Black-Owned Bookstores In NYC – Blavity

New York Metropolis is a Black enterprise hub. There are actually 1000’s of Black-owned companies all through town’s 5 boroughs. Amongst these companies, you could find every thing from Black-owned eating places to actual property businesses to banks. And you could find an excellent dozen Black-owned bookstores in NYC. From Manhattan to Harlem, these bookstores are owned and lovingly operated by Black people deeply dedicated to their communities.

If you happen to’re searching for a technique to get your nonfiction and fiction fixes from native, Black-owned institutions, right here’s an inventory of bookstores within the 5 boroughs to discover.

Sister’s Uptown Bookstore & Cultural Heart

Location: 1942 Amsterdam Ave, Washington Heights, Manhattan

Established in 2000 by Janifer P. Wilson and her daughter Kori N. Wilson, this family-run bookstore serves as a cultural hub within the coronary heart of town. Sister’s Uptown Bookstore provides a various choice of books and hosts quite a few neighborhood occasions.

The Lit. Bar

Location: 131 Alexander Ave, Mott Haven, Bronx

Based by Bronx native Noëlle Santos in 2019, The Lit. Bar is the one brick-and-mortar bookstore within the Bronx. This Black-owned bookstore in NYC combines books with a wine bar, providing a novel house for literary and social gatherings.

Adanne Bookshop

Location: 115 Ralph Ave, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

Opened by Darlene Okpo in 2021, Adanne celebrates Black tradition via a curated choice of books and neighborhood occasions. The identify “Adanne” means “she is her mom’s daughter” in Igbo, honoring Okpo’s heritage.

Café con Libros

Location: 724 Prospect Place, Crown Heights, Brooklyn

Kalima DeSuze, an Afro-Latinx lady of Panamanian descent, is the girl behind Café con Libros, actually “espresso with books.” This feminist bookstore and occasional store provides an area for neighborhood engagement and literary exploration.

Cups & Books

Location: Previously 2024 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn (now on-line solely)

As soon as a comfy neighborhood bookstore and café in Flatbush, Cups & Books closed its bodily storefront in early 2025, however the story doesn’t finish there. You’ll be able to nonetheless assist this Black-owned, family-run enterprise by buying on-line via their web site.

Grandma’s Place

Location: 84 W one hundred and twentieth St, Harlem, Manhattan

Grandma’s Place is owned by retired educator Daybreak Martine, affectionately often known as “Grandma Daybreak.” This bookstore and toy store focuses on instructional books and toys for Black and brown kids.

Taylor & Co. Books

Location: 1021 Cortelyou Rd, Ditmas Park, Brooklyn

Based by former literature professor Andrew Colarusso, Taylor & Co. Books is a family-run, Black-owned bookstore in NYC. It provides new and used books, comics, and items, and hosts varied neighborhood occasions.

Lazy & Lit. Bookstore

Location: Harlem, Manhattan

Lazy & Lit sells books, notably these targeted on psychological well being, and provides on-site psychological well being providers in a relaxing and welcoming house. Guests are inspired to decelerate, decompress, and unwind with a heat drink and a superb guide. The house is designed for relaxation and reflection, turning each go to right into a second of care.

Loc’d and Lit

Location: Bronx, New York (on-line and pop-up occasions)

Triciah Claxton began Loc’d and Lit together with her childhood bestie, Alanna Lewis-Ramirez. This Black-owned, on-line bookstore has one mission: to eradicate the literacy desert within the Bronx. With just one bodily bookstore for its 1.5 million residents, the Bronx lacks alternatives for individuals to have interaction with books and literacy. Loc’d and Lit gives reasonably priced entry to books and its house owners run a literacy program inside the area people.

BEM Books & Extra

Location: Presently on-line and at pop-up occasions (bodily location opening quickly at 373 Lewis Ave, Mattress-Stuy, Brooklyn)

Based by sisters Gabrielle and Danielle Davenport, BEM Books & Extra makes a speciality of books about Black meals. It carries cookbooks, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and kids’s books, all centered on the meals and tradition of the African diaspora. They host pop-up occasions round NYC and purpose to open a bodily storefront.

Huemanbooks

Location: Floor Central Espresso at 1166 sixth Ave & 888 eighth Ave, Manhattan (pop-ups + on-line)

Huemanbooks is a Black women-owned impartial bookstore that’s redefining the literary scene in NYC. After gaining a cult following with its curated choice and pop-up activations, the model has relaunched via partnerships with Floor Central Espresso. Now you can browse Huemanbooks titles in particular person at two Midtown café places or catch one among their signature pop-ups across the metropolis.

Bronx Sure Books

Location: Cellular bookstore working all through the Bronx

Bronx Sure Books is a Black-owned cell bookstore based by LaTanya N. DeVaughn with one clear mission: to convey books on to the individuals. Working out of a retrofitted bus, this “bookstore on wheels” travels throughout Bronx neighborhoods, parking at colleges, festivals, public housing complexes, and neighborhood occasions to make literature accessible to underserved communities.