Fresh Lit. Nourishing Goods.
WHO MADE THE POTATO SALAD?

Black, woman-owned bookshop powered by Black food.

WHO WE ARE

Red Rice Books is a bookshop dedicated to curating the best texts and merchandise from the African Diaspora. We aim to showcase the power of people-centered literary and cultural production by promoting Black food culture while celebrating small Black publishing presses and businesses to our global community of readers.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

  • ★
    We serve (embrace) inclusive Blackness and the diversity of Black identities worldwide in such a way that protects, respects, and is sensitive to the dignity of all Black people and opposes anti-Blackness in all of its forms.
  • ★★
    We serve commitments to environmentally sustainable business practices and strive to limit the negative impacts of environmental racism on Black people worldwide.  
  • ★★★
    We serve an active community rooted in the enduring tradition of the pan-African struggle for freedom and strive to contribute to that enduring journey/ movement towards freedom.
  • ★★★★
    We serve an intentional platform for Black people to tell their stories and create their  present and future realities by promoting authors, illustrators, publishers, presses, artisans and creatives from our communities with the knowledge that we often rely on a broader community to make this possible.
  • ★★★★★
    We serve dynamic literary experiences and exploration by critically engaging with ideas, words, and each other, namely around Black food justice, sovereignty, and traditions--we leverage literature to better the world.

OUR STORY

This bookstore was founded by two Black women from the South. KG was born and raised in Charlotte, NC and Vanessa is from Jacksonville, Florida. We’ve both lived in all parts of the east coast of the United States and now we are striving to take our influence elsewhere. What better way than through African Diaspora literature and goods?! 

Why RRB? Why now?

From KG 
As a child, my mother brought me to local libraries for storytelling hours. [Much love to Mama Minter, Plaza Midwood and Beatties Ford Road libraries]. I was captivated by stories from West Africa, the American South, and other African diasporic cultures.

My hope is for RRB to become a proactive response to the exclusion, erasure, and anti-Blackness found in food, agriculture, media industries. My wildest dream is for our bookstore, in its own way, to bolser Black, Africana literary, food and cultural production.

From Vanessa
I’m preoccupied with time now more than ever. A teacher and historian by trade, I’m often juggling managing my own time and chronicling the past. I guess you can say that past time is my pastime. So when I started reflecting on the question “Why now?” to start this virtual bookstore that centers Black people, Black food and Black business, I can’t help but think, “Why not now?” 

I often say to my students and myself, “There’s no wrong time to seek justice and joy.” It’s a principle I live out in both my professional and personal lives. This bookstore, with its mission, vision, and design, and being able to run it with my best friend is the perfect combination of both those pursuits–justice and joy by championing the African Diaspora and her food.

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