A Conversation with Valerie Fleming from Major Owens Health and Wellness Community Center
By Tyler McClure
Valerie Fleming, Community Outreach Coordinator at Major Owens Health and Wellness Community Center with Seema Aghera, Cofounder & COO, Brooklyn Book Bodega
Valerie Fleming is the Community Outreach Coordinator at Major Owens Health and Wellness Community Center in Crown Heights Brooklyn. The community center has a focus on the promotion of local organizations and individual growth as well as providing the Crown Heights community with programs for athletics and space for a variety of events. The center welcomes over 30,000 people each month.
Brooklyn Book Bodega partners with the national organization, Little Free Library, to place small freestanding libraries in Brooklyn book deserts. Brooklyn Book Bodega finds library stewards and provides ongoing support with books for a minimum of a year while Little Free Library sends the freestanding book box, licenses the library, and sends a starter pack of 25 books.
Brooklyn Book Bodega connected Valerie to this initiative, and she is now the Little Free Library steward at the community center. Valerie opened her Little Free Library in the fall of 2023. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Valerie about the Little Free Library and its early impact. I also got to learn about Valerie’s intentionality in choosing books for the Little Free Library that express a variety of interests, including her own.
On Connecting with the Brooklyn Book Bodega
It's been over a year now since we connected with Brooklyn Book Bodega. I remember seeing different advertisements, flyers, and different opportunities through the Brooklyn Book Bodega. And, I just reached out and was able to gain access to some books because we have two libraries at Major Owens. We have one that is a shared library on the first level and the Little Free Library is on the second level. I access books through the Brooklyn Book Bodega as a resource to replenish the initial library that we have on the first level. Through my interaction with the Brooklyn Book Bodega, I was able to get books, meet Seema, and have conversations. I've been to a couple of book giveaways.
Infusing Book Access with Major Owens Health and Wellness Community Center
This opportunity came to our attention through my interaction with the Brooklyn Book Bodega. I shared it with the director, and we thought that this would be a great opportunity for us to provide book access for members who come into our community. We have probably 30,000 people who visit our center a month, and we have different programming here at the center. So, what we do is have a place that a lot of people can access, and it's been successful. This is an in-house opportunity for the people here. They can use the library at their disposal. Major Owens…is a destination…you have to be here for some sports activity or program. What I'm trying to do is use the Little Free Library to help the parents who may be waiting for their time to participate in an activity with their kids.
The Culture of the Major Owens Health and Wellness Community Center
The culture here at Major Owens is multi-generational. We have operators that focus on educational opportunities like Digital Girl, which focuses on STEM programming. And, they look at that and incorporate things for people of all ages; they have senior classes as well. The Little Free Library is not just providing access to books for young people. We have some books for older audiences in there…some that may speak to financial literacy…some that may speak to higher education for different age groups that come to our facility. It helps to promote the different things that we offer at Major Owens because the center is a hub for individuals to come and have different exposures. So, some of the books that we have that I've acquired from the Brooklyn Brook Bodega speak to centering yourself… how you can journal as a way of releasing and learning a little bit more about yourself…books that speak to self-development and self-growth. I use the library to put in these types of books, not just focusing on the little kids, but focusing on the adults.
The Little Free Library is a reflection of the community center’s culture. With the variety of programs, activities, and age groups that call the facility home, Valerie ensures there is a book that feeds the interests of community members.
Post-Pandemic Reading Relationships
Based on some of the information that I've been hearing, due to the pandemic, some of the individuals in surrounding neighborhoods have noticed changes in their children’s academics. For some kindergarten or first and second graders…. because they were at home during the pandemic …. the learning experience was different than when they were in school. They are set back a few months and maybe a year or so compared to where they're supposed to be academically. Many parents had to juggle their work schedules with trying to support this virtual learning experience. Not everyone had wifi access to allow them or to afford them an opportunity to be online to keep up academically. So, I've heard from some parents and some instructors in the school system that some of their students are just a little bit behind, and they're doing a lot of catching up right now and trying to get them back on grade level.
Little Free Library Book Cycling
When we first opened it up, I didn't know how popular it was gonna be. We put all the books in there, the majority of them were brand new books and within a week or two they were gone. So I was like, “Okay, I'm going to have to pay more attention to this library.” I go more frequently and replenish it because the books are really going. I usually go in on Monday or Tuesday. I make sure I go upstairs because over the weekend that's when I find that most of the books are gone. If I find that some books are not really moving, I try to pull those out and switch in new books so when people come to visit the Little Free Library, we have different books so that they can say, “Okay, let me see what they have this week.”
On Hosting The Little Free Library & Being The Book Lady
I think that would be a good opportunity for anyone to go through the process. We have many Little Free Libraries on my block. One of my neighbors just built a library and he has it on his property. From time to time, I feed the Brooklyn Book Bodega books into that library and they seem to go quickly. Now, it seems like I'm like the book lady because I'll come to work with three or four bags of books and people are like, “Oh, here we go with the books here now.”
Most of the books are in good condition, and we pride ourselves in providing up-to-date books, and gently-used books that you would want to take home. I believe that books are a way to help improve people's knowledge and vocabulary usage…increase opportunities through access to different types of information and resources. I think that books are a good thing to help individuals, whether they want to learn languages or gain access to different opportunities that could turn into economic wealth. It’s been a great opportunity for us to have the Little Free Library at our facility.
Valerie’s Favorite Books
- Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
- Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- Roots by Alex Haley
- I, Too, Am America by Langston Hughes
Tyler McClure attends St. Francis College and majors in Literature, Writing, & Publishing. She was Brooklyn Book Bodega’s spring 2024 intern.
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