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e f a C culture shop invites e e ff o c d n a store tions A new book y into deeper conversa nit the commu nd Black literature ta S IM P S O N M IC H A E L on Black ar B Y JO H N AH BY HANN
everley Boitumelo Makhubele
and Naledi Yaziyo assumed their checklist was complete. It was a thorough list, after all, of everything they had to do before Rofhiwa Book Cafe’s grand opening on May 15. They purchased furniture, chose paint colors for the space. Pre-ordered hundreds of books. Delicately arranged displays to show off their wares. But seven hours after opening the doors, Bev and Naledi realized they’d overlooked one critical component: “[Customers] wiped out our entire selection and our secondary selection within the day,” Bev, the founder, says. 44
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Naledi, the curator, adds: “We hadn’t thought that people would come here and buy every single copy.” It’s not a bad problem to have for a business starting up well over a year into the pandemic. Bev and Naledi acquired the space at the southwest corner of Angier Avenue and South Driver Street in Old East Durham in October 2020. “When we walked in, it was completely empty, and the lights were cut off,” Bev says. “We were like, ‘Oh, my gosh, what have we done?’ There was a lot of panic.” That was a reasonable amount of concern, considering it’s the couple’s first foray into the entrepreneurial world. Bev