Gentrification & Reclamation: A Look at Harriett’s Bookshop
The Historic Neighborhood of Fishtown is Being Aggresivly Developed
But A Simple Bookshop May Just Restore Agency to the Community
Fishtown is considered the hub of Philadelphia’s trendiest artistic and cultural pursuits. From small coffee shops to independent art galleries, to local bookstores, the neighborhood is filled with attractive, interesting, fresh businesses. Geographically, Fishtown sits right along the Delaware River and the Delaware Expressway, making it a community rich with commuters and travelers alongside its regular residents. But there’s another side to Fishtown. Named for the historic residents of the area—mostly Irish Catholic fishermen and fishmongers—Fishtown is home to a whopping 37 registered historic sites, with likely far more gone unrecognized. The dichotomy of old and new creates a palpable tension.
Approximate location of Fishtown, also known as Lower Kensington
Philly’s overall population has struggled with gentrification because of the city’s deep historical roots, and the large population of lower-income people, people of color, and queer people who are disproportionately affected by the rising costs of rent and cost of living created by gentrifying development. For many, Fishtown serves as a potent example of the effects of development, and the loss of history.
On the outskirts of Fishtown, close to Delaware, lies Harriett’s Bookshop, owned and curated by author and educator Jeannine Cook. Harriett’s promotes the voices of Black American authors, primarily women, and believes in a strong sense of activism, art, and literature. The more I learned about Fishtown, the more I realized that there couldn’t be a better place for a bookstore that so valued the cultural development of its neighborhood, and the uplifting of marginalized voices therein.
Harriett’s storefront on Girard Ave sits on the southeast side of Fishtown, close to the river. The street is rich with businesses, with a healthy mix of generational ma-and-pa businesses like plumbers and cornerstones, and trendy hotspot cafes and photography studios. The majority of the buildings along Girard Ave are small, residential apartments and townhouses, built out of brick and colorfully painted wood. The street feels older, and genuine, making Harriet’s clean, san-serifed name stand out distinctly.
So Harriett’s exists right in the crux of the two markets of Fishtown: young, hip, trendy newcomers, and the older natives of the historic land. Because of this, Harriett’s needs to find ways to toe the line, to respect history but still look forward to the future. And it does just that.
Jeannine Cook chose the name Harriett’s Bookshop to honor Harriett Tubman, an incredible abolitionist human rights activist who moved hundreds of enslaved Black Americans to freedom in the North. Cook designed Harriett’s as both a “monument to [Harriett Tubman’s] legacy and also for folks to have dialogue around important issues.” In this way, Cook has constructed a definition of place quite in the same way that Tim Cresswell does in Place: A Short Introduction. Cresswell describes the location of the Twin Towers in New York City as containing the weight and power of the events of 9/11, in the sense that events, and public perception of those events, impose an incredible amount of energy to a place. Cook has attached the emotional and historical weight of Harriett Tubman’s legacy and the power and history of Black American Women to this bookstore. She’s created a hub of social and cultural understanding and an area of conversation in a neighborhood that marginalizes Black and African American citizens.
Graphic Pulled from Claritas, Titled Population by Race and Ethnicity
Philadelphia’s racial demographic breakdown, according to Data USA, tells a story that Fishtown in particular doesn’t. Philly has a huge percentage of Black or African American residents (around 40.1%), with the remaining population primarily White (34.1%), and then Asian (7%), with 15% of the city being ethnically Hispanic. Fishtown, however, is broken down as being predominantly White, with a dwindling population of other racial groups. Cook carefully curates Harriett’s book stock to reflect living artists of color, usually women, as well as artists of the past who have been historically underrepresented. She stocks Octavia Butler, Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, and Alice Walker. Harriett’s Bookshop creates an environment that plays against the historic assumptions of elitism in bookselling that Laura Miller presents in Reluctant Capitalists. Miller writes about the transfer of agency in defining the literary cannon from elitist booksellers to the people, that the industry has transitioned to “the consumer having the right to freely choose cultural goods without interference from cultural elites.” Cook’s curation almost reflects the curation of those cultural elites from bookselling’s past, but instead seeks to center the work that those elites would not have honored, work that has gone long unrecognized, work that uplifts the people of color in the community of Harriett’s.
Additionally, Harriett’s serves a demographic of people who are slowly losing their homes by creating a new sense of home for them in the bookstore–the low-income community of Fishtown. While household incomes average high in the neighborhood, there’s a large number of people who make less than $15,000 annually, an income that is practically unliveable in Philadelphia.
Graphic pulled from Claritas titled Households by Income
Cook creates a sense of welcome and hominess in Harriett’s by having wide open spaces with comfortable seating, and always burning Frankincense to create a calm, comfortable environment that people can enjoy even if they can’t buy a book. She hosts frequent cultural events and has been known to hand out free books. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cook set up a table outside where people could purchase books on an honor system. All of these things contribute to a relationship of trust and respect between Harriett’s and the people who live in the community around the bookstore. In a neighborhood that reflects Cresswell’s darker effects of place, where older neighbors might think that “‘Our Place’ is being threatened and others have to be excluded,” Harriett’s creates a unifying, respectful, peaceful energy that relaxes tensions and relieves stress. It truly serves as an example of how a bookstore can reflect the best of a community.
“Throughout the whole process [of opening], I kept thinking, ‘What could I give people that wouldn’t cost a lot but would potentially have a positive effect on their lives? Even if they decide not to buy a book, they get the frankincense, and they remember that they can come back to this space for that vibe.” –Jeanine Cook
Works Cited:
Claritas. “Claritas.” Claritas.com, 2018, claritas360.claritas.com/mybestsegments/#zipLookup.
Cresswell, Tim. “In Place/out of Place: Geography, Ideology, and Transgression.” Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), vol. 51, no. 2, Nov. 1997, p. 138, https://doi.org/10.2307/1425455.
“Defining “Historic Fishtown.”” Hidden City Philadelphia, 17 May 2016, hiddencityphila.org/2016/05/defining-historic-fishtown/. Accessed 17 Sept. 2023.
Miller, Laura J. Reluctant Capitalists Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2014.
“Philadelphia, PA | Data USA.” Datausa.io, 2017, datausa.io/profile/geo/philadelphia-pa.
Poitevien, Jessica . “This Philadelphia Bookstore Honors Harriet Tubman’s Legacy with Literature, Art, and Activism.” Travel + Leisure, 20 Oct. 2022, www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/harrietts-bookshop-philadelphia. Accessed 17 Sept. 2023.
Sasko, Claire. “The Coolest Addition to Philly’s Indie Bookshop Scene Is Opening in Fishtown.” Philadelphia Magazine, 17 Jan. 2020, www.phillymag.com/news/2020/01/17/harrietts-bookshop-fishtown/. Accessed 17 Sept. 2023.
0 Comments