Black English Bookstore will hold its community grand opening on December 2 at 401 E. Oak Ave., Tampa, Fla. Spectrum Bay News 9 reported that the bookshop "is the brainchild of Tampa City Council member Gwen Henderson. It's an idea Henderson came up with when she realized the need for more representation in showcasing Black literature."
"Ninety-eight percent of the books are African American or Black-authored books," Henderson said of her bookstore. "People are going to enter this store maybe thinking about a book and then taking other books into consideration that they haven't thought about, which all is housed in one location."
She added that this was all part of her plan when she dreamed up Black English Bookstore in Tampa Heights: "I am an educator, so everything I do is gonna stem from that background even in city council. I come from a teacher's perspective. And so the programming that exists for this bookstore is designed that way for our organizations to be the driving force behind children entering this space or books being taken to them."
Henderson took the idea of opening a bookshop to her students in a high school entrepreneurship class. "I decided, 'Let me do the assignment with you all and I'm gonna create a bookstore,' " she recalled. "So I pitched my store to teenagers. And that's kinda scary, girl, because they have an opinion."
The name of the store came to her while she was reading the essay "If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?" by James Baldwin and thought: "Oh my gosh, the name of my bookstore is Black English."
Banned books do not exist in her shop, she noted: "I don't have to play a narrative that someone else has decided this book is not worthy. And it's just so sad, especially when you look at the choices. There's some tough books out there and parents should know what their children are reading, but banning a book about 'I love my hair' is ridiculous."
Everyone is welcome at Black English bookstore, Henderson said, especially those who are curious and want to support an indie bookstore: "I'm building the store that I want to go to."