Becoming Sanctuary: The History of Harriett’s Bookshop
You’re walking down the street in historic Fishtown. You’re close to the river, the smell of water and of fish which you find ironic. The buildings are old and older, you pass countless historic landmark plaques, beautiful brick buildings, neutral tones, a sea of reds and browns and whites broken up by hip and swanky start-ups you’ve seen on Instagram—juice bars and cycling gyms and fancy organic grocery stores. Snuggled on Girard Street, between two typical brick structures, is a little storefront with cool black and white lettering. It pops from the neutrals, screams to be heard and seen, shouting to you, “Harriet’s Bookshop.” Inside you might find Jeanine Cook, an activist and educator before she became a bookshop owner. Maybe she’s rearranging the gallery of book covers along the walls, adjusting the low, comfortable chairs. Maybe she’s lighting a cone of incense. This place is different.
Harriett’s sets itself apart from its landscape proudly, firmly, as if to hunker down and brace against some kind of storm. The comfort you feel is a well-constructed sense of safety, of community and sanctuary that has been deliberately built across the bookstore’s short life. Without this intense bond which seems to seep out of every corner of the bookshop, it would not have overcome the many adversities it has conquered and wears like badges of pride.
Harriet’s short history begins around 2020, when Cook began looking for a storefront to open a bookstore that specialized in Black Women writers. She settled on a property for lease in Fishtown, an almost fully white historic neighborhood of Philadelphia. Fishtown is so named for its long history as a stomping ground for white working-class immigrants, predominantly fishmongers who operated on the nearby Delaware River.
Fishtown’s demographic breakdown is 86% White, 6% Hispanic or Latino, 4% Asian, and only 3% Black or African American. This represents a whopping 39.4% relative difference of Black Americans compared to Philadelphia as a whole (Statistic Atlas). When it was decided that Harriett’s would be opening in Fishtown, many of Cook’s friends and family warned against the location. The population of white working-class Philadelphians created a challenging, combative environment for a black-owned business. Harriett’s was set to follow the path many Black-owned bookstores have walked, one that seeks to “confront white supremacy and…reveal to customers an under-acknowledged world of black history and literature, which would, in turn, fuel black communities’ pride in their selves and hunger for liberation,” (Davis). The act of constructing Harriett’s in this environment was an act of resistance, a call to arms for the black Fishtown residents who had long felt ignored. Harriett’s had to be more than a bookstore from the very beginning, it had to be a Sanctuary.
Harriet’s didn’t have much time to establish itself before meeting its first spike of adversity. Cook began renting a storefront in Fishtown in February of 2020, just 6 weeks before it was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As I’m sure you know, many, MANY businesses were drastically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. By October of 2020, 35 members of the American Booksellers Association shut down and 20% of independent bookstores across the country were in danger of closing (VOX). Many bookstores received federal and independent donations from organizations such as the Book Industry Charitable Foundation which distributed nearly $30 million during the first year of COVID.
After the lockdown, Cook took Harriett’s online and launched a campaign where customers could donate money to purchase books for essential workers in hospitals called “Essentials for Essentials”. She opened trust-based book tables outside of Harriett’s, allowing people to purchase books on a good faith principle with donation boxes. She made local news when she began riding to doorstops on horseback to deliver books purchased by neighbors. She was a cultural icon in the neighborhood of Fishtown, marking Harriett’s as a beacon for hope in a time of extreme anxiety for much of the world. For many, Harriett’s had already become a Sanctuary.
Then, In May of 2020, the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers created a huge conversation in the United States about Black oppression, systematic racism, and police brutality. Jeanine took to immediate response. On June 2nd, just down the street from Harriett’s Bookshop on Girard Ave, a group of white men armed with baseball bats began counter-protesting in an attempt to “protect police officers” during the Black Lives Matter protests. In the face of this intimidation, Harriett’s Bookshop posted a photo of Jeanine Cook kneeling in front of these protestors for nine minutes, the time that Floyd was kneeled on when he died.
In many ways, this stance setting was crucial to the success of the bookstore, crucial to its identity and its mission. Bookstores owe a certain amount of social and political stance setting to their customers. Bookstores are not like other industries of sale, “customers come to them, not to learn how many copies of a given novel have been sold before, but to talk about the novel itself— the innards of the novel—the quality of the book,” (MacLeish). With Harriett’s—a bookstore that specializes in Black Women authors, in creating conversation about the quest for equality for Black Americans—you cannot stay silent when a major conversation about Black equality is happening in the nation. With this public declaration of Harriett’s stance, once again the shop became a Sanctuary for those in need, but now it was more apparent than ever that there were going to be some neighbors that stood against Harriett’s. At around this time, Harriett’s lease was ending, and there were growing rumors that the rent would soon be increased following the surge of younger, better-off people to the neighborhood. This was a critical point of sink or swim for Harriett’s, entirely dependent on the relationship it had built with its community. And Harriett’s sure did swim.
In April of 2021, Harriett’s launched a GoFundMe campaign in the hopes of raising the money to buy the building off of their landlord. It was time for the business to expand, and they didn’t have the internal funds to make that big jump. Through the power of those community bonds that Harriett’s had created the community banded together to protect their Sanctuary. In just the first weekend of the GoFundMe being opened to the public, the community donated $75,000. Three months later they met their goal of $300,000 dollars. Harriett’s was then able to rapidly expand. By July it took up multiple floors and an outdoor patio, three times larger than the original storefront.
Unfortunately, following the new construction, Harriett’s workers began receiving anonymous threatening emails filled with racism and violence. In response, Harriett’s Instagram account posted a photo of two Caribbean women holding machetes.
The post went semi-viral, enforcing and bolstering the community of Harriett’s fans and regulars. Again, they established themselves as a safe space, a Sanctuary of power that could not be threatened.
Harriett’s demonstrates the value of strong stances and an even stronger community. They set their mission and stayed loyal to it without fault. Because of that they garnered a lasting base of supporters, fans, and patrons that not only keep the store economically afloat, but spiritually as well. As of the present here in 2023, Harriett’s is as tight knit as ever, ripe with readings, events, dance performances, a book signing and beginning to the tour of Will Smith’s memoir. Their social media pages and yelp reviews paint a picture of the continuation of their thriving community, an outpouring of love and support. Harriett’s fanbase shows no signs of slowing down, and with a community this strong, Harriett’s doesn’t either.
Works Cited
Atlas, Statistical. “The Demographic Statistical Atlas of the United States – Statistical Atlas.” Statisticalatlas.com, 2020, statisticalatlas.com/neighborhood/Pennsylvania/Philadelphia/Fishtown/Race-and-Ethnicity.
Covert, Bryce. “How Bookstores Are Weathering the Pandemic.” Vox, 25 Oct. 2020, www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/10/25/21517545/bookstores-pandemic-booksellers-closing.
Davis, Joshua. FROM HEAD SHOPS to WHOLE FOODS : The Rise and Fall of Activist Entrepreneurs. Columbia University Press, 2020.
MacLeish, Archibald. A Free Man’s Books. The Peter Pauper Press, 1942.
McCutcheon, Lauren. “How Black Bibliophile Jeannine Cook Became the Voice of Philadelphia.” The Philadelphia Citizen, 19 May 2022, thephiladelphiacitizen.org/jeannine-cook-philly/. Accessed 7 Oct. 2023.
Rebolini, Arianna. “Harriett’s Bookshop Owner Jeannine Cook Says Connection Is at the Root of Everything.” Oprah Daily, 28 Feb. 2022, www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/books/a39186848/jeannine-cook-harrietts-bookshop/. Accessed 7 Oct. 2023.
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