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On the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, Wednesday, December 31, Medu Bookstore was buzzing with customers. The Black-owned and operated bookstore’s owner, Sister Nia Damali, was busy entertaining customers, some of whom have been shopping in the store, located in Greenbriar Mall, for decades.
Above them hung t-shirts that read, “heavy on the self-love” and “I Read Banned Books.” The wire shelves at Medu Bookstore were stocked with bestsellers like Robert Greene’s “The 48 Laws of Power” and Elijah Muhammad’s “Message to the Black Man” and books by new and lesser-known authors, including Michael Todd’s “Relationship Goals” and “The Invisible Ache” by Dr. Robin L. Smith and actor Courtney B. Vance.
Medu Bookstore is the only Black bookstore in the mall. Though it may not be surprising that there are four times more sneaker stores in Greenbriar Mall or any of America’s malls than bookstores, it should interest observers that one of Atlanta’s oldest malls has a declining number of Black-owned businesses. Medu is closing “in a couple of months,” according to Damali, and her reasons for that vary. After 35 years, countless weekends and holidays, Christmases and Kwanzaas, customers, compliments, and complaints, the lights will be one of Atlanta’s legacy Black businesses in a couple of months.
Damali is retiring. Asked about her plans for the future, she said that they will include traveling, relaxing, and reflecting on her career as an entrepreneur.
“I’m just going to work on me,” she said. Have some time for me. I just want to be still.”
Customers were spending more time at the register, sharing stories on shopping at Medu over the years. Many of them were like Dr. Evelyn Giliard, who has known Damali and has been shopping at Medu since it opened.
“I’m so sad that you’re closing. I just hate to see you leave,” Gilliard said. “We need a Black bookstore in this area.”
Damali welcomes the well-wishes and compliments.
“I’ve been thanking people for allowing me to be here, and for allowing me to make the decision myself,” Damali said. “I’m grateful. I tell everyone to stay in touch because you never know what tomorrow will bring.”
On Friday, the store was buzzing with activity as customers bought books, calendars, t-shirts, and newspapers. Copies of The Final Call and the Muslim Journal sat in racks along one of the bookshelves. The Atlanta Voice has a rack outside the entrance. An advertisement for a local chess club was posted on the wall behind the register.
Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice
A native of Chicago, Damali came to Atlanta to attend Clark Atlanta University and never left. She got a part-time job at one of Atlanta’s many Black bookstores at the time, working for Dawud Hakeem, and found her path.
“I worked for him as a student, and it’s a continuum,” Damali said.
A few doors down from Medu is Densua’s Incredible Artist Market. Owned by artist Densua Abayoni, the Black-owned business has been located in Greenbriar Mall as long as Medu, and was one of the first Black-owned merchants to have space inside Macy’s at the mall. The Macy’s is gone, but Densua’s remains. Medu, on the other hand, will be gone soon, and that will leave Densua’s alone as the sole Black-owned arts-related business. Abayoni used the word “devastated” to describe how she felt when she first found out.
“The community loses a substantial contribution to the culture that has kept us aware and knowledgeable about what’s happening around the world,” Abayoni said.
As a fellow business owner in the mall, Abayoni said losing Medu doesn’t do anything to further re-establish Greenbriar’s reputation as a place Atlantans -Black or not- could go to learn about their history, art, and culture.
“I have been here as long as she has been here. I’m devastated,” Abayoni said from behind the counter at Densua’s.
Nubian Bookstore owner Marcus Williams got his start as a bookseller at Medu before he went on to own Clayton County’s only Black-owned bookstore. He told The Atlanta Voice that his time there is the foundation of his career as a business owner.
“I will forever be grateful to Nia Damali for allowing me to work for her at Medu Bookstore when I was a college student,” Williams said. “Without her, there would not be a Nubian Bookstore.”
Damali remembers Williams and was visibly moved when she learned about his comment. “He was here with us for a year, I remember him,” she said.
Other customers feel the same way as Williams. Some were visiting Medu for the first time after seeing reports of the impending closure on local television.
“I had to come and get some books before she closed,” said Paula Gibbons, who came to Greenbriar Mall on Friday, January 2, from her home in Cobb County. Friday afternoon was her first time in the mall and at the bookstore. Gibbons told The Atlanta Voice that it might not be her last before the closure.
Speaking of Damali’s career as a bookseller in Atlanta, Gibbons could tell after her first conversation with Damali that her impact would be felt long after Medu was closed.
“I appreciate the work she’s doing in this community. We don’t have anything like this in Cobb County,” Gibbons said as he left the store with a new bag, three books, and a calendar for the new year.
“Our children need to know their history, and places like this are still needed in the community.”
April Dickey agrees. A public school educator, Dickey has shopped at Medu for years and makes her way to the store from her home in Middle Georgia to buy Black books for herself and for her students.
“For me, we don’t have this [in Macon], and that’s why I keep coming back,” Dickey said. “I know we have Amazon for books, but when I want knowledge, I come to Medu. This store is very much needed.”
Dickey was holding three books in her hands, including “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George S. Clason. “It’s definitely going to be missed,” she said.
Medu Bookstore opened during a time when going to the mall was a major part of life in Atlanta. From the many restaurant chains, the major department stores, and the Magic Johnson Theater, spending weeknights and weekends at Greenbriar Mall was as much a part of Atlanta’s entertainment scene as any other. There are malls across the country where business is good, such as the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. But Greenbriar Mall isn’t the Mall of America. It isn’t even Lenox Square or Southlake Mall in Clayton County, which was near one of the stops on the Walk for Peace last week.
Still, many shoppers believe that shopping at the mall is important. Gen Z shoppers are 40% more likely to shop in physical malls for the social experience compared to Millennials, according to a survey from the website Gutnix.
Damali said customer traffic in the mall has slowed down from the heady times of the 90s and early 2000s, but she believes there’s always been a place for a Black-owned and operated bookstore.
“There has been a lot of change,” she said. “I hope another bookstore opens in the mall.”
At the moment, there isn’t a succession plan in place at Medu, according to Damali. What you see is what you get, and when she shuts the doors for the last time, that will indeed be the end of Medu Bookstore.
“We just move on to the next chapter,” Damali said. “It’s been good in every way. I feel like I’ve done the work that I set out to do at Medu.”
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Donnell Suggs
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