When the Barnes & Noble in Bay Plaza closed for good in 2016, it looked like bookstores in the Bronx were all but extinct, before Noëlle Santos opened the Lit. Bar in Mott Haven in 2019 to keep literacy alive in the borough.
The opening of the Lit. Bar injected life into what seemed like a dead business, with two other bookstores arriving on the scene following the store’s opening. In the summer of 2022, Edokia Bookstore also opened in Mott Haven and last month a bookstore called Bronx Bound Books began operating out of a kiosk within a mall at Bay Plaza.
The venues are vibrant and create buzz with celebrities often seen on site. For instance, Jada Pinkett Smith was at Santos’ store last month to discuss her new book.
Prior to the opening of the Lit. Bar, following the Barnes & Noble closure, the bookshops that did exist were largely for niche markets. There were bookstores for religious groups, along with stores associated with the borough’s educational institutions.
The end of Barnes and Noble
Santos, a life-long reader from the Soundview neighborhood, said that the closure of Barnes & Noble at Bay Plaza inspired her to open up a bookstore in the Bronx. She said that she signed onto a petition at the time calling on the giant book seller to return to the area but to no effect.
The Lit. Bar officially opened in April 2019, between 134th Street and Bruckner Boulevard, and was greeted to much fanfare, being the only brick-and mortar mainstream bookstore in the borough at the time. Santos had initially been operating on a temporary basis as a pop-up bookstore at the Bronx Museum of the Arts since December 2016.
The bookstore, which is noteworthy because it also includes a wine bar, draws big names from time to time.
For instance, on Oct. 15, Santos welcomed celebrity, actor and talk show host Pinkett Smith, who was there to tout her memoir “Worthy.”
Santos said that she and Pinkett Smith talked about literature — while the actress signed…
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