A Brooklyn bookstore that once anchored Fort Greene's literary and activist life is back, this time as an online shop, relaunched by Talib Kweli Greene's daughter nearly five decades after its founding. Nkiru Bookstore's second act was celebrated Sunday at Erzulie Care in Bed-Stuy, where 27-year-old Diani Eshe Greene unveiled her reintroduction of the store her family has shepherded across generations.
Nkiru traces back to 1976, when it was founded by Leothy Miller Owens, according to BKReader. The store became a gathering place for bibliophiles, Black intellectuals, community organizers and poets, and its final physical address was 732 Washington Avenue in Fort Greene. Accounts differ on exactly when ownership changed hands: BKReader reports that Talib Kweli and Mos Def purchased the shop in 1998 through a major fundraising effort, while a 2016 report from DNAinfo states that Kweli, then a Nkiru employee, bought out the shop with his friend and fellow artist Mos Def in 1997.
Whichever year marked the handoff, the shop's run as a physical storefront ultimately lasted about 26 years from its 1976 founding, closing in 2002 after roughly four or five years under Kweli and Mos Def's ownership. After the Washington Avenue doors shut, Nkiru continued in a different form as the Nkiru Center for Education and Culture, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting literacy and multicultural awareness among people of color, per the same BKReader account.
A Legacy Picked Back Up
Diani Eshe Greene, identified by BKReader as Talib Kweli Greene's daughter, is the one carrying that mission forward now, framing the store's new online presence as a continuation of bringing Black literature, ideas and community together. “I feel extremely fulfilled to be able to put this together and continue the legacy of my dad, my grandmother and Leothy Miller,” Greene said, according to the outlet's report.
Sunday's celebration at Erzulie Care doubled as both a relaunch party and a family affair. Kweli served as DJ while his daughter took on hosting and MC duties, the same report notes. The event also featured speakers A.I. Skills, Punchline, Rasheed Chappell and Jessica Care Moore, alongside live performances from HRLUM, David Jame$, Wiki and Greene herself.
Tables at the event were stacked with works by Black authors, including Bolu Babalola's “Honey and Spice,” Mikki Kendall's “Hood Feminism,” Tamik Hall's “Black Mixcellence,” Alice Walker's “The Color Purple” and MK Asante's “Buck.”
Watching a Daughter Lead
For Kweli, the scene carried an unmistakable sense of déjà vu, albeit a polished one. “This event that Diani put on looks like what I used to put on but leveled up, just 2.0,” he said, describing a mix of emotions as he watched his daughter take the lead and adding that he loves how she pays it forward.
Greene, for her part, framed the revival as a response to the moment technology has created for readers. She said books serve as a counterbalance to the overuse of AI, and that she loves bringing the community together for something positive, calling it powerful in this age.
A Store That Has Been Reborn Before
This is not the first time Nkiru's name has resurfaced since the Fort Greene storefront closed. In a December 27, 2015 post, Kweli said he had reopened the shop online only for the time being, according to the same DNAinfo article. Around that period, The Village Voice also chronicled the effort, reporting that the bookstore had been unable to contend with skyrocketing rents and the notoriously difficult book industry, and that Kweli was once again attempting to resurrect its spirit by selling a selection of texts by Black authors and poets online, per The Village Voice.
A decade later, it is the next generation steering that same mission, with Greene's Sunday celebration suggesting the Nkiru name still carries weight for the Brooklyn community that gathered to see it return.
