Gladys Books & Wine, a Black lesbian-owned bookstore and wine lounge, opened earlier this month in Brooklyn, N.Y., the New York Times reported.
Located at 306 Malcolm X Blvd. in Brooklyn's Bed-Stuy neighborhood, the bookstore focuses on Black queer femme culture and serves coffee, tea, and wine. Owner Tiffany Dockery and her team have a suite of events planned that include poetry readings, game nights, short film screenings, writing workshops, and more.
Before deciding to open Gladys Books & Wine, Dockery worked in tech. She was already feeling burned out with that career when she was let go from her job at Google in September 2024. She told the Times that it "felt like God was saying, 'All right, at what point are you going to actually do something that you believe in?' "
A lover of books and bookstores, Dockery decided to take the plunge and open a bookstore and wine bar meant to be a gathering place and safe space for Black women and lesbians. She named the bookstore after her grandmother Gladys, whose home was Dockery's "first safe space."
The Times noted that the opening of Gladys Books & Wine comes amid a period of gentrification for Bed-Stuy that has seen the percentage of Black residents drop from about 75% to 40%. On the bookstore's website, Dockery wrote: "Like my grandmother, Bed-Stuy has held me, taught me, and reminded me that--as Nikki Giovanni said--'Black love is Black wealth.' "
Gladys Books & Wine had a soft opening in late August followed by a grand opening on September 6. The grand opening celebration featured a storytime session and other family-focused activities in the morning followed by an afternoon tea time, an event with Briona Simone Jones, editor of the Mouths of Rain anthology, an opening toast, and music and dancing with a local DJ.
"The amount of Black women who said 'Thank you' and 'I'm proud of you' to me felt like the ultimate payoff," Dockery told the Times. "It genuinely felt like my grandmother speaking to me through them."