In Brooklyn, a New Home for Food Books From the Black Diaspora
The sisters behind BEM have been waiting a long time to have keys in hand. After years of searching and several false starts, Gabrielle and Danielle Davenport are working to build a storefront for food literature of the African diaspora in Bed-Stuy.
'People have told us very explicitly, We need this ,' Danielle says.
The duo first launched BEM in 2021, selling books through their online shop and hosting pop-ups. Earlier this month, they announced they finally signed a lease at 373 Lewis Avenue, at Macon Street.
According to Danielle, BEM's buyer, the bookstore selection will continue its mission of exploring cookbooks as well as literature in which 'food shows up in big and interesting and rich ways.' All stocked titles are written by Black authors and feature some aspect of food.
BEM has already carved a reputation as a valued resource. Aside from cookbooks like the Edna Lewis Cookbook , and newer releases like Crystal Wilkinson's Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts , BEM highlights books like Toni Morrison's Beloved , in which biscuits feature prominently, and Francesca Ekwuyasi's Butter Honey Pig Bread , which recounts the task of baking a cake in lyrical prose. Ntozake Shange's If I Can Cook/You Know God Can , which pushed Gabrielle to pursue Black food writing, was essential, too.
Though BEM has taken different forms, the sisters always envisioned it as a neighborhood bookstore. Its name is a riff on their grandmothers' initials. The sisters first made a business plan for BEM in September 2019 as part of the Brooklyn Public Library's PowerUP program. The pandemic forced them to launch online-only in January 2021, despite their having little interest in e-commerce. (It was, in a way, a follow-up to a previous endeavor: The sisters knitted and sold scarves on Etsy.)
Over time, BEM started doing longer-term pop-ups and book events that enmeshed the sisters within the food and literary scene. In 2023, Cherry Bombe included the sisters in its Future of Food 50.
It's been a winding path for the sisters, who are seven years apart. Danielle is an actor and writer who has tutored, translated, and worked in restaurants. Gabrielle has been a curator and booker for public institutions and festivals. Danielle spent much of her upbringing in New Jersey, while Gabrielle grew up mostly in California. But after Danielle came to New York to go to Barnard, Gabrielle later followed suit, matriculating at her college.
They always talked about going into business together, and eventually, they both decided to move to Bed-Stuy. Finding that their conversations so often came back to what they were eating and what they were reading, the sisters decided to pursue that intersection. Though many culinary bookstores exist, such as Archestratus and Kitchen Arts & Letters in New York, 'we were like, why are there no Black food bookstores? ' Gabrielle says. They wanted to honor the Black communities and immigrant communities that have shaped Bed-Stuy, particularly in the shadow of gentrification in the neighborhood.
When the store opens this fall — ideally, in time for the season's book releases — it'll make for an especially literary corner; the public library is across the street.
The sisters eyed the space for the past couple of years. It was previously home to Skål, a Danish and Colombian cafe that closed in 2022. When the owner wouldn't rent it, however, the sisters had to look elsewhere. In 2024, they considered another storefront in the neighborhood, which pushed them to create a Kickstarter campaign through which 645 backers pledged over $75,000.
When that location proved not the right fit, the sisters spent months trying to buy 373 Lewis Avenue through a Small Business Administration loan, only for the seller to have a change of heart. It wasn't a total dead end, of course: The sisters were offered a lease instead.
They held out for a reason: A wall of floor-to-ceiling windows floods the spacious room with light, with room for seating outside. At the back of the room is a generously-sized kitchen and a bar counter.
The Davenports' dream is for BEM to be an all-day destination where people stop for coffee and a pastry before grabbing the bus, caregivers drop by with kids for after-school snack plates, chefs host supper clubs and teach cooking classes, scholars research from an archive of Black culinary books, and authors celebrate book launches.
The publishing industry may always be a risk, but the sisters have proven that there's demand for a place like BEM. And the timing seems right: BEM will join an influx of new bookstore cafes across the borough, most recently including Liz's Book Bar in Carroll Gardens and the forthcoming Bushwick outpost of the East Village's Book Club Bar.
To Danielle, the silver lining of all this waiting is that they've had time to build up a community, some of whom are already asking about hosting their events at BEM. This weekend, BEM will collaborate on a Juneteenth event with Nicole Taylor, author of Watermelon & Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations .
The sisters think back on the bookstores that shaped them. For Gabrielle, the tall shelves at the creaky-floored Walden Pond Books in Oakland offered the comforting feeling of 'being enveloped.' For Danielle, Denver's Tattered Cover provided a sense of solace during what she calls a 'weird time' in her life.
'There's just so much energy around stories,' she says. They hope to imbue BEM with similar qualities. 'We talk a lot about it being a place for discovery,' Danielle says.
'And I hope it's fun,' Gabrielle adds. 'I hope people come here on a Thursday night to get a drink with a friend, just because it's a nice place to hang out.' See More:
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