For over three decades, the fair-trade storefront at 8th and P has sold handcrafted goods from artisans in developing countries — jewelry, kitchenware, games, textiles — under the Ten Thousand Villages name. The Lincoln store is its own nonprofit with its own board, started in a church basement by a small group of Lincolnites who wanted to fight poverty through fair trading relationships, and it now runs as Handspoken, still independent and still 90% volunteer-staffed.
This is the gift store for people who care where things come from. Every purchase is direct income for a maker, and the inventory changes constantly — you genuinely don’t know what you’ll find. Holiday shopping here is a Lincoln tradition for the socially conscious crowd.
It’s been here through every Haymarket boom cycle. Buy something, meet a volunteer who can tell you the story behind it, and feel good about the whole transaction.