Long Island's only Black-owned bookstore doing brisk business in Baldwin

Claudia Haskins found out about Book Nook LI after seeing a TikTok video touting the new Baldwin bookstore on a recent Saturday morning.

That snippet, showing colorful arrays of books by authors of diverse backgrounds, inspired the Jamaica Estates, Queens, resident to check out the store a few hours later.

"It motivated me to get up. And I did my little tidying up," and drove to the store, said Haskins, who bought a book for herself and two children's books for her granddaughters.

Since Book Nook LI's opening May 2, business has been bustling, as patrons come in to buy books after seeing social media clips about the store, while some visitors just come to make videos to help spread the word about the shop, owner Marlene S. Munn said.

“A lot of people have come in here and are making videos. But we’re fine with that because you know, if just gives us more exposure,” she said.

The only Black-owned bookstore on Long Island, Book Nook LI is part of a national resurgence in Black-owned booksellers — and growth in the overall number of independent book retailers.

The increase, driven in part by consumers' desire for more book sellers with local connections, is occurring amid ecommerce giant Amazon.com's decades-long dominance in the retail book industry, experts said.

"People say this is exactly what they need, they feel it brings value to their community," Munn said of her new store.

A former high school and college educator who has taught in graduate education programs at Long Island University Brooklyn and Hofstra University, Munn and her husband, Roberto Joseph, a Hofstra professor, had been talking about opening a bookstore since 2017, she said.

The Nassau County residents put those thoughts on hold during the pandemic, but then began researching potential rental spaces about a year ago, she said.

"We understand the challenges of Long Island. It's a car community, and so we wanted to find some place that had adequate parking. So, when we saw this, we said, 'OK. Let's take the jump,' " said Munn, whose husband helps her run the store.

Located at 1205 Grand Ave. in the Fairview Shopping Center, Book Nook LI is a 1,060-square-foot store that features fiction and nonfiction books for children and adults written by authors of diverse backgrounds, but most are Black.

There are classics from Black writers, among them Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, W.E.B. Du Bois and Zora Neale Hurston, as well as contemporary works, including those from romance novelist Kennedy Ryan, lifestyle personality Tabitha Brown, personal finance expert Tiffany Aliche and socio-political writer Ta-Nehisi Coates.

During her recent visit to the store, Haskins bought "Future Millionaire: A Young Person’s Step-by-Step Guide to Making Wealth Inevitable" by Rachel Rodgers for herself, and one of the purchases for her grandchildren was a boxed set of Barbara Park's "Junie B. Jones" series.

"We have highlighted BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) authors because my background is in history. I have a lot of Black history books in here," said Munn, adding that the store also carries books targeting Baldwin's Caribbean and Latino populations.

The store's book selection also is being influenced by what patrons want to see and read, she said.

"A young boy from Rockville Centre wanted to see Greek mythology, so we did a little shelf on Greek mythology. So, we're really listening to the community. We're getting a lot of local authors, so we're trying to organize how that would work ... we want to have a couple of shelves that highlight local authors," Munn said.

She opened the shop with the hope that it would become a community resource, something she learned to value from her Jamaican immigrant parents, she said.

Munn is allowing Book Nook LI to be reserved for community workshops and book club meetings, she said.

Also, the store will hold sit-down chats with local authors, including a Wednesday visit by Hofstra Professor Kristal Brent Zook, who will discuss her book, "Tulsa Speaks: A City Council, Reparations, and Race in America Today," about the legacy of the 1921 race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

On June 20, Freeport author Kim Taylor will lead a children's storytelling hour about her book, "A Flag for Juneteenth," Munn said.

"It's not about making the money for me. ... Since being here the month, like the satisfaction that I felt, like the purpose, like that people really wanted it. They see the value. I can't even describe it. It's really very heartwarming," she said.

Shoppers 'more intentional'

The number of Black-owned bookstores has been growing in recent years as the overall number of independent book retailers increases.

Still, independent bookstores account for less than 10% of all the books sold in the nation, while more than half are sold by Amazon.com, said Jim Milliot, editorial director of Publishers Weekly, a Manhattan-based trade publication. 

Around 2000, there were about 300 Black-owned bookstores, but the number fell over a 15-year period to about 50, said Jill Gibson, CEO of the National Association of Black Bookstores, a nonprofit founded last year in Sacramento, California.

The number has risen to about 385 in recent years for several reasons, including the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in 2020 by a Minneapolis police officer, she said.

"I think people were being a lot more intentional about supporting Black-owned entities, and there was a demand for books by and about" Black people, said Gibson, who added there was more demand for spaces to have dialogues.

Also, the barriers to entry were reduced for businesses during the pandemic, when more bookstores began operating through different channels, such as pop-up shops, selling online only or running mobile stores, instead of being housed in permanent brick-and-mortar spaces, she said.

"About 36% of [Black-owned bookstores] operate without a physical space," Gibson said.

The overall number of independent bookstores is growing in part because those retailers do a better job than larger chains at community involvement and carry books the community wants, Milliot said. 

Even the nation's largest chain of brick-and-mortar bookstores, Barnes & Noble, has adopted a strategy over the past four years of letting store managers take on more responsibility for ordering books, he said.

Most of the nation's independent bookstores are members of the American Booksellers Association, a Harrison-based nonprofit, the association's CEO, Allison K. Hill, said in an email.

The nonprofit's independent bookstore members had 7,000 locations in 1994, the year before Amazon.com launched, she said. Today, there are about half as many but the numbers are growing.

The association's 3,417 independent bookstore members now have 3,783 locations, an increase of 502, or 15%, from last year.

"Many people have opened independent bookstores to meet a growing demand — more consumers want to shop in alignment with their values and buy local as part of a backlash against billionaires and algorithms. People also often open indie bookstores because they want to have work that aligns more with their values," Hill said.

Most independent book retailers reported their sales grew last year compared with 2024, she said.

"But it's also been the most challenging time in bookselling history as indie bookstores faced rising costs, supply chain issues, the labor shortage, tariffs, the impact of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] in their communities, book bans and free expression harassment, and Amazon's chokehold on the industry," she said.

Black-owned bookstores face more business challenges, such as acquiring capital, than their competitors, Gibson said.

"We know about the systemic barriers to financing, you know, whether it's about securing the space, whether it's building out, whether it's buying the inventory, the technology, what have you," said Gibson, who added that some publishers overlook Black-owned bookstores when promoting books, even when the authors are Black.

Munn declined to disclose her financial investment in Book Nook LI, but said she started the store using her personal savings and financial support from extended family.