Visit a Black-Owned Bookstore in D.C.’s Historic Anacostia Neighborhood

Oneika Raymond heads to Anacostia, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Washington D.C., to visit Mahogany Books, the community’s first-ever Black-owned bookstore selling works by Black authors.

She’ll meet with co-founders Derrick and Ramunda Young –partners in business and life –to discuss the impact of selling Black literature ina predominantly Black neighborhood, their own ties to Southeast D.C. and how their community has warmly embraced their shop tucked inside the Anacostia Arts Center.

Here, we’ll get a more holistic view of our nation’s capital by leaving the typical circuit of museums and monuments to dive into Black stories in this historic area and on Mahogany’s bookshelves.

While in Anacostia, we’ll also take a look at the CROWN Act mural by Candice S. Taylor, depicting four Black women with different natural hairstyles to symbolize the ongoing campaign to prevent discrimination based upon hairstyle and hair texture.

And Oneika will bookend her day at Black Lives Matter Plaza near the St. Regis Washington, D.C. and the historic site of Fredrick Douglas’s final home at Cedar Hill.

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Oneika Raymond: We talk so much about going local, going local, but very often, we do things that we think the locals do, but we don’t actually talk to them about it. We don’t talk to them in the places that we find ourselves in. I think that the goal is to teach people perhaps, or to, to encourage people to make those deeper connections when they travel. To not only do the bucket list, or the checklist of the Instagrammable places, or the cute cafe or the nice museums, but really to engage with the people of a place.

Gale Straub: I love that. That’s like the trailer right there.

Oneika: Welcome to season two of About the Journey. If you’re new here, I’m your host, Oneika Raymond. I’m a travel journalist and Marriott Bonvoy member. That’s me in the car with my producer, Gale.

After months of emailing back-and-forth, Zoom meetings and navigating different time zones, I hopped on a plane from Berlin to Washington D.C. to meet up with Gale in person for the first time.

Oneika: Do I pronounce your last name? Straub.

Gale: Uh, Straub. Straub. Okay. It is German. Yeah.

Oneika: Yeah. So in my mind it is Straub…

Oneika: This season, we’re starting with one simple idea: to travel better. What we mean by better, though, is open. That’s what we’re spanning North America to find out. Each week, we’re meeting up with a local or two to see their city through their eyes. They’ll tell us where to go, what to do and bring us along on an experience that defines their home.

Joshua Garnell: Go out to the avenues. Go to like really far out by the beach and, and have dinner at a Thai restaurant that only does crab you know and is Burmese, have a Burmese meal. I mean I think those are the…

Oneika: So not just get, get off of the top 10 list.

Joshua: Exactly.

Oneika: And dig a little bit deeper.

Joshua: Yeah.

Oneika: We’ll see their hometown’s through their eyes.

Carol Lee: What I saw happening in Vancouver’s Chinatown was that the traditional restaurants were closing and so I decided that I was, uh, much to my father’s dismay – I was gonna do it myself.

Dr. William Dulaney: When we have the rodeo, people will actually come to me and say, I didn’t know, there were Black Cowboys. And I say, “Yes!”

Oneika: And let them tell us how to be a better visitor.

Yvette: You can see all these trees are with seeds. The mangroves. So this is the season to collect the seeds.

Beth Bradley: Trees are every size. Rocks are every size. Like in nature, there’s not a size anyone’s supposed to be. That’s how I feel out there, too.

Ramunda Young: Those are the things that we contribute to this space. It is more than just the books. It is about community.

Oneika: This is Washington D.C., and its Black literary community in Anacostia.

Robin Bennefield: I know you’ve been to DC before.

Oneika: Mm-hmm.

Robin: What is it that you feel like you haven’t seen of DC before that you’re looking forward to experiencing?

Oneika: Here is Robin Bennefield, an old friend of mine. We met a decade ago, when we were both trying to crack into the world of travel blogging. Today, she’s the editorial director for Marriott Bonvoy Traveler and the catalyst for this trip, which we’re conveniently starting in her hometown.

Oneika: You know, I’ve been to DC a few times, but I’m really looking forward to delving more into African American culture. I think that’s something that DC is steeped in. And I think that what is marketed worldwide about DC is not that. And obviously as a black woman who grew up in North America, I have a window into African American culture, even though I’m Jamaican Canadian, so hail from a different part of the continent. It’s personal. It’s personal for me here. Definitely.

Oneika: We’re in the car, leaving our hotel, the Saint Regis, on Black Lives Matter Plaza, a two block strip renamed in 2020 following protests over the murder of George Floyd. The rallying cry is painted on the street in eye-catching yellow letters that lay 35-feet tall.

Oneika: It’s one thing to see a Black Lives Matter rally in the news, or to see Black Lives Matter Plaza in pictures or in video form. I think it’s quite another thing to be here and to be standing in the Plaza, it’s very powerful and very impactful.

Gale: Oh, and we’re turning onto Good Hope Road.

Oneika: We leave Black Lives Matter Plaza to head 5 miles southeast to Anacostia, an historic neighborhood that sits just across the Anacostia River.

Robin: We’re crossing over that bridge over there is the Frederick Douglass bridge.

Oneika: Anacostia is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the District of Columbia. You can see it in its Victorian-style houses with wrap-around porches and gothic spires. But more important than its age is its significance to the Black community, in part because of its past as a refuge for freed men and women after the abolishment of slavery in DC. That was in 1862, and since then, the neighborhood has seen its ups and downs. It has witnessed some of the most intense white flight in Prince George’s County following desegregation and is now battling gentrification. But, its residents remain the undeniable backbone of the city with some of its Black families spanning as far back as four generations.

Anacostia Local 1: Anacostia has the highest concentrations of black people in the city. Partly that was as a result of historically when people got moved here during the sixties and urban renewal, if you will.

Anacostia Local 2: This is a part of the city where you can get your small businesses up and running. So if you’re like an aspiring entrepreneur, this is a hub where you can actually get things done.

Anacostia Local 3: Anacostia, I think all the time is just the hidden gem that nobody really knows about.

Gale: Okay. We’re here.

Robin: We’re here. We made it.

Oneika: We’re pulled up to Mahogany Books, a black-owned bookstore on Good Hope Road, the main drag that cuts through Anacostia’s historic town center. The store’s wide picture frame windows are bordered with thick black trim. Just beyond the smooth glass are proud displays of stacks of books. The store is located in the Anacostia Arts Center, a community space for small businesses, art galleries and even worship services. We can hear the choir next door as we arrive at the store on a Sunday morning, an hour before Mahogany Books opens up to meet with owners Ramunda and Derrick Young.

Ramunda: Are we hugging?

Onieka: I’m a hugger.

Ramunda: I am, too.

Onieka: Oh my God. I love your hair. I used to have locs. They’re so beautiful.

Ramunda: Thank you. Come back, come back.

Oneika: I’m coming back. I am definitely coming back.

Oneika: Ramunda is wearing her hair in gorgeous locs that swing as she nods and smiles encouragingly. Next to her is her husband, Derrick, a broad shouldered guy who’s also got locs, and reading glasses, too.

Ramunda: We’re celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary on Wednesday.

Oneika: Uh huh.

Ramunda: So I got them a year after, so 19 years.

Oneika: Wow.

Ramunda: So I just keep cutting it up.

Oneika: Yeah…

Oneika: Immediately, I get a sense of deja vu walking with the Young’s into their bookstore.

Oneika: Oh my goodness. I owned this book.

Ramunda: My name is Ramunda Young. I am the owner and co-founder of Mahogany Books here in Washington, DC.

Derrick Young: I am Derrick Young. I won’t make a joke. I am the owner and co-founder of Mahogany Books here in Washington, DC., my hometown, Anacostia.

Oneika: So Derrick, this is your hometown. But Ramunda, this is not. So where did you grow up?

Ramunda: I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma just blocks from Black Wall Street and my parents still live there to this day and to be there and to be surrounded by Black Wall Street was something that was amazing, but I didn’t know it was amazing till later in life because growing up in my school, we never talked about it. So to be blocks away from one of the most prolific communities of Black, of blackness and not know it was there, it was just something that was mind boggling.

Oneika: Now, Derrick, you said you are from DC?

Derrick: Southeast.

Oneika: You grew up in the Anacostia neighborhood?

Derrick: So my father, this was his home. So he’s a DC native, so my grandparents, my cousins, aunts and uncles, like when we, on the weekend we got together and we run around the streets – we was coming back here. So my grandparents live not too far from here. So, you know, I have some scars from falling and, uh, playing in the street, uh, with my cousins. Um, but yeah, this was, so this was a good portion of my youth.

Oneika: So I’m not from the area. Right? So in, within the framework of metro DC, how does Anacostia fit in?

Derrick: I feel cliche saying like a vibe. I don’t like using that thing. But it, it really is. It’s like, this is if, um, you’re from Southeast it’s, you’re from Southeast and it’s like, it’s embedded. So it’s, you know it’s one of those things, people from, Bronx and Brooklyn, how they have that love for it.

Oneika: Mm-hmm.

Derrick: It’s the same thing.

Oneika: It sounds as though it’s, it’s, uh, definitely a beacon of, uh, Black prosperity despite, yes, in spite of, right? So how did, how did this neighborhood, how did Anacostia foster or nurture your appetite for reading as a child?

Derrick: I mean, so that’s my mom. My mom is, although she’s from Tarball, North Carolina, she also spent most of our life growing up here in DC as well. So my mom was a huge reader. So every summer school let out, here’s your books to read.

Oneika: Mm, mostly by Black authors?

Derrick: Yes. Yes. Ralph Ellison, Malcolm X, oh man. So it was, you know, to me, what DC is about.

Oneika: And that’s a, that’s a beautiful thing. Ramunda, I pose the question to you. Ramunda, when we talk about reading and Black authors…

Ramunda: Mm-hmm

Oneika: …coming from Tulsa, what was your access to reading like, and particularly reading or, or having access to literature, um, by and written for, by people who look like you?

Ramunda: Very limited. I was a voracious reader. I loved reading books. I would stowe books in my backpack. I would read them under the covers with a little nightlight. Um, but I loved reading. But the characters never looked like me. They never did. So here I am just eating up all of these books and trying to connect with characters that did not look like me. They didn’t look like me in the romantic novels, you know, that they would describe the long blonde hair and this and that. I’m like, well, my hair is a, it’s a totally different texture.

Oneika: Mine’s in a bonnet.

Ramunda: Hello.

Onieka: I mean, ey.

Ramunda: Totally different.

Oneika: It’s funny, right? When I, when I think about growing up and I also was a voracious reader, and I think about how many Judy Blume books I read, and never, ever did anyone look like me. And that’s, that’s exactly it as I said to you as I walked in here, I felt joy. I felt joy simply from being in here and being able to recognize most of the titles on the shelves. And being able to see books that I can read to my daughter that have characters with her skin color and her hair. And they’re not necessarily books about having that skin color or hair.

Ramunda: Jack and Jill. What about Jamal and Jaleesa? Where did that story? You know, those are names that I connected with. But yeah, that was not something that I was exposed to until later and it’s been something that’s important to us with our own daughter, Mahogany, just exposing her to books, because we know when you’re exposed to characters that look like you, your ethnicity, your self confidence increases and your self esteem increases.

Oneika: In Anacostia, representation is found off the pages, too. Just blocks from Mahogany Books, on the side of Busboys and Poets, another local institution, you’ll find a mural.

Oneika: I love that not only do we have different natural hairstyles represented here, but we also have women, black women of different skin tones.

Oneika: The vibrant painting by Candice S. Taylor depicts four Black women with different hair textures and styles.

Oneika: We have a lady with cornrows, someone else with Bantu knots. We got some single braids. We got a lot going on.

Oneika: On top of each of their heads is a crown meant to symbolize the CROWN Act, or Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair. It’s an act that seeks to prohibit racial discrimination based on hair texture and protective hairstyles. And in nearby Maryland, along with 18 other states, it is law.

Oneika: Being a black woman is such a rich, visceral experience. I’m, I’m so happy to, to, to be in this skin. And I just love that this is being honored particularly here in this neighborhood, which is historically and predominantly Black.

Oneika: Okay. So in 2007, you opened Mahogany Books as an online shop. What was that like back in 2007?

Ramunda: Yeah, 2007. I think we were in the middle of a recession and here we are talking. The conversations that we were having about, we wanted to have a business that really spoke to us from a cultural perspective, from a community perspective, from a business perspective. So a bookstore just really allowed us to touch on all three. And I know for me, I kept saying, well, man, I did not grow up with those, the access to books, why not go online? It just really resonated with both of us. Like it was really like light bulb moment. Like, wow. If we do it online people, no matter where they live, will have access to books.

Oneika: Like me, in Toronto.

Ramunda: Absolutely. And If, if I’m just even more real about it, we were, we were brand new, you know, starting a business, like, wait, what? Starting a family, starting a family at the same time. So the other part of those conversations too was fear. I’ll be honest because here we are saying, “Oh, we wanna start a business centered around books,” – and not just any books, just micro niche, in the industry of Black books. So there was fear around that. At least for me, I know. Just, you know, hearing other people’s thoughts about, “Why are you doing this? Nobody’s gonna read that. We can get books from here.” But for us, we knew this burning desire to create this access to books had to be. And online allowed us to reach the…just a wide swath of people at a low cost.

Oneika: But obviously, there was an appetite for it because 10 years later, in 2017, you opened your first physical location that we’re sitting in right now. Why the Anacostia neighborhood?

Ramunda: Wow. There was a lot of reasons. Lots of reasons. Go ahead, Mr. Anacostia.

Derrick: Nope. I wanna make sure I. So I mean, yeah, there are a number of reasons. I think for those 10 years, while we were online, we were doing pop-up shops, essentially hosting author events and everywhere we went, people were like, “Can I get a T-shirt?” “Where’s your bookstore at?” “How do I get your card?” “How do I find you?” We were like, it really feels like, yeah, there, like if we had a central location, people would travel to us. So we began deciding, you know, do we do it in PG county? Do we do it in DC? Do we do it in Virginia? And we pursued every possible opportunity. An opportunity opened up here in Anacostia and when it opened up, we came and visited and the space was fantastic.

Ramunda: Wow.

Derrick: The space fit essentially with who we were. That people could walk around the block to a bookstore, hang out and just feel a vibe, an energy and experience they wouldn’t get anywhere else. .

Ramunda: Yeah. And I think too, when I think of this community and like you were saying, there was not a bookstore in Anacostia in over 20 years. And when we look at Washington DC, the landscape, it has been noted as one of the most literate cities in the United States. So most literate – so bookstores are all around Washington, DC – but then this community here in Anacostia did not have one. And so when we looked at the different demographics here – it’s 95, 96% Black, maybe 3% Hispanic here – and no bookstore that really reflected the culture, the connectedness, the history. That didn’t exist. And so for us, it was just a perfect way to say, you know what? I don’t care what didn’t exist. We are going to exist here.

Oneika: What was the reaction of people from this neighborhood?

Derrick: It’s been, I don’t know if ‘surreal’ is the word I want to use, but that’s the word that’s coming to mind. And I think it’s not fitting enough because of the emotion that I have behind it. I mean, there was a guy when we opened every week, you could count on Friday he would be in here buying a book. I’m like, dude, I don’t even know if you’ve read the last four books – and he’s not getting small, little…he was getting thick history books. I’m like, dude, you have an entire library right now from us that you just, I know you haven’t had a chance to read and we were laughing. But it was from the parents bringing their kids in here, just having ’em sit up front and read through books, uh, just in here talking. You know, you work for something so long and you imagine what it would look like, what it would feel like. But to see it come to fruition and to see how people responded to it, you know, it just really meant a lot. And, uh, you know, it, it’s, it’s almost like family and I really enjoy every time I come in here, what conversation I might end up having. Because it’s really about, you know, people, people have spent two hours in a 500 square foot space. Right?

Ramunda: Because it’s not just about the books! It’s about the experience.

Derrick: About experience – being in it. And that’s, what’s been, um, the most phenomenal thing about, uh, being here in Anacostia, is that.

Ramunda: When I look around the pictures that are on the walls of authors that have been here before and authors that are here now, when I look at the books and the faces that are on the walls of little kids who are skateboarding or being a princess or being an inventor.

Those are the things that we contribute to this space. It is more than just the books. It is about community. It is about having a sacred space to have conversations about topics that otherwise are taboo or, you know, we whisper them when we’re around other people. Here, you don’t have to whisper. And a customer said that to us, I think she was talking about slavery and racism and for her, she was whispering and she looked around and we both looked around and she said, “I don’t have to whisper anymore.” This is a space to really be free to talk about things that are important to me. So it is more than the books. It’s about having the freedom to say, “You know what? These issues are important to me. And I feel comfortable enough in the sacred space to talk about them.”

Derrick: So these are two local writers with, uh, some really, really great books.

Ramunda: And I have my two as well.

Oneika: Okay.

Ramunda: I have three, but I’m gonna pull out two. But one is the Afro Minimalist Guide to Living with Less. This is by Christine Plat. It just came out, I wanna say last year. But this book was amazing to me. It’s talking about living with less and the historical perspective she adds to the book about why Black people are consumers. Why are we doing these things as such an amazing clip, but not even using the mindset or thinking about why we’re doing what we’re doing. Buying her book has transformed why, how I go and shop, why I go and shop? I know my husband may not see it as much but it really has. It makes me think twice about what I purchased, but the Afro Minimalist Guide is amazing. She lives here in the DC area.

And then this last one is Nile Valley Civilization. It’s been around a long time, but Dr. Tony Browder lives here in the DC area. And this is the book that changed me when I was in college, because I didn’t know all the things about Black history. I didn’t know what we contributed to this world at such an amazing level, but this book shined the light on what we’ve done, what we brought to this world, what we brought to this community. So this is one of the books I recommend all the time as an amazing starting point.

Oneika: Both of you are very conscious about actively supporting Black-owned businesses, right, with your dollars. Why is that important? And particularly here in this neighborhood.

Derrick: Because they’re great at what they do. I mean, it’s, it’s simple. There are so many brilliant entrepreneurs, creatives from our community that because of stereotypes in propaganda, don’t get the opportunities that they should.

Ramunda: And on top of that, we try to shop Black all the time, as much as possible. And so to come into this space here and the Anacostia Art Center, and know that there’s other Black businesses here, that we could create this amazing synergy with Nubian Human, the Fresh Food Factory, there’s even a chiropractor down the hall that are all Black businesses. And so for us to add to that dynamic was just perfect. Some people even called it the new little Black Wall Street because in Anacostia, there’s this huge concentration of Black-owned businesses that a lot of other parts of the city does not have. So for us to kind of, you know, be a part of that ecosystem was vital, was important and was something that we felt like we contribute to in a very real way.

Anacostia Local 3: If you support these Black businesses, that money flows back into its community, we can bring more and more stuff here. We’re not looking for everything to be free. We’re viable and we are worthwhile and we’re not the forgotten.

Anacostia Local 4: We need to keep our community within our community. We have to have some type of connection for our Black people and somewhere for us to go that we can see where we actually, not gonna say actually matter, but where we matter?

Anacostia Local 5: It’s a place where people from different walks of life, where we can come and be comfortable no matter what your background is, or your lifestyle is, you know what I’m saying? And I think places like this that needs to be established, you know what I’m saying?

Oneika: For myself as a tourist, how can we respect the neighborhood? How can we be respectful when we come?

Ramunda: Oh, that’s a good question. How to be respectful. I think really not coming and trying to change the neighborhood, but really taking moments to um, to just love on the brilliance in this neighborhood. Just loving the spaces that are here. Um, going to, you know, next door we have Open Crumb. Amazing spot that has amazing food. But really coming into the community and serving the community and patronizing the community and the different businesses that are here. There’s Turning Natural around the corner. So all these little spots that as a person, not from the area that if you really want to come into this space is really how do we, how do we support them?

Derrick: You know, what southeast is about is people who are fighters. People who are going to, um, stand in their own and not be bowed by anyone’s expectations. We know what we want to go for and we go for it. And regardless of what the obstacle is, we’re gonna push through that.

Oneika: At noon, we packed up and said goodbye to Derrick and Ramunda. They had a bookstore to open, after all. I was still buzzing from the conversation, so we walked just a few minutes over to Cedar Hill, the site of Frederick Douglass’s family home and

Gale: Yeah, it feels like it was an impactful experience.

Oneika: Yeah. Oh my goodness. This was such an impactful experience. I mean, having that conversation with Derrick and Rumanda gave me chills, it got me excited. It just really, it felt really reaffirming as a black woman, as someone who’s lived in the U.S. I loved coming here. I felt like I was home. I felt welcomed. I saw myself reflected in the people and in the businesses. And that was such an exceptional feeling.

Oneika: Come to Anacostia. It definitely needs to be on your list and definitely head to Mahogany Books. You will spend way more time there than you expected. And you’ll probably have some really insightful and impactful conversations. And just even being in the Anacostia Art Center, actually, we were in there taking some pictures a little bit earlier on and one of the vendors beckoned to me. And just, even then she was so helpful, her spirit was so kind. And I think that’s just really indicative of how people are, here, right? They, they really wanna help and they’re glad that you came and so we should continue to come.

Oneika: That’s all for this episode of About the Journey. Thank you to our Anacostia hosts Ramunda and Derrick Young.

Next week, we’re off to higher elevation.

Oneika: Getting to the top) So we’ve made it to the top.

Beth Bradley: Here we are.

Oneika: Yes. I feel very accomplished, but also out of breath.

Beth: Right, right. Climbed a little mountain here, so yeah.

Oneika: We’re headed to Denver, Colorado, to have a slightly breathless conversation about inclusive hiking.

About the Journey is produced by Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, At Will Media, and me, Oneika Raymond. Our Marriott producers are Robin Bennefield and Jess Moss. Our At Will Media producers are Kait Walsh, Kristy Westgard, Gale Straub and Tina Turner. Editing by Greg Deavens II.

To learn more about Mahogany Books and to browse their online collection, visit www.mahoganybooks.com, or visit their storefront in the Anacostia Arts Center.

You can learn more about visiting D.C. and get other tips on how to travel more meaningfully — from Marriott Bonvoy Traveler at traveler.marriott.com

And if you liked this episode of About the Journey, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

I’m your host, Oneika Raymond. See you next week.