In her new book “Prose to the People: A Celebration of Black Bookstores,” Katie Mitchell, author, bookseller and owner of online Black bookstore, Good Books ATL, which has been featured in The New York Times, NBC, NPR, and PBS, honors the powerful role Black bookstores have played in shaping literature, activism and creating community and captures the stories of these spaces and the people who’ve kept them alive.
Consisting of essays, photography and historical reflections, “Prose to the People: A Celebration of Black Bookstores” is set to be released on April 8, documenting the role of Black bookstores in literature activism and community. The book profiles over 50 bookstores, including local gem Sankofa Video, Books & Café. The book also includes a foreword from Nikki Giovanni and archival writings from Langston Hughes, amongst contributions from other acclaimed writers like Kiese Laymon.
The inspiration behind “Prose to The People: A Celebration of Black Bookstores” came from Mitchell’s love of Black bookstores. She said they’ve been pivotal and fundamental in my learning and my growth.
“I wanted to share that knowledge and have it in one volume where people can get a wide history of Black bookstores in the United States. I see them as very foundational, like Black colleges or Black churches, which have been studied, but then I found that Black bookstores are an institution that have been understudied,” Mitchell said.
The idea of the book was born in 2021. When it came to writing the book, Mitchell had to figure out what bookstores to feature. Paul Coates, founder of the Black Classic Press and father of author and Howard professor Ta-Nehisi Coates, challenged Mitchell to define what a Black bookstore truly is.
“He asked me, ‘What is a Black bookstore?’And so I told him what I thought a Black bookstore was, and he told me what he thought it was. But that really helped me whittle down who would be included in this volume.”
To her, Black-owned bookstores and Black bookstores are different.
“I make the distinction [because] sometimes you can have a Black-owned bookstore that doesn’t focus on Black literature,” she said.
To Mitchell, Black bookstores are more than places that hold books—they are living archives of Black history, culture and thought that actively shape and reflect the communities they serve.
“As an institution, the Black bookstore reflects all our character, joy, humor, tears, scars and ideas in motion. They’re all of our identities, refracted innumerable times, across millions of pages all across this nation and world. In this political climate, the Black bookstore stands as an inconvenient reminder so we never forget,” Mitchell said.
This grounded her and helped her to focus on Black bookstores that are dedicated to showcasing Black literature and thought. When it came to gathering essays and interviews for the book, Mitchell described the process as largely cold calling. While she was familiar with some contributors, such as those in Atlanta, she also relied on introductions, sometimes through Paul, to connect with others.
The book features a range of original and archival photography and ephemera, including archival writings from Langston Hughes on the significance of Black bookstores during the Harlem Renaissance. Mitchell said she let the archival material “guide her.”
“For the research part, I would find something, hit a wall and realize it was in an archive somewhere. So, I would go to New York to the Schomburg or down the street to Emory University. They have a really great archive of Black bookstore ephemera,” she said. “So it was kind of like piecing it together as I went. I didn’t have a straightforward plan, just letting the archives show me what I needed to see and then going from there.”
A key feature of this book is the foreword by Nikki Giovanni. When talking with many store owners, Mitchell noticed that almost all of them had positive stories about Nikki Giovanni’s impact on them and their businesses.
“It clicked that Nikki Giovanni should have the first word in “Prose” because she uplifted these spaces her entire career. I wanted to give her that, and she was so gracious in accepting my invitation,” Mitchell said. “As she talks about going from city to city and region to region, it was kind of what I was doing in recording this book. I was following in her footsteps in a way.”
While the book features a variety of bookstores across the country, it hits close to home by featuring Sankofa Books & Café, a cornerstone of D.C.’s Black literary and cultural ecosystem. Founded a few minutes away from campus by independent filmmakers and former Howard University professors Haile and Shirikiana Gerima in 1998, Sankofa was created with a deliberate mission: to uplift and center Black voices in literature.
But Sankofa isn’t just a local bookstore—it has a national and global presence.
“We really are in this exclusive club,” Yonathan Mengistu, buyer manager at Sankofa says, referring to the Black-owned bookstores making up only 6% of independent book stores in the US.
According to Mengistu, Sankofa exists in resistance to gentrification and what Mengistu calls the plague of anti-intellectualism.
“A lot of times, literature doesn’t speak to the empowering of our humanity,” he said. “[Sankofa aims to] acknowledge the things that are going on and discuss those things, with the thought in mind that we’re gonna work in a very explicit fashion to change these things as best as we can. Simply existing first and foremost is one of the more important things. But beyond that, existing in a way in which people can walk in and walk out feeling empowered, I think, is very important.”
But running a Black bookstore in D.C. comes with its challenges.
“Your property taxes are higher, resources are hard to access and you’re fighting just to exist,” Mengistu said.
Despite these challenges, Sankofa remains deeply connected to Howard and the broader Black community in D.C. The bookstore functions as a space for fellowship, particularly for Howard students.
“We represent the city in terms of its Black character. It’s a difficult thing to maintain, but it’s necessary,” he said. “One of the most important things is that there needs to be a space where people can come together. We wouldn’t be the success we are without that support, and we do our best to reciprocate that.”
Being featured in “Prose to the People: A Celebration of Black Bookstores” only reaffirms Sankofa’s significance.
“It feels like kinship,” Mengistu said. “Because you know what they go through. The acknowledgment of what we’re doing, seeing that we are part of a long legacy, it was an honor. Given all the challenges—urban renewal, surveillance, gentrification—it’s important that our story is chronicled.”
While Mitchell spent time in D.C., she often found herself on campus, spending many Sundays in Chapel before walking across the street to Sankofa.
“I love how independent they are and how grounded they are in their politics,” Mitchell said.
Haile Gerima made sure that “Prose to the People: A Celebration of Black Bookstores” included Hodari Abdul-Ali, owner of Pyramid Bookstore, Howard alum and former Hilltop editor. The text pays homage to him and his work in a profile titled “From the Hilltop to the Pyramids.”
The connection between Sankofa and Pyramid Bookstore exemplifies one of the surprises that Mitchell found while writing the book.
“I didn’t expect how connected the bookstores are. Once you’re in the archives, it’s kind of like a big family tree of bookstores helping each other out,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell also didn’t expect the relationships she built with the bookstore owners.
“It’s weird because like now all my best friends are in their 80s. These bookstore owners that I, you know, talk to about the book, but it’s like, ‘Oh, I actually really like you and now we’re friends.’”
These connections have grown beyond the pages of the book, shaping real relationships that extend into life’s most personal moments.
“There’s been funerals I have attended because of the book. There was a man named Edward Vaughn. He had a bookstore in Detroit called Vaughn’s and he spent his last years in Atlanta. He passed away last year and I found myself at his funeral because of this book,” Mitchell said. “And it’s just something that you don’t expect as someone writing a book. You’re like, okay, ‘I’m going to get the story and I’m going to go about my life,’ but it didn’t happen that way.”
Mitchell hopes that readers take away that “Prose” is a book that exemplifies that connection and celebrates community.
“Black bookstores in the United States are truly a staple and they’ve been at the vanguard of a lot of movements from the abolitionist movement, civil rights, Black arts and now the movement for Black lives,” Mitchell said.
The book is also a call to action to readers to support Black bookstores by being patrons, and having them integrated into their lives. This will help them mitigate many of the challenges that Black bookstores face, which, according to Mitchell, are, “gentrification and financial challenges, stemming from being independent and self-funded.”
Mitchell sees herself continuing this work by exploring Black bookstores abroad, but for now she hopes that Black bookstores, particularly in the States, “continue to be these communal spaces where people are learning and growing together, and are able to change society, change the world, but also change within themselves.”
To celebrate, Mitchell will host release parties in Atlanta on April 8 and one in D.C. on April 12 at Politics and Prose, featuring a conversation with Glory Edim, the founder of Well-Read Black Girl. The book is currently available for pre-order within an incentive — a free pin that reads: Prose to the People.
Copy edited by Anijah Franklin
