Community Book Center

 

Community Book Center started as a home-based service and transformed into a business that offers a wide variety of books, artwork, cards, and novelty items centered in the African culture. It is also a meeting place for community organizations and social justice groups.

 

This strong link with the community was the reason Vera Williams, the founder and owner of Community Book Center, came back to New Orleans and re-established her business after Katrina. Vera recalls, "the community needed me or I needed the community, or we needed each other. I think that we needed each other. New Orleans is my home and there is no place like it that I have been to. I have invested in this business, in this building, in this community and neighborhood, on this street, and I am determined to continue; if not with the Community Book Center exactly as it is right now, then with something else that would also make a positive impact on the community.”

 

After Katrina, the business suffered from major financial setbacks because it was underinsured. No matter the obstacles, Vera was determined to re-grow her business and her community. Vera says, "Community Book Center became a place where people who were rebuilding would come and hang out here just so that they could get their minds off of what they were doing and what they were trying to do.”

  

Vera says, “We cannot just work by ourselves and expect to survive. We have to come together. After the hurricane we had an African proverb that all of us could relate to and it was: 'When spider webs unite they can tie up a lion.'  A spider web is something real fragile and easily broken, but when it is combined with other webs, even a lion can get wrapped up and be unable to break through.” With the 32nd anniversary of the Community Book Center approaching, that is a proverb that continues to speak volumes to Vera.