THIS WEEK
AFRORI BOOKS HAS FOUND FRESH AUTONOMY IN ITS NEW PREMISES
The Black Issue 2023 Bookshop Spotlight: Afrori Books
lose the shop—that’s what would reduce me to tears. I felt something was being taken away from our communit.” Bain has worked to build a bookshop where people can learn and feel supported. Customers can choose from an array of books by Black authors, selected by Bain in collaboration with publishers, and atend one of many workshops hosted by Afrori. Aſter winning Individual Bookseller of
Afrori Books ? Brighthelm Community Centre, Brighton BN1 1YD
The award-winning Brighton independent has found a new lease of life after a recent move, with more freedom to spread the word about books by Black authors and illustrators
Melina Spanoudi @mspanoudi A 24
bookshop can offer people the opportunit to connect, explore ideas and find a communit. No one under-
stands this beter than Carolynn Bain, founder of Afrori Books, a Brighton bookshop stocking titles by Black authors. “Someone asked me once what I want people to feel like when they come into the shop, and I said I want them to feel like they came into my living room,” Bain says. “We work really hard at making sure people experience Caribbean hospitalit—we make a fuss about everybody, we talk to every- body, we make people feel really welcome.” Bain opened Afrori during the pandemic, propelled by the loss of her job as an event manager, as well as by the murder of George
26th May 2023
Floyd. The bookshop recently moved to new premises in the Brighthelm Communit Centre. It was previously operating out of a building owned by the arts charit Lighthouse, when news of a rent hike threatened it with closure.
“The aim was always to create a safe space for Black people and their allies, and we’ve worked really hard at that,” Bain tells me. She adds: “People come because they feel safe here, they feel they can ask questions, that they are not going to have to deal with aggressions and racism and the things that they oſten deal with in their everyday lives. That’s why I felt it so deeply and really painfully when we thought we were going to
the Year at the British Book Awards last week, Bain said in her acceptance speech: “Black authors are doing incredible work and they deserve the platform, they deserve the acknowledgement, they deserve the space in this industry. Black people deserve to see themselves represented in books.” She adds: “A lot of the workshops we run are in answer to the problems our customers have told us they have. We run a hair education workshop because we had a white mum come in with a mixed-race child; she cried and said she did not know how to look aſter her daughter’s hair.” The anti-racist kids’ club is another workshop run by Afrori, alongside poetry and writing workshops, and safe spaces with groups in the communit. Afrori now also runs Brighton Book Festival (20th-25th June), which Bain co-founded with The Feminist Bookshop. “That was a massive shiſt for us, in terms of being taken seriously,” she tells me. I spoke to Bain at the beginning of the first full week at Afrori’s new premises. She had held a launch part at the weekend, which customers came to bringing giſts for the shop. “It felt like a housewarming,” she says, adding that many customers “feel like old friends”. The day started off with a craſt morning for families, half of whom stayed for the whole day. “They hung out in the shop, they brought lunches for their kids, stayed and enjoyed the day.”
CAROLYNN BAIN, THE NIBBIES’ INDIVIDUAL BOOKSELLER OF THE YEAR WINNER
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