BOOK CULTURE & REVIEWS A Bodega of Words: An Organization Feeding the Minds of New York City Families By Debbie A. Officer
A Conversation with Seema Aghera of Brooklyn Book Bodega, Founded circa 2019 in Brooklyn, New York One of the defining markers of the New York City landscape is the corner store or bodega in many neighborhoods. These grocery stores cum deli, are the quintessential comfort spots for many people in big cities across the country. They don’t have the same barriers or restrictions of, say, Dean & Deluca, or Whole Foods where only the financially privileged can afford to shop on a regular basis for even basic food supplies. A bodega is a place where everyone can feel at home when they enter. Residents drop in for everything, including egg and cheese on a bagel with ketchup, lox with cream cheese, French fries with chicken fingers, Visine, emergency condoms, deodorant, kitchen supplies, beer, water, you name it. That said, a different kind of bodega has popped up in Brooklyn with a strikingly different kind of fare to offer to its community. A few months ago, African Voices caught up with Seema Aghera, one of the co-founders of Brooklyn Book Bodega. The organization’s name conjures up the same essence (without the food and prophylactics) of what a bodega means to a community. Founded by a small group of moms, Book Bodega has been bringing books into the homes of children around the city for the last three years. The organization started working out of a donated space at the Ingersoll Houses, a NYCHA Housing complex downtown, but grew so much that the owners had to get space at the Brooklyn Navy Yard to store their large cache of books. Many of the traditional venues where families would be able to get access to free or low-cost reading and educational materials for their children were off limits because of New York City’s emergency 30
African Voices
