Delano Posted September 19, 2020 Report Share Posted September 19, 2020 'A New Moment for Black Bookstores' by Eugene Holley Jr. Eugene Holley Jr. profiles four Black booksellers for Publishers Weekly in “A New Moment for Black Bookstores.” He writes the following: The publishing world has had to adapt to a business landscape that is rapidly changing as a result of the pandemic and the response to continuing police violence against unarmed Black people. The 130 Black-owned bookstores in the U.S. have had to deal with these broader challenges, as well as with cultural and economic forces that uniquely affect them. … As challenging as this period is for bookstores like Marcus Books and Turning Pages, other outlets, like Semicolon, a new bookstore in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood, are seeing growth. ‘The pandemic has actually given us a boost, because everybody started paying us more attention and found out we actually existed,’ said owner D.L. Mullen. … When Black Lives Matter and other social justice movements began to attract widespread attention, people were ordering only anti-racist titles, Mullen at Semicolon said. ‘But we made a point to introduce Black fiction to our readers,’ she added. ‘We made it a point to do that every time someone ordered an anti-racist title.’ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troy Posted September 19, 2020 Report Share Posted September 19, 2020 Yeah I experienced the surge too. New antiracist book buyer were added to my mailing list, some have bevome repeat customers. The work "moment" was a good word choice. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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