Books
“Our communities need to have “mom and pop” stores so we can come and still be part of the community, more so than just making millions and billions of dollars. I give back to the community; I did this not for money, I did this because the community needed to have a presence. I wanted the youth to know that “the sky’s the limit” if they want to own a bookstore, if they want to own a business they can actually do that, so I wanted that message to go out.” -Janifer Wilson (owner)
Sister’s Uptown is working hard to stand for mom and pop shops to be represented in the West Harlem community, and for that reason it has been a journey to establish relationships with a variety of publishers, varying from major publishing companies, to certain independent publishing houses and even working with self-published authors. Thanks to these relationships, the store is often able to buy and sell books wholesale and give back to the community with access to fairly priced books. The owner does mentions that she refuses to order from places such as Amazon because they are crushing the industry.
Janifer feels that people are currently looking more towards history than fiction; therefore, she sells a lot of history books. Some of the top sellers are Dr. John Henry Clark and Dr. Ben who studied the history of Egypt and how “the whole culture fits into who we are.” There are a lot of people on a quest to read this information. Joel Augustus Rogers, Kush, Michelle Alexander, Claud Anderson, and Dr. Joy Degroy are also popular. She stated that, “unlike fiction, the true essence of history is where people are today”, and she is grateful for this because this is where her part started.
Other Products
Sister’s Uptown prides themselves not only as a bookstore but as a community space, thus catering towards its customers with not only books but an eclectic variety of different products. The owner, Janifer Wilson also strongly believes in supporting locals entrepreneurs and keeping money in the neighborhood. Due to this belief the shop not only contains books, but features a collection of handmade soaps, handbags, aprons, jewelry, woodwork, art and many other local man made objects. All these products are held in the front of the shop, also known as the gift gallery. Besides containing the multitude of homemade goods, the gift gallery is adorned with an assortment of tribal decorations which Wilson retrieved from her many trips to Africa. Moving further into the store, the customer can stop at the small bar for a refreshment or snack. Finally, the back is where the majority of the books are located. The books are organized in bookshelves against the wall allowing for a large back interior open space that can be used to set up chairs in a circle or rows for the many events and book clubs the store holds.
