{"id":184633,"date":"2026-04-03T17:03:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/184633\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T17:03:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:03:33","slug":"black-women-bookstore-owners-gather-at-the-lit-bar-to-celebrate-their-inaugural-bookstore-crawl-bronx-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/184633\/","title":{"rendered":"Black women bookstore owners gather at The Lit Bar to celebrate their inaugural bookstore crawl \u2013 Bronx Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Black women bookstore owners congregated at The Lit Bar<\/a> in Mott Haven for a panel discussion closing out their inaugural bookstore crawl this past weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bookstore crawl featured 10 Black women-owned bookstores in Brooklyn and the Bronx. No\u00eblle Brown, the owner of The Lit Bar and one of the participating bookstores in the crawl, hosted the panel in her own space.<\/p>\n

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.\n<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 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\u2019m honored to be one of the vessels seated in the Bronx,\u201d Brown said during the discussion.<\/p>\n

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.\n<\/p>\n

The Little Bookshop<\/a> 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d Ashley said. \u201cI wish I had set myself up knowing [to] pace yourself, find the pockets to have rest because it\u2019s going to be a long haul, not just a sprint.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary, Ashley\u2019s mother, shared that books and libraries have always been a safe space for her since childhood.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted a bookshop. I\u2019ve always wanted to be around books. I don\u2019t 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 \u2018You got the means \u2014 you better do it,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Sister duo Danielle and Gabrielle Davenport started BEM Books and More<\/a> in Bed-Stuy back in 2021 with the mission of celebrating Black food and Black books.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After years of doing popups across the city and partnering with different organizations, BEM opened their doors in October 2025.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like to say we focus on global Black storytelling and foodways. For us, it was really a matter of thinking so there\u2019s 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?\u201d Danielle said.<\/p>\n

She added that there is a lot that connects people across the diaspora, but a lot of that gets painted over.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cTo 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.\u201d
\n\"\"Darlene Okpo, one of the moderators and owner of Adanne Bookstore, answering one of the audience questions. Photo by Keke Grant-Floyd.\n<\/p>\n

Maura Cheeks owns Liz\u2019s Book Bar<\/a>, named after her late grandmother, in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy grandmother always taught me that really beautiful connections can happen when you meet strangers and when you open up to people you don\u2019t know,\u201d Cheeks said. \u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Darlene Okpo, the owner of Adanne Bookshop<\/a> in Bushwick, moderated the panel for the evening. Tiffany Dockery of Gladys Books & Wine<\/a>, a Black Lesbian bookstore and wine bar, in Bed-Stuy proposed the bookstore crawl idea to her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was originally supposed to be for Black History Month in February, but there wasn\u2019t enough time for planning so they decided to do it during Women\u2019s History Month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tiffany and Darlene reached out to the other bookstores and they all agreed to do it.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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 \u2014 like printing bags, so it was a lot to do,\u201d Okpo said.<\/p>\n

Despite the time crunch, Okpo wanted people to understand what it means to collectively collaborate and show how small businesses can work together.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd 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,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd to inspire anybody else who wants to open up a bookstore and be real honest about it, like this is not a glamorous thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tiffany Dockery told the Bronx Times that she knew this crawl could be successful because of the collective power of Black women.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI want Black women to have the same class allegiance that billionaires have. I just think that we are stronger together,\u201d Dockery said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

As a bookstore owner, she understands the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I know that entrepreneurship is lonely, it\u2019s 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,\u201d Dockery said.<\/p>\n

For future bookstore crawls, Dockery would like to be able to reach more people throughout the city.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d she said. \u201cI think there\u2019s something about creating an ecosystem, and ecosystems require enablement which means that you take away barriers, and a barrier is transportation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lonna Dawson, owner of Nefer Bookcafe<\/a> in Wakefield shared her mission for her bookstore.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 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,\u201d Dawson said.<\/p>\n

The inspiration behind the name of the bookstore is primarily from her seventh grade English teacher, Mrs. Anderson, who was nicknamed \u201cNefer\u201d by her husband.<\/p>\n

Dawson always knew that she wanted to honor her in some way and that she wanted to be a good steward of that name.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d Dawson said. \u201cI thought it was really beautiful for us to have a space where good and beautiful could be synonymous with zero.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ashley answering one of the audience questions. From left to right: Ashley, No\u00eblle, Danielle, Lonna, Maura, and Tiffany. Photo by Keke Grant-Floyd<\/p>\n

Lorenda Mable, a Bronx resident, attended the event to show her love and gratitude for bookstores.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember being a child and my escape was reading books so I\u2019m really grateful for these amazing bookstores, and I\u2019m even more grateful that they are owned by Black women,\u201d Mable said. \u201cThey\u2019re very pivotal in our communities, but unfortunately they don\u2019t get as much love and support as their white counterparts, or just those bigger bookstores.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mable shared that since getting a car she has been able to venture out to Brooklyn more, so she\u2019s visited every bookstore in the crawl.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been to Adanne a few times, she puts on a lot of amazing events. I\u2019ve also been to the Free Black Women\u2019s Library, that\u2019s where I learned to play spades as a grown woman,\u201d Mable said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve also been to Sister\u2019s 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,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

Mable also visited Liz\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d Cole said.<\/p>\n

Cole said that he was intrigued by the owners\u2019 focus on community. This was his first time visiting The Lit Bar.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOne 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,\u201d Cole said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Evelyn Alvarez, a Mott Haven resident says she\u2019s dedicated to supporting Black-owned and women-owned businesses.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a commitment in my own budget to spend at least $25 at a Black women-owned bookstore every month. I\u2019m 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,\u201d Alvarez said.<\/p>\n

Reach Keke Grant-Floyd at kekegfreports@gmail.com<\/a>. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> and follow us on Twitter<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>!<\/p>\n