Black-Owned Bookstore Panel w/ Author Char Adams

MahoganyBooks is excited to host the Black-Owned Bookstore Panel w/ Author Char Adams. Char's book, celebrates the LIVING history of the black bookstore, and the power of these spaces. Featured on the panel will be amazing local black bookstore owners: Paul Coates, owner of Black Classic Press; Shirikiana Aina Gerima, owner of Sankofa Bookstore, and of course, our very own Ramunda Young, owner of MahoganyBooks.

Join us for an invigorating conversation amongst Black bookstore owners, followed by a special book signing with Char Adams. You definitely won't want to miss this! Grab a friend and come get your life at this amazing event!

A special thanks to our Planet Word partners in helping us to facilitate this event.

ABOUT THE BOOK: Black-Owned

Longtime NBC News reporter Char Adams writes a deeply compelling and rigorously reported history of Black political movements told through the lens of Black-owned bookstores, which have been centers for organizing from abolition to the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter.

In Black-Owned, Char Adams celebrates the living history of Black bookstores. Packed with stories of activism, espionage, violence, community, and perseverance, Black-Owned starts with the first Black-owned bookstore, which an abolitionist opened in New York in 1834, and after the bookshop's violent demise, Black book-lovers carried on its cause. In the twentieth century, civil rights and Black Power activists started a Black bookstore boom nationwide. Malcolm X gave speeches in front of the National Memorial African Book Store in Harlem--a place dubbed "Speakers' Corner"--and later, Black bookstores became targets of FBI agents, police, and racist vigilantes. Still, stores continued to fuel Black political movements.

Amid these struggles, bookshops were also places of celebration: Eartha Kitt and Langston Hughes held autograph parties at their local Black-owned bookstores. Maya Angelou became the face of National Black Bookstore Week. And today a new generation of Black activists is joining the radical bookstore tradition, with rapper Noname opening her Radical Hood Library in Los Angeles and several stores making national headlines when they were overwhelmed with demand in the Black Lives Matter era. As Adams makes clear, in an time of increasing repression, Black bookstores are needed now more than ever.

Full of vibrant characters and written with cinematic flair, Black-Owned is an enlightening story of community, resistance, and joy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Char Adams is a former reporter for NBC News and for People. Her writing on race and identity has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, Oprah Daily , Vice, Teen Vogue, and Bustle. She is a proud Philadelphia native and now lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Event guidelines are subject to change.

• 2:30 PM - Doors Open | 3 PM Conversation Begins
• Note: By entering the event premises, you waive all rights you may have to any claims for payment or royalties in connection with any photographs or videos taken.
• Please tag us and use #mahoganybooks, #blackbooksmatter, and #blackownedbookstorepanel on social media.

--Let's have an amazing evening,

Derrick, Ramunda & The MahoganyBooks Team

Info: Panel discussion, held in the Friedman Family Auditorium (1st floor auditorium).

Info: Char Adams will sign copies of Black-Owned, held in the Mansard Room (4th floor).

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Planet Word, 925 13th St NW, Washington, United States

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