Barangay Books is a free library focused on Filipin@/x authored titles, located in Seattle’s LGBTQ Center in the neighborhood of Capitol Hill.

Barangay Books

“Know history,
know self”

-Jose Rizal

Barangay Books is a curated collection of titles pertaining to the Philippines, the Filipinx Diaspora, and Filipinx culture accessible to our community members. Bayanihan is a precolonial term referring to our interconnectedness, the respect and care we have for one another. Here, it casually refers to a sense of gathering and connectedness. 

Barangay Books hopes to fill a community need for historical knowledge for Filipinos in the U.S. diaspora. 


There is an unfortunate lack of visible curated literature for Filipinos in the diaspora at local bookstores and libraries. A lot of our titles go out of print quickly and there are many barriers to shipping books produced in the Philippines to the U.S. Generally, it is challenging to immediately recognize whether a book pertains to the Philippines or is written by Filipinos. 

We proudly showcase a collection of our people’s many excellent authors, historians, researchers, and artists. 

Barangay Books is part of a larger effort to make our wisdom, our intellectual movements, and our culture more accessible. This is not just about Filipin@/x representation. These books provide the context on which we can build future mass movements. It is our right to be able to find ourselves through the documented knowledge of our ancestors, long gone and recent. 

If you are of the Filipin@/x Diaspora, we hope that you find parts of yourself in these books. May you be inspired to create, organize, mobilize, and find healing and connection through these works. If you are not Filipinx, we hope that you find intersection and connection to us from your own identities. 

If you wish to support this project, please consider donating books to help grow Barangay Books. 

We ask that you prioritize titles by Filipino authors. While there are many historical texts on the Philippines written by white authors, they often misrepresent our people, propagandizing and glorifying the U.S. occupation of the Philippines. We also ask that you omit any texts that promote western travel guides. Travel guides are another face of colonization and white supremacy. They often sustain imperialism by fetishizing our lands, erasing or exoticizing indigenous peoples of the Philippines. These are the types of books that are over-represented in bookstores. 

Filipin@/x authored book donations can be made directly to the library staff at Seattle’s LGBTQ+ Center. Please be courteous toward staff, respect pronouns and consider wearing a mask.

Gay City: Seattle LGBTQ+ Center

400 E Pine St #100,

Seattle, WA 98122

All titles are available to be checked out with registration at the LGBTQ Center library.

Our variety is incredible. We have anthologies made by living artists, historical texts, komiks, and so much more.

Visit us

Sunday-Monday Closed
Tuesday 1pm-6pm
Wednesday-Friday 10am-6pm

  • Consider contributing books so that your kapatid can access knowledge, history, and art made by our people. You can donate your own books directly to Seattle’s LGBTQ+ Center located in Capitol Hill. Books can be mailed or delivered in person at

    400 E Pine St #100
    Seattle, WA 98122

  • We ask that you prioritize titles by Filipino authors. We don’t accept titles that were written in the white colonial gaze. Any genre is welcome aside from travel guides.

  • The success of this library is measured on readership. It’s measured on qualities that are not easily tracked. We hope that visitors feel represented, feel touched, and are able to integrate their learnings from these books to pass on to their circles to create a more radical future. This is a gift for all of us, and would like it if you paid us a visit and found something you didn’t know you were looking for.