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 COVID-19 lockdown in spring 2020 and sporadically through summer 2021. Libraries and bookstores were shuttered, so families, especially those in need, were not able to access their usual haunts for free reading materials. Book Bodega was started with the intention of donating books to families so that all children would be

able to have their own mini libraries at home. This mission proved even more important during the lockdown. Book Bodega didn’t shutter its “doors” though. Ms. Aghera and her team stepped in to help fill this gap. With a stream of volunteers and a small staff, they continued to provide families throughout the city with access to books and support materials from their base at the Navy Yard during the city’s most challenging days. As a mom of three school aged children, the core inspiration behind all of this came from her personal insight about the lack of resources for children who lived steps away from her. A longtime lover of books herself, she said, “I’ve lived downtown (Brooklyn) for 13 years. This is my community where I am raising my kids. My kids have access to great literature, and I thought every child should have access to great literature as well. “As a child of immigrants from India, she understood from an early age the importance of children owning their own books. In 1969, her father was part of the first group of Indian men who were invited to come to the United States to study at Tuskegee University. There is a bit of science behind the theory of 100 books, she insists. That science says if you had one hundred books it basically helps to provide you with a long life outcome. We have seen that a disparity in literacy has long-term effects. “This sobering statistic was also part of an international study released back in 2018 by Australian researcher Dr. Joanna Sikora, which was headlined in the British Guardian. Sikora and her researchers found that “Growing up in a home packed with books has a large effect on literacy in later life—but a home library needs to contain at least 80 books to be effective, according to the new research.” News like this is what keeps Ms. Aghera motivated. She reflects on the early days because “when we started, we felt strongly that the idea of owning a book makes a difference for a child. There is something tangible about having a book in your hand. My co-founder Rebecca worked in education, and she saw firsthand the need for this. All the co-founders are moms and we wanted to do something” about literacy disparity. Downtown Brooklyn, from the Atlantic Avenue shopping hub to the towers surrounding the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, reveals a series of common New York City contrasts—million-dollar high-rise towers peppered with low income multicomplex buildings peeking out from around their borders. The children and adults in these city-run dwellings are the people Ms. Aghera knew would appreciate and at the same time benefit from a Book Bodega in their community. She sees this part of Brooklyn as “the crossroads of culture” which highlights the socioeconomic gap between the residents who all share this diverse community. In order to help some of its neighbors, Book Bodega had to find new ways of getting books into homes where people were concerned about bread-and-butter issues at the height of the pandemic. It teamed up with many more organizations who provided food, diapers, and other household essentials. The families would still get their boxes with food supplies, but they would also get books and learning materials for children and adults in the homes. Ms. Aghera adds that “we had to do something. We decided to partner with organizations that were giving essential supplies in order to give out books. By the end of 2020, we were working with more than 100 organizations like Little Essentials. We even worked with schools that set up tables in their courtyards to serve communities in need.” Encouraged by the reception of the community and donors, Brooklyn Book Bodega continues to throw book parties at various locations around the borough. At one point, around January/February 2020, the owners had an event that brought people from “43 different zip codes,” reflected Ms. Aghera. This organization continues to strive and grow with the help of dedicated book lovers from around the city. They can be reached via their website at www.brooklynbookbodega. org, and are open to volunteers and those who wish to help fund their programs, which are free to the public.