Estelita's Library
About
Estelita's Library’s is focused on Decolonizing Space and Decentralizing Knowledge
Website: estelitaslibrary.com
CREST Representative: Edwin Lindo
Why did you join CREST?
The power of collective organizing in land stewardship is powerful. Loved to be in community with so many amazing people.
If you are working on a project, what is the project, where is it located, and who is it for? What is the vision and purpose of your project?
We are finalizing a project for Estelita's Library new location in the Central District. This project is to bring a cultural space to the CD. This space serves as a beacon against gentrification and a central space for community to gather, organize, build, learn, and just be. We are also in the works to acquire an additional plot of land to potentially build small affordable housing.
What are you proud to have accomplished so far related to your project or related to your community stewardship of land efforts?
Proud of how we collectively acquired the funding for the project, the inclusion of youth in designing and building the project, and organizing to having the community embrace the new project.
What are the next steps for your organization in realizing your project vision?
Our next step is to build out community programming and how to utilize the additional space of the land for community gardens and other community ideas. Also looking to understand how develop the new property we may purchase.
What support and expertise are you looking for?
Need Technical support.
TraeAnna Holiday, CREST cohort member from Africatown Seattle:
"I am so honored to be a part of what Puget Sound Sage is doing in this city. They brought together 20 organizations who may not have known each other, and together we are taking progressive models that are happening across the nation to reform and develop our spaces, have ownership in our spaces, create and rebuild our communities, and reclaim what has been taken from us. I represent Africatown Seattle, and if you know of what the Central District has gone through - it has suffered a great deal of gentrification, inequity and displacement. Africatown is working hard on the ground to develop buildings that are bringing our communities back.
For me, this is very personal. My family was displaced in 2003 and my parents had to buy a home in Federal Way. I have never known of Federal Way before. I grew up in the Central area, and it was all I knew for my whole life. It was so heartbreaking to my mother for us to have to move. We are one family, but displacement has affected so many more. This is why I’m so excited to be a part of this cohort. With the work of Puget Sound Sage, I am learning more on how to do this in a progressive way, ensure that we keep affordability for our communities and for our people, and to come back to spaces that we grew up in that we know and love.”