Cook’s Activism at Philly Bookshop

been written yet, then you must write it.” There was a bookstore that I needed that I hadn’t found, so I decided I was the one to make it a reality. I see it as a spiritual sanctuary, a facilitative space where people can congregate and find communion. The decision to do this under the name of Harriet Tubman was about celebrating Black women specifically.

What was lockdown like for you as someone who had just opened a business?

In general it has been a lesson in how to pivot, how to be in the present and not think too much about the future or the past, because I don’t have those answers. I have what I have today, and I have to figure out how to make it work.

How are you and Harriett’s connecting with the Black Lives Matter movement?

There’s no way we do the work we’re doing under the name of Harriet Tubman without being on the ground. I think Harriet Tubman is the ultimate in terms of how to do liberation work. At the protests we’ve been giving out an organizing skills guide and Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown. If you want to distribute books, if you want to make that part of your protest, reach out to us by e-mail. We have books that we can potentially send you.

Is there any one book you find yourself returning to often during times like these? What I really don’t want to see happen is for us to commodify this movement and make it seem like if you read these “top five books” you now understand racism and you have the tools you need to undo it. It just doesn’t work that way. I’ve been suggesting books that aren’t on those lists—fiction, novels, poetry. One book that I keep returning to is Beloved by Toni Morrison. What she does in that book by asking the question “Would you prefer slavery or death?” is so profound. It makes the meaning of freedom much clearer.