From bad breaks to boons: D.C.'s Sisterspace plans a comeback and other tales of black survival

Black Issues Book Review, Nov-Dec, 2004 by Gwendolyn E. Osborne

While Rodgers is grateful for the outpouring of support, she remains cautiously optimistic about the future of Black Images beyond next August. "We are still weighing our options and are taking things one day at a time," she says.

The crisis facing African American booksellers is endemic throughout the industry. According to Meg Smith, associate director of the American Booksellers Association's (ABA) Book Sense Marketing, "Independent bookstores, whether African American, other specialty or not, encounter the same challenges as other small businesses. Independent bookstores of all kinds face not only competition from big box stores and the national chains, but they may also be undercapitalized, in less than optimal locations, and without the resources to adequately market themselves in their community," Smith says the ABA does not collect information that would pinpoint the number of bookstores that have closed during 2004. However, economic problems for African American booksellers tend to be magnified because of the bookstores' dual roles. While communities are often unable to support these small businesses, they count on the jobs, programs, information, products and other services African American bookstores provide.

On the Good Foot

There were positive notes during the year. In the spring, Desiree Sanders of Afrocentric Books in Chicago was named Blackboard's "Bookseller of the Year." Sanders, who began selling books in leased space in the back of a Loop beauty supply business, moved into a larger space within DePaul University's downtown campus. Afrocentric recently opened another store in Chicago's historic Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side.

The release of former President Bill Clinton's memoir, My Life (Knopf, June 2004), was a boon for two African American booksellers--Hue-Man Bookstore in New York and Eso Won in Los Angeles. The booksellers, among those included on Clinton's national tour schedule, reaped the benefit. Thousands of copies were sold and several visitors to the stores--new and old--made other purchases.

In the Bay area, Xi Gamma Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. partnered with Marcus Books in Oakland to provide books for its "Conversations with Authors" an annual program that draws more than 350 readers.

In Florida, The Montsho Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit arm of Montsho Books in Orlando, promotes family literacy through a variety of community-based programs. Montsho's "Summer Full of Saturdays" was a well-received weekly program designed to encourage children to read and collect books. Montsho also served as the bookstore of record for the annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival and for the first Rochelle Alers's Hideaway Series retreat. The latter program drew more than 100 African American readers to Florida from as far away as California, Iowa, Nebraska and Oklahoma.

Gwendolyn E. Osborne is a contributing editor for BIBR. Osborne is the public affairs director for Illinois Institute of Technologies Downtown Campus.