Steward Spotlight: Simiya Sudduth

Press release from the Little Free Library:

2021-06-18

Founders of Afrofuturistic Farm Collaborative Simiya Sudduth and Dali Chambers are stewarding Little Free Library #117214 in the Greater Ville neighborhood of North St. Louis, Missouri. Afrofuturistic Farm Collaborative is a collective of neighbors, artists, growers, and wellness practitioners. They aim to teach people how to grow food, develop and maintain a garden in an area that experiences food apartheid.

With the addition of a Little Free Library, they also plan to educate the youth.

Simiya and Dali installed the Little Free Library at the intersection of a busy street in front of the farm, where everyone in the neighborhood can easily access it. They plan to operate a youth education program at the farm where the Little Free Library will help them provide educational reading material. Since its opening, the Little Free Library has been successful.

Has the LFL been well received by your community?

Yes! It has been well received by the community. It has only been up for a few months but we have filled and refilled it with close to 100 books.

How has your LFL positively impacted your community?

The Little Free Library at Afrofuturist Farm Collaborative has positively impacted the community by offering books on a wide range of topics in an area where there are disparities in access to retail stores that sell books as well as libraries. The books we have filled the LFL have ranged from non-fiction books about pregnancy and healthy eating as well as, meditative coloring books and children’s literature. We are constantly filling the library with a diverse array of books for people from all walks of life.

What’s been your favorite part about being a LFL steward?

Filling the library! It’s very exciting to see that people are interested in the books, so much so that we add something new to the library every week or two!

Have you faced any challenges?

There have been a few small acts of vandalism, like someone opening the library and throwing the books all over the ground, but that doesn’t happen often. Overall, I believe people respect the effort that we put into offering educational materials in the community.

How many books would you estimate have been shared through your LFL?

My estimate is that we are getting pretty close to 100 books in the 4 months since the library has been installed!

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This press release was produced by the Little Free Library. The views expressed are the author's own.