“This is why I live here.’’
That’s what Chernet Sisay told his girlfriend in late November when they attended the grand opening of justBook-ish, an independent bookstore in Fields Corner in Dorchester. He was struck by the diversity of the crowd.
“That made me a little bit emotional, that cultural melting pot,’’ Sisay, 30, recalled while at the bookstore on a recent Friday. “I think there’s something powerful about people of all walks of life coming together over a bookstore opening.’’
But it’s not just any bookstore. Part of what’s unique about justBook-ish is the team behind it: It was cofounded by the poet laureate of Boston, Porsha Olayiwola, and her business partner, Bing Broderick. And its mission is to highlight writers whose work challenges political paradigms. Olayiwola envisions it as “a literary gathering space,’’ she said, “which means that you should theoretically be able to come in here, whether or not you can afford something, and feel comfortable.’’
The only independent bookstore in Dorchester, justBook-ish is also one of just a handful of Black-owned bookstores in Boston. Located north of the elevated Red Line T tracks, the storefront stands out amid a sea of hair salons and Vietnamese restaurants along Dorchester Avenue in Boston’s Little Saigon cultural district.
The novelty of the shop is what enticed 19-year-old Fields Corner native and poet Jeremiah Ancrum to pop in one day.
“Most of the time in our community, you see a liquor store or a laundromat. So to see a bookstore that’s the first of its kind is something that I’m very proud of,’’ said Ancrum, a student at Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology.
It’s also one of the few places in the area that’s open in the evenings, an effort, said Olayiwola, to create a high-quality, aesthetically appealing “third space’’ for patrons outside of work or home.
Olayiwola met Broderick 10 years ago when he was the executive director of Haley House, a nonprofit that helps formerly incarcerated people reintegrate into outside society. The pair worked together with poet Janae Johnson to bring a poetry slam event to Haley House Bakery Cafe in Roxbury.
Broderick left Haley House in 2022 and began searching for his next act. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to do something in Dorchester,’’ where Broderick has lived for 25 years, he said.
For Olayiwola, also a Dorchester resident, the idea for the bookstore came from a practical need.
’’I remember being in my home office and saying, ‘Dang, I need to have a late-night meeting with somebody, and they’re not coming to my house. Where can I walk to at 7 p.m.? Because everything’s closed near here,’’’ she recalled.
The bookstore was three years in the making. In that time, Broderick said, he and Olayiwola called “pretty much every bookstore in Boston’’ for advice, as neither had worked in one before. Ultimately, they decided to lean into community-building.
“People do rest as a political act,’’ Olayiwola said, “but I’m arguing for leisure and fun and joy as a kind of political act.’’
That means setting the right vibe in the store. Lo-fi hip-hop and R&B plays in the background, while coffee, tea, and snacks are sold at a bar topped with potted plants. Nearby, several cushioned book nooks are tucked between wooden bookcases with street views. The space is also equipped with a sound system to support live performances.
On a recent Friday evening, justBook-ish was the setting for an open mic event, hosted by Ancrum. As sunlight dwindled, high school and college students shared poems and short stories to the rhythm of snaps from their peers. Ancrum said the event came about simply because he asked to use the space.
“That just speaks to [Olayiwola’s] character,’’ he said, “how well she’s able to curate with the community, find things that work for them, and even build a space for them to be felt, heard, and included.’’
Hosting in-person events is part of justBookish’s business model. The bookstore is home to two separate entities: a for-profit business that generates food, drink, and book sales; and a nonprofit called Words As Worlds, which puts on events such as tea tastings and reading parties.
It’s an unorthodox approach that initially created a fund-raising dilemma for the store’s founders. “What’s complicated about our model is that we couldn’t spend nonprofit dollars in the buying of any equipment or inventory related to the sale of books or the sale of food and beverage,’’ said Broderick.
The bookstore cost about $1.2 million and was financed by a combination of grants to the nonprofit from organizations such as the Boston Foundation and the Barr Foundation, Broderick said, and, on the for-profit side, from private investors, plus about $50,000 in crowdfunding to stock the shelves.
In-store titles range from nonfiction bestsellers such as “Kitchen Confidential’’ by Anthony Bourdain to Octavia Butler’s dystopian novel “Parable of the Sower’’ to locally focused texts such as 2018’s “People Before Highways’’ by MIT professor Karilyn Crockett, even manga, or Japanese graphic novels like “Shiver,’’ a collection of horror short stories written and drawn by Junji Ito. The bookshop also makes a point to sell titles that have been banned in other parts of the country or world; its bathroom is decorated with wallpaper featuring an excerpt from “The Kite Runner,’’ a photo of Alice Walker reading “The Color Purple,’’ and cover art for challenged books such as “Gender Queer,’’ “Maus,’’ and “The Alchemist.’’
The ethos at justBook-ish drew Representative Ayanna Pressley to the store’s ribbon-cutting in November. For her, the bookstore’s mission is an “affirmative statement of the power of our intellectual freedoms, the power of diverse and representative authors and stories against the backdrop of a rise of draconian actions to roll back those gains made,’’ said Pressley, who has proposed the “Books Save Lives Act’’ to combat book bans. “We need safe spaces. We need stories and authors and images that foster empathy and understanding, especially now.’’
Adding to that list of authors is another one of justBook-ish’s goals. The shop will offer workshops on publishing for aspiring writers and selling self-published books. Olayiwola said she had trouble getting her first book, “i shimmer sometimes, too,’’ published, and that with justBook-ish, “We’re hoping to highlight folks who have been traditionally marginalized.’’
The bookstore’s mission is resonating with people like Josie Hanna Colon, 20, a Northeastern University student who showed up to read her poetry at the Friday open-mic event. “Knowing that we have now a space where a lot of Black authors are highlighted, I think that definitely will be just a general motivator for the community to be like, ‘Hey guys, we belong in spaces like these. So come by.’’’
Broderick said that open invitation is working so far. “Dorchester is a very diverse neighborhood. I love the idea of mixing things up,’’ he said.
“As soon as the doors open, it’s no longer ours,’’ added Olayiwola. “It belongs to other people.’’
Dorchester’s justBook-ish is open from 2-7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
www.justbook-ish.com
Julian E.J. Sorapuru is an Arts Reporter at the Globe and can be reached at julian.sorapuru@globe.com. Follow him on X @JulianSorapuru.
