Jeffrey Whaley Jr.

A Community Public Library was created as a challenge to engage readers of all ages with free reading material via Black-Owned businesses. Since this initiative was created back in 2022, we’ve been able to pair three Black-Owed businesses in Brooklyn with our libraries: Nurish BK, The Brooklyn Bodega & Coco Salon. We utilize the foot traffic these businesses attract to increase engagement and raise awareness for the importance of reading. People can submit and drop off as many books as they please and the best part is all of the books inside of the libraries are free to take.

Jeffrey Whaley Jr., aka Jeff Stashbox is a multi-disciplinary artist born and raised in Brooklyn, New York with knowledge in photography and photo editing. Whaley Jr. currently works in Special Education. over the past 8 years, he’s worked as a Paraprofessional. During the pandemic, Whaley’s focus shifted away from visual art and towards building literacy awareness in Black and Brown neighborhoods. In 2022, he founded the initiative, A Community Public Library; a growing personal project with a mission to give away free reading material to the public by planting little free libraries near Black-Owned businesses. Whaley currently operates a total of three little free libraries and is looking to expand to 10 in the next 5 years.