Boston Poet Laureate Porsha Olayiwola’s Bookstore Highlights Community And Marginalized Authors

Olayiwola said her vision is for justBookish to be 'a literary gathering space.'

JustBookish, an independent bookstore in Boston, is unique for a few reasons, chief among them is who is responsible for opening the bookstore in November 2024 — Boston’s poet laureate Porsha Olayiwola and her business partner, Bing Broderick.

According to The Boston Globe, the other reasons why the bookstore is unique include that in the Dorchester neighborhood it sits in, it is one of the only Black-owned bookstores in Boston and one of the only storefronts that is open in the evenings, making it an attractive working space for the city’s residents.

It is also committed to selling books by writers who are intent on challenging conventional political paradigms.

As Olayiwola discussed with the outlet, her vision is for the bookstore to function as “a literary gathering space, which means that you should theoretically be able to come in here, whether or not you can afford something, and feel comfortable.”

Part of what’s unique about justBook-ish is the team behind it: It was cofounded by the poet laureate of Boston, Porsha Olayiwola, and her business partner, Bing Broderick. And its mission is to highlight writers whose work challenges political paradigms. https://t.co/bgNMrnokDg
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) January 5, 2025

For Olayiwola, the idea for a space like justBookish came about as a matter of practicality first.

”I remember being in my home office and saying, ‘Dang, I need to have a late-night meeting with somebody, and they’re not coming to my house. Where can I walk to at 7 p.m.? Because everything’s closed near here,’” Olayiwola told the Globe.

In the three years it took to get the bookstore off the ground, the two called nearly every bookstore in Boston for tips and tricks as neither had worked in the space previously.

When they didn’t really get much traction on that front, the pair decided to turn the business into a place where the Boston community can build itself up together.

An example of the kind of community building Olayiwola is invested in was exemplified by a recent open mic event hosted by a patron of the bookstore and Boston resident Jeremiah Ancrum, which happened because he asked Olayiwola if he could do it.

“That just speaks to [Olayiwola’s] character,” Ancrum told The Boston Globe, “how well she’s able to curate with the community, find things that work for them, and even build a space for them to be felt, heard, and included.”

In truth, the business model of the company is split between a for-profit entity that focuses on food, drink, and book sales and a non-profit arm, Words As Worlds, which hosts various events including tea tastings and reading parties.

According to Broderick, that approach initially was a puzzle for the two to figure out effective fund-raising for their establishment.

“What’s complicated about our model is that we couldn’t spend nonprofit dollars in the buying of any equipment or inventory related to the sale of books or the sale of food and beverage,” Broderick told the Globe.

However, the bookstore’s ethos of putting banned books and authors on display is one that has gotten the attention of power players like Massachusetts Sen. Ayanna Pressley.

Sen. Pressley described their mission to the Boston Globe as an “affirmative statement of the power of our intellectual freedoms, the power of diverse and representative authors and stories against the backdrop of a rise of draconian actions to roll back those gains made.”

The representation of authors with what some would call provocative messaging is important to Olayiwola, the bookstore will offer workshops on publishing and selling books to aspiring authors.

This, Olayiwola said, is part of her hope to highlight marginalized authors.

“We’re hoping to highlight folks who have been traditionally marginalized,” she told the Globe.

This has resonated with patrons like Josie Hanna Colon, a 20-year-old Northeastern student who read her poems at the open mic event.

“Knowing that we have now a space where a lot of Black authors are highlighted, I think that definitely will be just a general motivator for the community to be like, ‘Hey guys, we belong in spaces like these. So come by,” Colon noted.

The sentiment of Colon is shared by Olayiwola, who told the Globe, “As soon as the doors open, it’s no longer ours. It belongs to other people.”