Belonging and connection are at the heart Bellingham Public Library’s mission to serve our local community. The materials in the Library’s vast collection tell diverse stories from around the globe, yet the personal stories of our local neighbors are the bridges that unite us to each other and the world.
This ongoing digital storytelling project offers the opportunity to hear local stories as told by residents of Bellingham and Whatcom County from 2020 to 2024.
Somos Comunidad
Somos Comunidad is a collection of personal digital stories facilitated by Monica Koller of Connecting Community and funded by the Friends of the Bellingham Public Library in the fall of 2024 to center local Latine perspectives.
Our gratitude to the seven storytellers who gathered to connect and heal through voicing lived experiences. Their stories are captured and shared through the following self-authored videos. By deeply listening to stories, we better understand lived experiences, can empathize with others, and become inspired to create personal and community change.
Resilience Circle
Resilience Circle is a collection of digital stories told by Lummi Nation and Nooksack Tribal Members in June 2022 in collaboration with Bellingham Public Library. The videos were created in a workshop facilitated by Connecting Community, to encourage healing through personal storytelling.
We offer a sincere thank you to each of the storytellers for the tremendous gift of sharing their stories with the community. They are a profound contribution that will be shared for generations.
Thank you to all donors, to Library Giving Day 2021, and The Friends of Bellingham Public Library for the generous support of this project to foster greater community understanding.
May you experience the healing that comes from listening deeply.
The Unrooted Experience
To encourage racial equity and understanding, a group of powerful community voices gathered in November 2020 to share their lived experiences in Bellingham, WA through personal storytelling and video. This digitial storytelling project, titled The Unrooted Experience, came to life in the middle of the COVID19 pandemic – at the same time that a call to action against anti-Blackness grew profoundly clear. It was funded by Friends of Bellingham Public Library and facilitated by Monica Koller of Connecting Community.
May these stories inspire you. There is healing that happens in telling stories and healing that comes from listening.
Bellingham Anti-Racism Resources
See the Library’s page on Talking about Race, Ethnicity and Racism, for a range of additional resources curated by Bellingham Library staff.