Feb. 18—POWDER SPRINGS — When Julia Davis bought The Book Worm on Marietta Street in 2020, she wanted the shelves to reflect the people of Powder Springs and the store to be a place for the community to gather.
An annual market featuring Black vendors is part of that vision.
"I want everybody to walk in ... and feel like they belong. Growing up I had a hard time finding books that looked like me," Davis said, adding that this representation felt especially important due to book bans that she said have removed Black authors from libraries.
The bookstore hosted its third annual Entrepreneur Day on Saturday, during which Black-owned businesses offered a range of goods from hand-painted furniture to children's books
Shirley Ipaye, a 31-year-old business owner from Henry County, sold hand-painted items at the event. She said her use of vibrant colors is inspired by her Nigerian heritage — the name of her design studio, Oju Inu, is Yoruba for "inner eye."
"To be around and surrounded by a community that looks like me feels great, and to see them doing their thing and running their businesses? It's a good thing," Ipaye said.
The event also featured a panel of Black female authors who spoke about their recently published historical fiction.
Davis said she added the panel of authors to the event this year to connect more closely to Black History Month.
"Even though it's historical fiction, these women know hundreds of years of history. And positive Black history — a lot of that is missing sometimes," Davis said.
For instance, Davis said, not many people are familiar with the subject of Kaia Alderson's debut novel "Sisters in Arms," the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion. The "Six Triple Eight" was the first and only all-Black battalion of the Women's Army Corps that served overseas during World War II.
Another author at the event, Savannah-based professor Denny S. Bryce, said she is fascinated with the history of female jazz and blues artists of the 1920s who often go unacknowledged.
"You hear about Louis Armstrong, but you don't always hear about Alberta Hunter, or Lil Hardin Armstrong, who was the queen. She was so big in Chicago as a band leader and as a pianist. In her marriage to Louis Armstrong, she was more famous," Bryce said. Bryce's first two novels are set during the Jazz age, and her next will be about Sara Forbes Bonetta, the goddaughter of Queen Victoria.
The authors at the event all emphasized that Black history important to understand.