By Brooklynn Cooper
15:20 on July 17, 2020 CDT
When the coronavirus pandemic caused non-essential business closures in March, the owner of an Oak Cliff bookstore that has a staple of the network did not know how it would survive.
Akwete Tyehimba, who took over Pan-African Connection after her husband’s death in 2012, was forced to avoid categories in dance and language, as well as robotics and cartoons. No more gardening, cooking or yoga in the shop, which is also an art gallery and a resource center.
And its popular Sunday market that attracts dozens of vendors and piles has been on hiatus for 4 months.
Tyehimba said she had become “semi-depressed” when the store on Ann Arbor Avenue, east of I-35, was forced to close due to house orders.
“My morale has gone down, ” he said. “I was involved in how we were going to get it.”
But after 31 years of activity, adding two relocations, Tyehimba made the decision to succeed over the pandemic.
After the initial shock, Tyehimba learned that he had to get out of it and get to work.
Although the store shut down consumers for about 2 and a half months, it is there every day to make sure the business thrives. He began sending orders to callers and focused on redesigning the store’s website. Tyehimba depended on street pickup trucks in addition to online sales revenue.
A call to his loan company allowed him to defer space bills through August and prioritize payment of store rent, which is more than $4,000 per month. He makes loan bills to avoid being left behind.
“My religion and my culture teach me that I have to accept as true that everything will be fine,” said the 57-year-old Waco native. “One way or another, we were going to get away with it.
In addition to books, Tyehimba sells African sculptures, dashikis, drums and wellness products such as oils and soaps. Before the pandemic, they arrived here from Africa, where no shipment left the continent, and from New York, in the past, one of the country’s hot spots for the virus.
With its home line in jeopardy, it changed temporarily and discovered suppliers and brands of choice for its most popular products.
When the store doors reopened last May after the governor began allowing retail outlets to operate, Tyehimba said consumers were flocking. I couldn’t leave the books on the shelves.
Due to the emphasis on African and black culture, the store sees an increase in business around June 19, and the June 19 holiday commemorates the emancipation of enslaved black Americans.
But Tyehimba noticed that construction had occurred weeks earlier.
When George Floyd died on Remembrance Day after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt over his neck for about 8 minutes, protests against racism and police brutality spread across the country. Alongside the protests, many have turned to social media to inspire others to shop at black-owned businesses.
Google Trends set a record point for the search for “Companies Owned by Near Blacks” in the United States last month. The residents of Dallas joined the cause.
Two years ago, at the premiere of Marvel’s Black Panther, Sales of Pan-African Connection tripled as consumers bought movie clothes. This increase pales in sales last month.
“God has charted a path and we have noticed it coming,” he says.
Tyehimba said the move had had an effect on his business in a way he had never noticed before. He met with Dallas shoppers outdoors to help the store.
“Not just blacks, whites came from all over, ” said Tyehimba. “A lot of other white people came and let me know they were more human than this formula is.”
While Tyehimba appreciates the rise of business, he regrets that Floyd’s death is the catalyst.
“It’s unfortunate that we had to wait to die to do this,” Tyehimba said. “We create our own movements, not this trauma that drives us to react. We want to create our own coherent movements of growth, progression and change.”
She hopes the new faces she has noticed will continue beyond this moment of racial judgment.
While some are just beginning to make a conscious effort to shop at black-owned establishments, many Pan-African Connection consumers have incorporated the store into their lifestyle.
Stephanie Boyce, a Grand Prairie resident, has been buying food there for two years.
“I’ve been deliberately buying Black for years, however, I appreciate other people being more intentional,” said Boyce, who teaches at Paul Quinn College. “As an educator, I let my academics know that this position even exists. We want to be a part of ourselves as a community. Maybe I’ll get those books from Amazon.”
Porscha Kelley, who grew up in Oak Cliff, said he is still looking to buy in black-owned businesses.
“Or I barter, ” Kelley. “For example, what can I do for you, what can you do for me?”
Kelley has been a visitor to Pan-African Connection from the South Dallas store; moved to Glendale Mall about five years ago. In 2016, Kelley organized a firm for her first book, Young Black and American, at the store. Since then, he has written a book of moments, and both are for sale there.
Kelley Tyehimba “a champion in the young entrepreneurs community.”
“We’re not just a bookstore,” Tyehimba said. “We are like a family. Your children are my children. Array… We’re here for the others.
Tyehimba plans to locate a way to house a socially estranged edition of the market, which took up each and every one of the first and three Sundays before the pandemic. Along the sidewalk of the shop window, vendors sold products ranging from art to vegan juice. She and her backward husband introduced him eight years ago to help small businesses grow their visitor base.
One option you have is to invite some suppliers at once to the alternate market, called Ubuntu.
“It’s a Swahili word, ” said Tyehimba. That means, ‘It’s for you, for me.’ We’re in the same boat. »»
Brooklynn Cooper. Brooklynn Cooper covers South Dallas as a member of the Report for America corps. Durham native N.C., a loyal Tar Heel fan graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2019.
Receive email alerts about news as soon as they happen.
When you register, you conform to our privacy policy
Support us in our project and in the history of North Texas