Black Readers Are Jolted by a Chain's Demise

Video

Karibu Bookstores Closes Area Stores

A glimpse inside a Karibu bookstore. Karibu, which carried a range of African American authors, announced that it will close its remaining stores in the D.C. area in the next three weeks.

» LAUNCH VIDEO PLAYER

Christopher Chambers, a Silver Spring author and Georgetown University professor who has done readings and moderated panels at Karibu, which is pronounced ka-ree-boo and means "welcome" in Swahili, said he had received more than a dozen e-mails about Karibu by yesterday morning, including one from bestselling author Walter Mosley. By the afternoon, he had 20.

Chambers said the reaction to the news of the closings was "shock."

"Some of these other stores have been hanging on by fingernails from the beginning, small storefront shops that sold incense greeting cards, figurines and books as a sideline. This was a real chain with real brick-and-mortar stores," he said.

Glover began selling African American-oriented books on black college campuses in 1992, and the following year he partnered with Sana to launch Karibu with a pushcart in Landover Mall and a kiosk in the Mall at Prince George's in Hyattsville. By 2005, when it opened its sixth store, in Baltimore, the company had more than 40 employees and sponsored hundreds of in-store and community events.

The Pentagon City store closed after Christmas. The Baltimore location, along with one in Forestville, will close Sunday. The last three outlets, in Bowie and Hyattsville and at Iverson Mall in Temple Hills, are scheduled to close Feb. 10.

When Stephanie Leonard was a youngster, her Girl Scout troop sat at Nikki Giovanni's feet as she read poems at the Karibu in the Mall at Prince George's. Leonard, now a 25-year-old residence hall director at Bowie State University, grabbed a picture book yesterday from the movie "Dreamgirls" and the book "Sex.Lies.Murder.Fame," from her favorite author, Lolita Files. "I couldn't believe it when my sister sent me the e-mail," Leonard said. "I feel like it's a death in the community."

Outside the Bowie store, a woman stopped to read the sign announcing the closing and shook her head. A bookstore closes, and suddenly there aren't enough words.

Dandrea James-Harris, an editorial assistant with Heart and Soul Magazine, said that when friends visit from her native Harlem, Karibu has always been a required stop. She carried Randall Robinson's "Quitting America" and Paul Robeson Jr.'s "A Black Way of Seeing."

She is working on a research project, and she said she buys general titles at Barnes & Noble but always bought works by black authors from Karibu.

James-Harris said she was stunned but won't lose heart.

"I'm so hopeful," she said. "I believe that we will regroup and that something like this will open."

Meanwhile, along with dozens of other customers, she scooped up titles she feared she wouldn't be able to get anywhere else. Overhead, James Brown belted out his most soulful notes -- a bookstore requiem.