Today we’d like to introduce you to Cori Smith.
Hi Cori, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
As a Kansas City native, I had always found safety and comfort at the West Wyandotte Public Library. Throughout my life, my family has always supported my passion for reading and storytelling. After the pandemic hit, I began wanting to find a new way to connect and build community in a way that aligned with my own personal form of activism. So on Juneteenth of 2021, I opened the doors to BLK + BRWN with the idea and mission to amplify Black and Brown storytelling. Because our stories matter and it is way too easy to see what happens when we are censored, ignored, and put last.
The bookstore was my own version of bringing all of my favorite things into one space– art, storytelling, Blackness, and community. The store features a tech component that allowed customers to come in and scan books and get lost down rabbit holes through music, podcasts, photos, and other videos surrounding the books. We needed safe spaces to exist unapologetically and to know that we are more than our trauma, we are more than our histories, and we are art.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There have been so many overwhelmingly amazing moments that have happened for BLK + BRWN. from our grand opening and having the mayor stop through, to celebrating our one-year mark with an incredible block party, to being afforded opportunities to connect and host local and non-local authors along the way.
However, throughout those moments we ran into a few roadblocks, with the most difficult experience being that I experienced a racially-motivated zoom-jacking, and the following month the store website was hacked, ransomed for bitcoin, and then destroyed by the hackers. Which ultimately led to the current journey for us to rebuild our site and inventory to this day.
As you know, we’re big fans of BLK + BRWN. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
BLK + BRWN. exists to disrupt the normal culture of bookselling. It’s a mix-up of culture, music, art, and the art of storytelling. All books that are carried in the store are written by authors of color, locally, nationally, and internationally.
The bookstore also moonlights as a community third space for our good homies to come and hang out, connect, and find the community here or virtually. We host two book clubs– a neighborhood book club and a Black Feminist Bookclub virtually; we are steadily rebuilding our mentorship program, and our literature program for incarcerated folks, and hopefully will be launching a young readers book club, in the near future.
What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
That you can dream as big as you want– and you absolutely should. But, without the plan and the audacity — it will sit in the back of your mind until it can’t anymore. Do it afraid.
I did not think this bookstore would be “great” but, people have really rallied behind this little indie bookstore like nobody’s business. That’s what a real ecosystem looks like. So do it. It’s probably a great idea. But, just know that it will take work to dream it, do it, and maintain it. But, it is worth it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.blkbrwn.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blkbrwnkc
Image Credits
Lexi Holifield, @Perplexphotography
