Howard Family Bookstore, a bookstore, cafe, and community space, officially opened on April 25 in Detroit, Mich., Local 4 Detroit reported.
Located at 13803 Puritan Ave. in west side Detroit, Howard Family Bookstore sells general-interest titles for all ages and serves coffee, tea, and a variety of juices in its cafe. There is ample seating and a connected community garden, as well as event programming that includes reading workshops, bingo nights, poetry nights, author readings, and more.
Owner Jerjuan Howard, who previously created a neighborhood nonprofit called the Umoja Debate League, has been working to open Howard Family Bookstore for about a year and a half.
In 2024, he purchased the property at 13803 Puritan, which had been abandoned, and set to work creating a bookstore and third space for the community. Howard noted that with six schools within a mile and a half of the store, promoting literacy is one of his major goals.
"I believe that this will begin to kind of shift the culture of what this community is and how it values itself, and how it values the things that are in it," Howard told Local 4 Detroit.