How Bookstores Are Celebrating Juneteenth

In celebration of Juneteenth (June 19), independent bookstores have shared reading lists, dedicated displays, and special events. If you have something planned for Juneteenth this year, let ABA know.

Find resources, reading lists, and more in “Celebrating Juneteenth,” published in Bookselling This Week on June 4. And if you’re looking for bookstores to shop at, take a look at these diverse-owned ABA member stores.

Here are how some indies plan to spend the day:

• In downtown Flint, Michigan, Comma Bookstore will present the Black Buckham Juneteenth Festival.
• Bliss Books and Wine in Kansas City, Missouri, will host a Juneteenth celebration with eight other local businesses.
• Sistah Scifi will hold a Queer Afrofruturism Mini Book Festival to celebrate Pride and Juneteenth.
• Ernest and Hadley Booksellers in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, showed off a Juneteenth display for customers to browse.
• Cafe Noir in Memphis, Tennessee, is hosting a conversation with Zakiya Delila Harris, author of The Other Black Girl.
• New Dominion Bookshop in Charlottesville, Virginia, recommended reading Floyd Cooper’s picture book Juneteenth for Mazi.
• Powell’s Books announced plans to host a second annual Juneteenth day of giving, donating 10 percent of its total sales for June 19, 2021, to Black Resilience Fund, a local Black-led nonprofit organization. Powell’s is asking shoppers to join the company in commemorating Juneteenth by reflecting on ways to dismantle systemic racism in this country, and by supporting organizations in the Portland community actively doing this work.