by Eva Booth

As the streets filled with protesters demanding racial justice in the name of the Black Lives Matter movement, Ramunda Lark Young decided to start Mahogany Books, a bookstore by, for, and about people of the African Diaspora.

“Activism to me is taking the platform that we have and reaching back and bringing people with us,” Young said.

Young and fellow bookseller Angela Maria Spring, who is Black, shared how they use bookstores for activism in a webinar co-sponsored by the University of Maryland Center for Literary and Comparative Studies with the Georgetown Humanities Initiative on Wednesday.

Spring runs pop up bookstores in different locations. 

“People don’t know what I’m doing exactly, they think it’s just like a bookstore, and they walk in and you know they’re Black or brown, especially women, they’ll just be looking around, they’ll be picking up books,” she said.

Spring’s bookstore, too, was made to center Black people’s experience.

“When you walk in, even if you’re white, without that consideration, it’s an awakening,” she said.

She said that some white people will walk in and feel a sort of discomfort and leave, while others stay.

“Activism hinges on all of us interrogating our discomfort, you know, anytime you come across something.” she said. “I welcome anybody who is not black or brown into my space, who wants to actually be a part of the conversation.” 

She shared a memory of an elder gentleman who walked into the National Harbor store. He asked her if all of the books were written by black people, to which Spring replied yes. 

“He said, I’ve never seen this in all my life,’ he said, ‘I’m so proud of you,’” Spring said. 

For all of the positive reactions Spring gets, she faces a huge obstacle that threatens to make her bookstore impossible: Rent. She needs to worry about renting out expensive spaces, plus buying shelves, furniture, and books, she said.

For her, that obstacle is just an experiment, in which she can try to figure out how to use as little money as possible.

Young said that having a Black bookstore allows people to share their own stories “without having the white guy say ‘edit this,’ ‘take this out,’ ‘put this in.’”

“They were able to honor their own experience,” Young said.

Featured image: Ramunda Lark Young during the webinar. Photo by Eva Booth.