Greenpoint Free Store looks for
new location to host off erings
BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
The local do-gooders behind
the “Greenpoint Free
Store” are seeking a new home
for their altruistic community
project, after their current
year-old location was shuttered
due to construction.
Operating outside an empty
storefront at 150 Greenpoint
Ave., a group of volunteers
had used the location to solicit
unused items (like furniture,
books, clothes, and toys) from
people that were otherwise
throwing them away, and offer
them up to community members
free-of-charge.
Opened just over a year
ago, the Greenpoint outpost
was one of several built by
Myles Smutney, founder of
the Free Store Project, who
launched the idea in Manhattan
in October 2020 — taking
inspiration from free stores in
her hometown of Chicago.
“Initially, this was all an
experiment,” said Camille
Dodero, a Greenpoint resident,
and a volunteer with
the project. “They were unoffi
cial spots on buildings
that weren’t otherwise being
tended to. Some of them have
lasted, some of them haven’t.”
With many people leaving
the city during the pandemic,
or simply moving within the
Five Boroughs and ditching
their old goods, the project
quickly spread around the city,
where over a dozen Free Stores
are still operating today.
Rather than leaving their
items on the sidewalk to be
whisked away by the sanitation
department, the project allows
bargain-hunting New Yorkers
to snag them at no cost.
When the Greenpoint store
went up last year, the building
was empty, for sale, and a perfect
quiet place for a free store.
When it sold earlier this
year, the team knew they
COURIER LIFE, DEC.24 31, 2021-JAN. 6, 2022
would need to fi nd a new location,
Smutney said, and started
fundraising — not just to fi nd
a new place in Greenpoint, but
to keep opening new stores for
locals that need them.
The Free Store Project had
no agreements with the owners
at 150 Greenpoint Ave., and the
volunteers were happy to have
been able to use the space at all
“We’re grateful for the use
of the storefront, the memories
and connections it was able to
generate while it lasted,” Smutney
said.
On Dec. 17, the good samaritans
got word that they’d have to
take down the makeshift store,
but luckily, construction crews
and volunteers banded together
to disassemble the wooden panels
and shelves that afternoon.
Some of the free stores have
been whisked away by sanitation
in the dead of night without
warning, so, being able to use
the space for so long and having
ample warning and assistance
to take down the Greenpoint
location was the best of a
bad situation, Dodero said.
The Free Store Project now
has their eyes on expanding
with community partners,
and they hope the potential
new Greenpoint store will be
opened in partnership with a
local organization that’ll give
them a more-permanent home.
“We are very hopeful and actually
very confi dent that we’ll
fi nd new partners,” she said.
For now, the shelves that
made up the store, and the
items they held, are being
stored helter-skelter in volunteer
apartments, in Dodero’s
studio space, and in nearby
Quimby’s Bookstore.
The project has a short-term
fundraising goal of $10,000, not
just for the Greenpoint store,
but for the whole organization
to get to a “sustainable” place,
Dodero said, and especially to
secure a place where they can
store donations and building
materials. Long-term, they
want to raise at least $50,000 to
keep expanding and building
new stores.
“I would say the goal is just
for us to have a space where
we can centralize, where,
when anybody says, ‘We have
a donation in bulk, and they
don’t want to fi gure out how to
give it to people,’ they can give
it to us, and we can redistribute
it,” Dodero said. “Through
the free stores or other organizations
and things like that.
But we don’t have that space
right now.”
BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
It’s a beloved holiday tradition!
The Brooklyn Public Library
has announced the borough’s
most-borrowed books
of 2021, giving a glimpse into
the lives of the borough’s book
lovers during a year of pandemic
induced stress and social
distancing.
“As we close yet another
unprecedented and diffi cult
year, Brooklyn Public Library
shares a deep pride that as always,
readers turn to us for
unparalleled access to books,
knowledge, and entertainment
to feed their souls and
brighten their spirits,” said
Amy Mikel, BPL’s Director of
Customer Experience. “These
top titles show that our communities
crave the kinds of
stories that uplift and connect
us. NYC Libraries will always
be here for our readers.”
One of the country’s largest
libraries, with more than
700,000 active borrowers across
60 locations, the 125-year-old
BPL is more than just a place
to get books — they host classes
and workshops for Brooklynites
of all ages, offer access to technology
and other resources,
provide funding and support
for brand-new programs, and
operate as cooling centers on
the city’s hottest days, keeping
patrons safe and healthy.
But at the core, of course, is
books. Here are the fi ve mostborrowed
adult books of 2021:
“The Vanishing Half” by
Brit Bennett, a novel following
a pair of identical twin sisters
navigating race and identity
through their different lives.
“The Midnight Library”
by Matt Haig, a fantasy novel
about a library that exists between
life and death, where
those on the brink can pull
books from the shelves and explore
the lives they could have
lived.
“A Promised Land” by
Barack Obama. The fi rst of a
two-part memoir by the former
president, the nearly 800-
page tome explores his college
love interests and some of the
most important events of his
early presidency.
“The Guest List” by Lucy
Foley. In another uncertain
and scary year, many lost
themselves in Foley’s windswept
mystery novel, enjoying
the twists and turns of an Agatha
Christie-esque wedding.
“Caste: The Origins of
Our Discontents” by Isabel
Wilkerson. Ten years after
her acclaimed nonfi ction book
“The Warmth of Other Suns,”
Wilkerson spoke to the struggles
of 2021 in “Caste,” dissecting
the not-so-subtle American
caste system and the
social stratifi cation among
race and class in the U.S.
Adults weren’t the only
ones looking to learn and have
a little literary fun this year.
Children and young adults
alike were browsing shelves
online and virtually, and
these were some of their bestloved
reads:
The fi rst three installments
of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter”
series dominated the
kids’ list as the next generation
of Brooklynites entered
the world of magic and toads,
starting what’s likely a lifelong
love of books and fantasy.
Wedged between volumes
of Harry’s life was Raina
Telgemeier’s graphic novel
“Guts,” a memoir of her childhood
phobia of getting sick
and the anxiety that fueled it.
“Brooklyn’s most-read
books of 2021 refl ect a city
seeking to better understand
its past and write a different
future,” said Linda E. Johnson,
BPL’s CEO and President.
“From Brit Bennett and Isabel
Wilkerson to Cathy Park Hong
and Kiley Reid, readers across
the borough are still reckoning
with racism’s long legacy.
Along with Matt Haig, Barack
Obama, and V. E. Schwab,
they’re also refl ecting on how
we want to be remembered.
Thankfully, literature continues
to ask complex questions
and evade simple answers.”
Find and borrow the complete
list on the BPL website.
Free spirit!
Library’s most-borrowed books give
glimpse into the year in literature
BROOKLYN
Checking ’em out
The Greenpoint Free Store was suddenly closed earlier this month.
The Free Store Project
Brooklyn Public Library’s Central branch. Photo by Kevin Duggan