A Beloved Black-Owned Bookstore Is Facing Its Most Difficult Chapter Yet

HARLEM, NY — When Janifer Wilson opened Sister's Uptown Bookstore and Cultural Center in January of 2000, she had one big goal: To give children of color the gift of seeing themselves reflected in books, something she longed for as a child growing up in segregated Georgia.

Now, 25 years later, on the border of Harlem and Washington Heights, Wilson's bookstore is a full-blown cultural center and community space that hosts book clubs, workshops, readings, and supports local writers and artists by carrying their works in the shop, and more.

However, as book sales and foot traffic have slowly declined, the independent store has fallen five months behind on rent and is at risk of closing in the coming months, unless she can reach more customers and raise the funds to stay afloat, she told Patch.

According to Wilson, Sister's Uptown Bookstore's book sales have dropped since the pandemic due to economic changes, gentrification, and the pull of online book retailers like Amazon.

There are also many existential threats to the bookstore's legacy, she said.

"Our history is trying to be eradicated, between banned books and closing institutions. They are just trying to write us off, as if we don't exist or we don't belong here. So, I'm holding on — I'm holding on for dear life," Wilson, who now runs the shop with her daughter, Kori, said.

Equally as urgent, Wilson also said she fears children are not reading as much, and turning instead to their phones and tablets for entertainment, which is why she's doubling down on free events and free books for children.

At the bookstore, the long-time Harlem resident keeps free books in the front for children. It's not lucrative, but it's vital, she said.

"If you don't know from whence you came, you're going to have a difficult time moving forward into becoming who you are and finding what your purpose is," Wilson said. The bookstore's motto is 'Knowledge of the self is key to our growth.'

After much back and forth, the store now has a somewhat precarious month-to-month agreement with the owners of the building, Wilson said.

"We don't have enough online traffic or in-store traffic to pay our bills at this point, so we're trying to figure out how to move into another dimension of literacy, because the script has not been written for this era," Wilson said.

As a first crowdfunding push for the bookstore, Sister's Uptown Bookstore is hosting a summer celebration that doubles as a fundraising party on Friday, July 25, with games, live music, and bites to eat.

"I just feel like the legacy that has been built can't go away, because it's not about Janifer Wilson, it's about the community," the bookseller said, adding that she doesn't take a salary from her job — all of her profits go straight back into the bookstore.

"This is a labor of love for me."

For more information on the event and how to support Sister's Uptown Bookstore, click here.

Sister's Uptown Bookstore and Cultural Center is located at 1942 Amsterdam Ave. in Manhattan. The shop is open from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Know of a business opening or closing in Manhattan? Email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.