Black women bookstore owners congregated at The Lit Bar in Mott Haven for a panel discussion closing out their inaugural bookstore crawl this past weekend.
The bookstore crawl featured 10 Black women-owned bookstores in Brooklyn and the Bronx. Noëlle Brown, the owner of The Lit Bar and one of the participating bookstores in the crawl, hosted the panel in her own space.
The event was a full house with a strong presence of women of all colors. It was an evening filled with laughter, wine and music by Black women artists.
A recurring focus in the conversation was community and care, and how these Black women-led literary spaces build relationships with the communities they serve.
“It’s more important than ever that we keep our businesses alive and that we preserve community and we preserve the cultures as much as we can, with the world being the dumpster fire going on around us. And I’m honored to be one of the vessels seated in the Bronx,” Brown said during the discussion.
Each of the bookstore owners shared their origin stories, the good and bad days of operating and maintaining a bookstore and how they maintain self-care.
The Little Bookshop is a family-owned indie bookshop that opened its doors last May in East Williamsburg. Mother-daughter duo Mary Jones and Ashley Jones have run and owned businesses before, so they knew running a brick-and-mortar bookstore was going to be hard work.
“I still work a full-time job, 10-6, so I oversee arts education programs in a lot of public schools and running from there to come scrub bricks until one or two in the morning,” Ashley said. “I wish I had set myself up knowing [to] pace yourself, find the pockets to have rest because it’s going to be a long haul, not just a sprint.”
Mary, Ashley’s mother, shared that books and libraries have always been a safe space for her since childhood.
“I’ve always wanted a bookshop. I’ve always wanted to be around books. I don’t know if you know about dreams, but they begin to scream at you at times, and well it began to scream at me and say ‘You got the means — you better do it,’” she said.
Sister duo Danielle and Gabrielle Davenport started BEM Books and More in Bed-Stuy back in 2021 with the mission of celebrating Black food and Black books.
After years of doing popups across the city and partnering with different organizations, BEM opened their doors in October 2025.
“We like to say we focus on global Black storytelling and foodways. For us, it was really a matter of thinking so there’s this handful of culinary bookstores, and then there are obviously all these amazing Black owned bookstores that steward our stories and are such important cultural spaces, and it just felt like why is there nothing at that intersection?” Danielle said.
She added that there is a lot that connects people across the diaspora, but a lot of that gets painted over.
“To be a space where we can really dig in, flavors and pages first into all of our worlds and really open space for that is what keeps us going.”
Maura Cheeks owns Liz’s Book Bar, named after her late grandmother, in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
“My grandmother always taught me that really beautiful connections can happen when you meet strangers and when you open up to people you don’t know,” Cheeks said. “And so I wanted to create a place where that felt natural, and a place where people could work on their next project and maybe on their next book.”
Darlene Okpo, the owner of Adanne Bookshop in Bushwick, moderated the panel for the evening. Tiffany Dockery of Gladys Books & Wine, a Black Lesbian bookstore and wine bar, in Bed-Stuy proposed the bookstore crawl idea to her.
It was originally supposed to be for Black History Month in February, but there wasn’t enough time for planning so they decided to do it during Women’s History Month.
Tiffany and Darlene reached out to the other bookstores and they all agreed to do it.
“It was a very fast, high turnaround because we had met probably in the second week of February, and then we had to get everything done in two weeks — like printing bags, so it was a lot to do,” Okpo said.
Despite the time crunch, Okpo wanted people to understand what it means to collectively collaborate and show how small businesses can work together.
“And people who shop at bookstores need to understand the work that we do behind the scenes and make sure that we provide the best service for them,” she said. “And to inspire anybody else who wants to open up a bookstore and be real honest about it, like this is not a glamorous thing.”
Tiffany Dockery told the Bronx Times that she knew this crawl could be successful because of the collective power of Black women.
“I want Black women to have the same class allegiance that billionaires have. I just think that we are stronger together,” Dockery said.
As a bookstore owner, she understands the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship.
“And I know that entrepreneurship is lonely, it’s hard and I think sometimes that Black women are hyperindependent [which] means we are afraid to lean on the collective or create a collective. And I just think that power requires a collective to be effective,” Dockery said.
For future bookstore crawls, Dockery would like to be able to reach more people throughout the city.
“I want to get a bus, I want the dollar cabs. On Saturday or Sunday, you could start at Gladys. Hop on, go to The Little Bookshop. Hop on, go to BEM,” she said. “I think there’s something about creating an ecosystem, and ecosystems require enablement which means that you take away barriers, and a barrier is transportation.”
Lonna Dawson, owner of Nefer Bookcafe in Wakefield shared her mission for her bookstore.
“At Nefer, our ethos is that we spark curiosity and wonder through reading and conversations, and we create an environment that helps people heal from the damage of grind culture and social division,” Dawson said.
The inspiration behind the name of the bookstore is primarily from her seventh grade English teacher, Mrs. Anderson, who was nicknamed “Nefer” by her husband.
Dawson always knew that she wanted to honor her in some way and that she wanted to be a good steward of that name.
“I did research and it comes from the Kemetic language. And in that language it meant good and beautiful, but it was also their number zero,” Dawson said. “I thought it was really beautiful for us to have a space where good and beautiful could be synonymous with zero.”
Dawson shared that the most memorable experience from the crawl was seeing people who came in from Westchester or outside of the city, and were devoted to traveling from the north Bronx to Brooklyn to support these Black women-owned bookstores.
Lorenda Mable, a Bronx resident, attended the event to show her love and gratitude for bookstores.
“I remember being a child and my escape was reading books so I’m really grateful for these amazing bookstores, and I’m even more grateful that they are owned by Black women,” Mable said. “They’re very pivotal in our communities, but unfortunately they don’t get as much love and support as their white counterparts, or just those bigger bookstores.”
Mable shared that since getting a car she has been able to venture out to Brooklyn more, so she’s visited every bookstore in the crawl.
“I’ve been to Adanne a few times, she puts on a lot of amazing events. I’ve also been to the Free Black Women’s Library, that’s where I learned to play spades as a grown woman,” Mable said.
“I’ve also been to Sister’s Uptown because of this initiative. I love The Lit Bar, I buy a majority of my books from here. Also, Nefer, they just got to the Bronx but they just celebrated their one year anniversary. Yesterday was my second time,” she continued.
Mable also visited Liz’s Book Bar. She said it was interesting to learn that bookstore operating hours are affected by the businesses in the area, based on foot traffic.
Samuel Cole, visiting from Atlanta, attended the event to learn more about how these women have run successful bookstore businesses. He contemplates starting his own bookstore in the future.
“I just wanted to know about how they came to be, what their stories were, what were their motivations, what are some of the challenges and what are some of the things that bring them joy with it currently,” Cole said.
Cole said that he was intrigued by the owners’ focus on community. This was his first time visiting The Lit Bar.
“One through line was that they all love community spaces. There was one question describing a good day and a bad day as a bookseller, and one thing I noticed was that the good day all tied into community,” Cole said.
Evelyn Alvarez, a Mott Haven resident says she’s dedicated to supporting Black-owned and women-owned businesses.
“I have a commitment in my own budget to spend at least $25 at a Black women-owned bookstore every month. I’m glad that we try to do these things because people really need to know across the city where these opportunities exist to support Black businesses,” Alvarez said.
Reach Keke Grant-Floyd at kekegfreports@gmail.com. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
