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| Lucy Yu | |
Yu and Me Books, an independent bookstore and cafe with a focus on diverse voices, immigrant stories and the Asian diaspora, is open for business in New York City's Chinatown, NBC News reported.
Store owner Lucy Yu, who previously worked as a chemical engineer, opened the store at 44 Mulberry St. last Saturday. Yu and Me Books carries some 16,000 titles, ranging from memoirs like Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner and novels like A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza to the work of lesser known writers from Southeast Asia and Oceania. There are books for children and adults as well as a selection of graphic novels. The cafe, meanwhile, serves treats like red bean buns, sesame buns and sweet butter loaves.
"A lot of bookstores tout bestsellers," Yu told NBC News, "while Asian, Black and Latinx voices aren't amplified in the way they deserve to be."
Yu has been working toward opening Yu and Me Books for over a year. Earlier this year she created a GoFundMe campaign to help with start-up costs that has raised more than $16,000. Looking ahead, Yu plans to start hosting traditional author events as well as events with organizations like American Writers Workshop.
Despite her background in engineering she has been a lifelong bibliophile, and she always dreamed of opening a bookstore of her own "where people who look like me can walk into and think, 'I see myself on the shelves, I feel seen here.'"
Yu also called the bookstore a tribute to her mother, whose initials are 'YM'. She said: "I’m very proud of my last name and wanted to represent my mom and how proud she was of where she came from, and how our stories are still intertwined.I couldn’t have got to where I am without all the sacrifices she made.”