Community Corner

Bed-Stuy Community Shows True Colors for True South

Books were flying off the shelves Wednesday night inside of True South Bookstore, as throngs of Bed-Stuy residents came out to support the small business now facing possible closure.

After the store’s owner, Monroe Brown, was hospitalized two weeks ago following a sudden stroke, Brown’s son, Ajamu, acted quickly and organized a fundraiser. 

Ajamu said the store – which, for many, had become an institution in the neighborhood – had not been profitable for some time and was financed primarily out of his father’s pocket. So he felt a fundraiser would be the best way to help pay the store’s August bills and also gauge whether (and how) the community wanted to keep the store open moving forward.

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And judging from the crowd that packed the inside and spilled onto the sidewalk outside of the store, a whole lot of people were not ready to say goodbye.

“The event today has been amazing,” said Ajamu Brown. “This is Bed-Stuy love. This makes me feel like the community really did support [my father]. They may not have been there every time he asked them. But when he’s needed them to be there, they’ve stepped up to the plate 110 percent.”

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Mark Winston Griffith, co-founder of the Brooklyn Movement Center, was there to show support. He said if True South did not survive, it would be a tremendous loss to the neighborhood: “This is not something he created because he was trying to make a living, per se. This was an act of passion and of belief in this neighborhood. And if we lose him, then we’ve lost that… and the bookstore.”

Rev. Conrad Tillard, senior minister of the Nazarene Congregational Church and a Democratic Candidate for the 36th City Council District, said he was at the bookstore chatting with Monroe Brown just a few weeks. So he was devastated to hear the news of Brown's failing health.

“His health was my first concern. And then [my concern] turned to the life of the bookstore, which would be the second bookstore to close in Bed-Stuy in the last few years,” said Tillard, who had just purchased a copy of Miseducation of the Negro, for his son who was heading off to college. “I call [Monroe] the common man’s bibliophile. But I’m very heartened by this outpour, because the books are flying off the shelf.”

True South also recently won the hearts of two young women, Laila Zami and Oxana Chi, who were visiting Brooklyn from Germany. They were two days away from completing their six-week visit to the city, but they too wanted to make sure they came out to support.

“The first time we went on Nostrand, we looked in this window and it made us really interested in the bookshop,” said Zami. “So we came in and talked with Brother Brown and he was really interesting and we kept coming back every week. Then last week when we came in, his son told us of his condition, and we said we have to come back tonight to support before we leave.”

Ajamu said his father, who suffered brain damage from the stroke, recently was taken off the ventilators and started breathing on his own. But, Ajamu said, he was prepared for a slow recovery and the possibility he would be handling the store's affairs for a while.

At the fundraiser, he gathered the email addresses of as many people as possible, with plans to arrange another meeting for those who were interested in helping to keep the book store open.

“Books are selling, people are vibing, talking to each other,” he said. “I’m just hoping I’ll be able to use the momentum of what is happening today to make a difference tomorrow. But I’m very excited.”


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