Wendy Pellot testifies on Langston Hughes Library
Wendy Pellot, co-vice chair of the Library Action Committee, testifies about growing up near the Langston Hughes Community Library. She highlights its role as a community hub and its circulating Black heritage collection.
Thank you.
My name is Wendy Pettis, and I'd like to say good morning, members of the committee and fellow New Yorkers.
I love libraries.
I have library cards from QPL, BPL, and NYPL, and I was in Brooklyn yesterday and walked over to the Grand Army Plaza Library in the rain just to gaze at those beautiful doors.
The Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center is my home library.
I grew up just two blocks away, born in 1969, like the library, the very same year local grassroots organizers fought to build it.
Today, as co-vice chair of the Library Action Committee, which supports the library, I see its power firsthand.
It's far more than a library.
It's a thriving community hub.
Week after week, residents gather here for cultural events, critical conversations, and local organizing.
In addition to having research archives like the Schomburg, Langston Hughes also houses New York City's largest circulating black heritage collection.
Growing up, I didn't just study history behind glass.
I checked those books and videos and carried them home out of just curiosity and for my advanced studies.
Today, over 40,000 pieces can go directly into the hands and backpacks of neighborhood families and anyone else with a library card.
To invest in Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center is to protect living history, community activism, and neighborhood literacy.
It shaped my life and empowers our community every single day.
Thank you.