City of Deja

I spent the past two weekends reveling in literary spaces. First, I went down to Austin, Texas for the Austin African American Book Festival. Then, I made my way even further south to visit family in New Orleans, Louisiana and stopped at a few independent bookstores along the way. Here’s a peek into my literary adventures.

Austin African American Book Festival

Earlier this year, I stumbled upon a festival that seemed to be tailor made for me: the Austin African American Book Festival. It had been a few years since I’d attended a book fest (I frequented the North Texas Teen Book Festival way back when), so I was excited to travel down to Austin and see what this event was all about. To my surprise, this year, AABF had Nikki Giovanni as its keynote speaker, which gave me yet another reason to attend. I was eager to witness Ms. Giovanni speak in person, especially after reading her first poetry collection, Black Feeling Black Talk.

The conversation between Nikki Giovanni and Texas Poet Laureate Amanda Johnston was simultaneously full of wit and thoughtful moments, and the theater was packed to the brim. I’m so grateful that I had the chance to witness it in-person. The festival was a free, one-day event, so we used the rest of the weekend as an excuse to check out more of Austin and explore the bookstore scene.

Following the festival, we visited BookPeople, a huge independent bookstore in downtown Austin. I had heard of BookPeople over the years (if an author has a tour stop in Texas, it’s usually here), so I was glad to finally pay it a visit. The store is two-levels and filled with quite the variety of books of nearly every genre. I purchased two novels—The Street by Ann Petry and Love by Toni Morrison—and we also picked up two puzzles. Now that I’ve visited BookPeople, I’m more inclined to understand just why so many authors use it as their essential meeting place for Texas readers.

NOLA Indie Bookstores

The following week, I traveled to New Orleans for the Fourth of July and visited three bookstores during my three days there. Octavia Books is a staple for me whenever I’m in NOLA so I was delighted to see that the store had expanded and now included a connecting cafe. Years ago, one of the storefronts next to the bookstore included a cozy brunch spot (Toast NOLA—they had the best crepes and grits. Luckily, they still have multiple locations throughout the city). The restaurant location was so small that they actually would suggest browsing the bookstore while you waited for a table. It’s nice to see that sentiment reimagined with a cafe that’s inside of Octavia now. I didn’t find anything that caught my eye, but I still enjoyed my time browsing the shelves at this indie.

I also visited Baldwin & Co., a new-to-me black-owned independent bookstore in the Marginy neighborhood of New Orleans. I’m pretty familiar with the surrounding area, so it was a pleasant surprise to see a bookstore in the same building of what actually used to be a daiquiri shop. New Orleans is full of surprises like that.

Inside, Baldwin & Co. pays homage to its namesake with a portrait of James Baldwin painted onto books (!), and lots of artwork that feature his quotes. I picked up Ours by Phillip B. Williams as my book purchase, and a croissant from their in-house coffee shop as my breakfast. I absolutely loved the atmosphere of this indie and will definitely make it one of my necessary stops whenever I’m in NOLA.

I finished off my trip to NOLA with a stop at Barnes & Noble where I purchased Bone Black by bell hooks and Toni Morrison’s The Source of Self Regard. I had a great time exploring the bookish scene during both of these trips, and I can’t wait to dive into my new reads.