A day after her performance at the Peace Ball in Washington, D.C. last week, Solange Knowles "stopped by Sankofa Video Books & Cafe, a bookstore on Georgia Avenue, to meet with her local fans and buy them 250 books," the Washingtonian reported. She announced the book giveaway on her Instagram just a few hours before it started and hundreds of people, primarily from nearby Howard University, flocked to the store.
"I think that now more than ever we have to invest in community and fellowship," she said as she greeted the crowd.
Shirikiana Gerima, a co-owner of the bookstore, said, "For Solange to feel like [Sankofa] is a touchstone for when times get challenging is rewarding for us. We hope to be the kind of place for anybody who needs to remember that what we're facing is not new, and that there are people who have stood up to harder things. They've left messages and symbols and signs about how to go about this kind of thing. They made it, and we can make it.... For her to do this in a bookstore--an intellectual space, a place where you've got to come and think and read and discuss--it was quite significant."