From Bad Breaks to Boons

D.C.'s Sisterspace plans a comeback and other tales of black survival. By Gwendolyn E. Osborne

On the evening of July 28, a standing-room only crowd gathered at Sisterspace and Books in Washington, D.C., for a book signing. They were not there to see a hip-hop, artist-turned-writer or a best-selling author of erotica. The group had come to hear Mindy Thompson Fullilove discuss a subject many in the audience knew about first-hand.

Fullilove, professor of clinical psychiatry and public health at Columbia University and author of Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America, and What We Can Do About It (One World/Ballantine, June 2004) had come to the store in Washington's historic Cardozo/U Street neighborhood. It is a community Sisterspace's owners Faye Williams and Cassandra Burton say is under siege by developers and others who would destroy it. The bookstore is at the heart of the battle. (See BIBR, September-October 2004, MARKETBUZZ, "We Shall Not Be Moved.")

"The fight to save Sisterspace was symbolic and part of a larger struggle to prevent the dismantling of African American communities throughout the country" says Fullilove, who has researched the destruction of 1,600 communities by urban renewal.

There was a certain irony in Fullilove's visit because seven days later, U.S. Marshals carried out an eviction order against Sisterspace and Books. The contents of the store were unceremoniously placed on the sidewalk, and the business's name was removed immediately from the storefront. Supporters quickly helped collect the store's belongings from the street. Later in the day, Williams held a scheduled book signing for Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree at a D.C. law firm.

According to Williams, the eviction followed a battle for five of the seven years Sisterspace has been located in the building at 1515 U Street. Disputes involved rents, repairs and philosophies, and a failed effort to buy the building outright. Williams says it was also a fight against gentrification in the area that is driving black residents and businesses out. The building is owned by a trust that benefits an African American whose brother had maintained a business in the building, and the trust is suing for back rent, according to The Washington Post. As the dispute continued, rent had been withheld in protest of building repairs not being made and paid into escrow. In May, the D.C. Superior Court said Sisterspace had no legal right to remain in the building because it did not renew the lease when it expired last fall. Still, it seemed like an ignoble end for Sisterspace, which began as a consignment shop 10 years ago and evolved from bookstore to a community resource.

While the on-site bookstore operations on U Street have stopped, many of the community services, handled by its nonprofit arm at another location long before the eviction were, uninterrupted. (See BIBR, March-April 2001, MARKETBUZZ, "A Black Women's Oasis for Reading and Empowerment.") "Sisterspace is out, but we are not down," emphasizes Williams. "We are looking forward to celebrating our tenth anniversary the weekend of November twentieth at a new location."

While Sisterspace's ousting is the most dramatic, other black bookstores are in jeopardy. By the end of 2003, African American bookstores in Arlington, Texas; Baltimore, Detroit, Denver and Philadelphia had closed their doors. At the beginning of this year, still other black booksellers throughout the country were teetering on the brink.

Rallying Around Dallas' Black Images

All eyes are on Dallas, where after nearly three decades Emma Rodgers and Ashira Tosihwe of Black Images Book Bazaar announced in early April the bookstore might close when its lease expires in August 2005.

Black Images, founded in 1977, is the oldest black-owned bookstore in Texas. It has nurtured readers, writers and other bookstore owners. It was Rodgers who provided the inspiration for Ms. Cozy Brown, Bertice Berry's fictional bookseller in Redemption Song (Doubleday Books, January 2000). Romance Slam Jam, an annual event created by Rodgers and Tosihwe with author Francis Ray, has grown in 11 years from an afterwork event to a conference that draws participants from the United States, Canada and the Caribbean over a four-day period. Rodgers and Tosihwe's efforts have been recognized by grateful authors who have created awards in their honor.

As in the case of Sisterspace, authors, book clubs, community groups and other supporters rallied to help Black Images. In May, Ebony Dimensions Literary Review Club organized a book-a-thon to spark action from businesses, churches, community groups and black Greek-letter organizations that resulted in the second-largest sales day in Black Images's history. (The largest one-day gross came at a 1996 Pntti LaRelle book-signing event.) In July, African American romance writers in Dallas for a national convention made a concerted effort to visit Black Images to sign books. Earlier that month, a local supporter coordinated a "Buy It Out" campaign to increase sales and build upon Black Images's consumer base.

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, Desir�e 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.

[Sidebar]

Evicted in August, Sisterspace looks forward to celebrating its tenth anniversary in November in a new location.

[Author Affiliation]

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