On a little swath of street in Fishtown, a Philadelphia neighborhood west of the Delaware River, hangs a black awning with the name “Harriet’s Bookshop” in stark white lettering. The letters are cut through with a machete, a symbol of Black women’s power to fight back.

(Source: “Street View of 262 E Girard Avenue.” Google Maps (n.d.). Retrieved 18 Sept. 2023 from https://maps.app.goo.gl/qpuUBV7otWLwypMN6.)

A cultural epicenter with a waterfront view, Fishtown seems attractive to both tourists and locals alike. The streets are lined with brick-and-shingle buildings that all have the signature colorful, colonial facades of independent businesses. I’d almost expect to hear the jingle of a bell and a friendly “hello” upon walking into any of them. The businesses aren’t modern, but have a down-and-dirty, hip-hop street vibe that is a breeding ground for community. And when I visited an online guide for Fishtown, the first image under the “Don’t Miss” category was the awning for Harriet’s — its description declaring it “the popular neighborhood bookstore.”

If you stand on East Gerard Avenue, you can see how the Harriet’s location, number 256, fits neatly into its area’s artsy small-town charm. Squinting into the sun, you’ll see to the left a Portuguese-inspired café and market, Gilda; a painting company, K Chow Studios; and a little farther down, the new-age boutique, Rocky’s Crystals & Minerals. To the right, there’s the “community dental practice” Fishtown dentistry and Ekta Indian Cuisine. Across the road, you’ll see the Kiddie Garden daycare center, as well as the locally-based Flannery Automotive, ICare Home Health, and Bravo Marble & Granite. On the map of E Gerard St. below, I’ve labeled Harriet’s with a fushia book icon, and some of the surrounding local businesses in blue.

On Harriet’s website, photos of the storefront, customers, staff, and historical figures appear in black-and-white, with technicolor backgrounds, in true artsy-Fishtown fashion. Women of color pose with faces that appear strong and brave, reflecting the bookstore’s values of Black feminist community and social justice. And yet, a love for the diverse and creative is not half of Harriet’s story of place.

Founder Jeannine Cook says, in the video on her website, when she first arrived in Philadelphia people told her that Fishtown “has a really sorted past, and a really sorted present.” This is because the town has a brutal history of racism, activism, and social justice, which remains unrelenting today. The site’s video shows gangs of white men with baseball bats, yelling and tearing down Black Lives Matter signs. At her location, Cook has experienced safety threats, including people standing outside the shop’s windows. That was in addition to the struggle of obtaining a lease for a physical building.

According to Niche data, the population of Fishtown — or lower Kensington — shows a predominantly white (79%) population, with an additional 10% of the population being Hispanic, 4% being African American, and 4% being Asian. With 58% of the population being between ages 25 and 44, its millennial demographic is in line with claims that “Philly’s young creative class roots itself here.” Most Fishtown residents are educated, with 28% having a master’s degree or higher, 36% having a bachelor’s degree, and 15% having some college or associate degree. It’s also a fairly wealthy area; the median income is $98, 496, with 26% earning over $150k, 36% earning between $75k and $149k, and 17% earning between $45k and $74k. The number of Black people living in Fishtown is starkly small in comparison to surrounding neighborhoods; Statistical Atlas data shows its low 3.4% demographic.

(Left: Black Population, by Neighborhood. Source: “Race and Ethnicity in Fishtown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.” Statisticalatlas.com, Cedar Lake Ventures, Inc., https://statisticalatlas.com/neighborhood/Pennsylvania/Philadelphia/Fishtown/Race-and-Ethnicity.)

But none of that hinders Harriet’s Bookshop’s value to the Philadelphia Black community. The video also shows customers gathered inside the bookshop, chatting. They spill out onto the streets, dancing and smiling as they proudly display the Harriet’s logo on T-shirts. Children hold small books, young men play the drums. “Yeah, we out here being real beautiful!” Cook cries. The scene is reminiscent of a line from Laura J. Miller’s Reluctant Capitalists: “community implies social bonds based on affective ties and mutual support” (120). Harriet’s is a prime example of a bookstore used for social purposes, uniting people together and providing a safe space for Black women and all people of color. It is a source of community, identity, and beauty. To quote one of Miller’s interviewees, customers of indie shops are “‘so relieved to come in somewhere where someone knows them and what they’re talking about'” (121). Given the racial tensions that persist in Fishtown today, the mere existence of Harriet’s Bookshop, along with its meaningful customer interaction, is a way to fight back.

Furthermore, in his “Defining Place,” Tim Cresswell writes: “Within nation-states oppressed groups attempt to assert their own identities”, and a place can be a “meaningful location” that these oppressed groups become attached to (6-7). It seems that, despite all the racism and oppression, Black patrons of Harriet’s Bookshop resist by existing. They unapologetically create a centralized community around a place, one that asserts themselves a physical and metaphorical place in the world.

Cook says, at the conclusion of her video: “I wanna make sure that a little piece of the world that I knew… doesn’t get forgotten.”

Sources

“Celebrating Women Authors, Artists, & Activists.” Our Sister Bookshops, https://www.oursisterbookshops.com/.

Cresswell, Tim. “Defining Place.” Place: a short introduction, Blackwell publishing. https://susqu.instructure.com/courses/4398/files/457830/download?download_frd=1.

“Fishtown — Lower Kensington Residents.” Niche, Niche.com Inc., 2023, https://www.niche.com/places-to-live/n/fishtown—lower-kensington-philadelphia-pa/residents/.

“Fishtown.” Visit Philadelphia, 2023, https://www.visitphilly.com/areas/philadelphia-neighborhoods/fishtown/.

Miller, Laura J. Reluctant Capitalists. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2006.

“Race and Ethnicity in Fishtown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.” Statisticalatlas.com, Cedar Lake Ventures, Inc., https://statisticalatlas.com/neighborhood/Pennsylvania/Philadelphia/Fishtown/Race-and-Ethnicity.

“Street View of 262 E Girard Avenue.” Google Maps (n.d.). Retrieved 18 Sept. 2023 from https://maps.app.goo.gl/qpuUBV7otWLwypMN6.

Vimeo. “Stories in Place: Harriet’s Bookshop.” YouTube, 11 May 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpLeVaESZn0.

(Links to neighboring businesses of Harriet’s can be found in–text.)