Finding a bookstore that isn’t just pushing the eurocentric agenda is hard work but back in 1997 rappers Talib Kweli and Mos Def AKA Yasiin Bey had a vision. The put a ton of their own cash into Nkiru Books when they purchased it off of it’s previous owner (who had been running it since 1976). It was Brooklyn’s oldest amd maybe only black bookstore. Despite operating as a non-profit with a creative community space things couldn’t last forever. Sadly the project didn’t survive in it’s physical location BUT there is now great news!!!!

Talib Kweli took to Facebook to make an announcement. He wrote:

In 1997 myself & my partner in rhyme Mos Def AKA Yasiin Bey poured our rap money into Nkiru Books, Brooklyn’s first black bookstore, where I was also an employee at the time of Black Star’s release. Our community continues to need multicultural education and even though we weren’t able to save Nkiru’s location, we were able to hell it’s legacy thrive. Now in 2015/16 you would be hard pressed to find a bookstore that is not dominated by Eurocentric ideals about what is important culturally and historically. It is because of that I’ve decided to reignite Nkiru Books online. I’ve started modestly, for now it’s a part of my online store Kweliclub.com but I had to start somewhere! If literature, education, history and culture are important to you, please visit the Nkiru Books section of Kweliclub.com. Right now we have books that I’ve hand selected, but we hope to expand and have as many titles as possible. Soon. I promise however, we currently have something for everybody. One love!

You can visit the store and get ahold of some of this knowledge here: http://kweliclub.com/collections/book-store