Comma Bookstore’s focus is BIPOC culture

Featured photo: Flint native Egypt Otis of Comma Bookstore & Social Hub

Written by L.M. Land

Comma Bookstore and Social Hub specializes in BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) literature and books by local authors like Connor Coyne. There is also BIPOC art, products of interest, musicians, open mic nights and other events as well. Currently, you can preorder the book ‘Worthy’ by Jada Pinkett Smith in the store or online.

Flint native Egypt Otis opened Comma Bookstore & Social Hub in 2020, during the pandemic. Her bookstore was not opened on a whim. It was born of deep thought, life experience and hope of positivity for the future. She hopes to “empower our community through literacy, programming and culture-focused events that enrich and impact lives”.

Otis’ journey to opening day is inspirational.

“I had an interest in opening a bookstore for some time, and that idea came from a myriad of experiences,” she explained. “I was a reluctant reader growing up. And I think that the perception that people have about bookstore owners is that we had fostered this love of reading from a young age, and that is not my story.

“I always say that books saved my life and that’s because I grew up in a pretty precarious environment and access to books and reading was something that I unfortunately didn’t have,” Otis continued. “I was actually an adult when I was introduced to Black culture and the power that books had. A woman, a mentor, introduced these ideas to me.

Otis added: “I was a high school dropout too. I was expelled from high school, and I was very apathetic about my education. And what she did, this mentor of mine, she represented what could be possible for somebody growing up in my circumstances.  She came from similar experiences that I did, which is why representation is so important to me, which is why the bookstore is really centered around representation. Access to positive self-imaging helps young people develop a sense of purpose. And that’s what books did for me, [my mentor] gave me purpose. And so I was reading book after book after book, and I just really found myself in these books.”

Books opened up a new world for Otis, transforming her “ability to connect with different people from different cultures, because I didn’t have money like that to travel.”

“But I felt like I could grab a book and that was my plane ticket. I got to learn about African culture and narratives and stories from the like-minded. I was able to connect with groups like the Black Panther Party, which is the center of all the organizing work that I’ve done.

“And it actually catapulted me into social justice work, and I started to work as a community organizer and I tackled civil rights issues, labor. I was able to combine my personal experiences growing up in a devastated area, writing with economic disparities and violence and substance abuse. And I was able to, you know, make an educated analysis on it because of the books that I was reading.”

Books inspired Otis to attend college and get a bachelor’s degree in political science.

“And it was my education, my experience and my activism that made me interested in bookstores. I would go and visit different bookstores in different communities. And I always figured, why don’t we have a Black bookstore in Flint?  We need something that combined our culture and our lives and our narrative and art.

“I was able to combine my social justice work, my personal experience of lack of access to inclusive literature and the work that I’ve done as an organizer into one space. It was during COVID and there was so much political distress going on at that time and just loss.

“I lost my job actually as a result of COVID. And I was able to reflect on what I really wanted to do with my life. And I thought, I’m going to take a risk and I’m going to bet on myself. And I was able to start the bookstore using crowdfunding money, and I raised about $20,000, which I was totally not expecting.  And so here we are now, three years later. “

BIPOC bookstores are under threat in the current political and social climate of censorship and increasing racism.

“I would say that it’s extremely important right now to support independent bookstores, especially ones that carry or that specialize in Black and Brown literature. There’s a lot of politicization going on with books and our school systems. Our legislators have to take more of an active role in your child’s education and see what’s actually happening with these book bans and with these critical race theory bans.

We should also “support the bookstore community because we are the ones on the front lines trying to combat the systemic issues and pressures by making sure that we’re speaking up at our school board meetings, talking to policy makers, supporting teachers and educators. But we need the support of the community so we can continue doing the work that we were doing, since so many bookstores are now closed.

“There’s a lot going on right now with gentrification. And just I’ve seen a fellow bookstore owner receive death threats because she’s carrying LGBTQ plus literature and she has Black Lives Matter signs. You know, she is an ally. It takes a lot of courage to do this work. And it you know, it’s like a bookstore, what’s so scary about that?

“People are threatened by truth. They’re trying to censor our sense of stories and narratives that are in constant threat of erasure.

“So I would say support us. We’re here and we’re trying to fight the good fight, but we can’t do it alone and make sure that you’re playing active role in making sure that our liberties are not being taken away. Like, be perceptive. What’s going on around you? It’s scary what’s going on even here. And I talk about it all of the time, this is a national issue.

“This is also a local issue.”  Otis explained that “The Africana studies major no longer exists at U of  M-Flint. The liberal arts department in general is being defunded because they want to change U of M to be another Kettering. They want to focus on manufacturing and tech. And I’m like, hello, this is the time when we need the thinkers, we need the creatives right now, we need the artists, we need liberal arts majors.

“There is stuff going on with the Davison School district with book bans. I mean, there’s a lot happening in Flint and Genesee County in general.  It’s happening nationally. I’m trying to do what I can, but it’s scary.”