also from Los Angeles County, I have been familiar with Luisa and Sheridan and have used and admired their work through Bibliocuentos for storytimes, but this was actually the first time I met either of them in person. I thought it was a bit funny that the first time our paths crossed was outside of LA after I had moved away. The last session I attended that day was Brooke Thomas’s “Empowering Tomorrow’s Leaders,” which I found to be chock full of useful information for developing a teen workforce readiness program and engaging teens in the library. Although I’m not a teen librarian, my current institution serves a significant teen demographic, owing to the fact that the local history is right next door, so I thought the information would be useful to take back to our teen librarians. Once all the sessions for the day were over, I went to the Exhibit Hall to get some more snacks and check out the poster presentations, particularly to support Ysanne’s posters. Afterward, Ysanne, Megan, Iridian, and I joined other Spectrum Scholars for a Spectrum reunion dinner at Feast World Kitchen.
On Saturday, October 10, the last full day of the conference, I began the day by attending Cassandra Osterloh’s OurStoryBridge session about oral history methodologies. Though I am not an archivist, I have recently become more interested in capturing and preserving the oral histories of my family, particularly those of my parents (who are genocide survivors), and had been discussing archival work with other Spectrum Scholars the previous night. Afterward, I went to Sheila Garcia Mazari and Jesus Espinoza’s session, “Uplifting our Testimonios,” which was the standout session of the day for me; I left the room feeling energized.
That afternoon I also had the opportunity to attend my very first author lunch, with a panel featuring Emiko Jean, Anna-Marie McLemore, Danica Nava, and Ari Tison. Not only was the food absolutely delicious, but all the authors also had profound insights to share about their work and uplifting POC voices. I stayed at the author lunch longer than I thought I would and consequentially missed the Exhibit Hall closing reception, but I headed out to support my friends Emily Taina and Eduardo Diaz’s session on their institutional collection diversity audit project. Although we had previously discussed the topic last year after my own presentation about an informal collection diversity audit, this presentation was the first time I had heard about the logistics of their work in great detail, which was really interesting to me. For the last session of the conference, I attended Adrienne Almeida and Ericka Brunson-Rochette’s “Gatebreaking: Creating a Collective Action Plan to Address the Urgent Need for POC Participation on Youth Media Award Committees” session before returning to my hotel room to recharge for the All-Awards Celebration later that night, during which I and the other honorees received our awards. The highlight of the night, though, in my opinion, was the dance floor after the awards distribution! I love a good dance floor and I think few places are more fun to dance in than with fellow library people!
After that very eventful night, the following morning (Sunday, October 11), I attended the closing keynote session of the conference featuring Kelly Yang and got her debut adult novel, The Take, signed. I said final goodbyes to some friends before rushing back to my hotel room to check out, then I took a bag of books to FedEx across the street from the Convention Center to ship them home (sadly, there was no way I was going to be able to manage to cram them into my luggage). There I serendipitously (or perhaps unsurprisingly, all things considered) ran into another librarian, Shawna, and we ended up spending the rest of the day sightseeing around Spokane together, as both of our flights back home weren’t until the evening.
Although I’ve been to other conferences, JCLC definitely felt unique as a conference specifically designed for POC library workers to come and gather. Thank you APALA for making it possible for me to attend my first JCLC!
Thanks to Cat for sharing her experience at JCLC!
APALA funds a number of scholarships for MLIS students and other professional development opportunities like JCLC. Follow APALA’s member listserv to discover opportunities for similar opportunities for professional development funding.