Sisters Uptown Bookstore, the only Black-owned bookstore in Manhattan, holds its first gala on Saturday, Oct. 24, at Riverside Church. A year earlier, the store’s general manager said it was several months behind on its lease.
Janifer P. Wilson opened Sisters Uptown in January 2000 after researching uptown Manhattan and finding no bookstore in Washington Heights. She runs it with her daughter, Kori Wilson, from 1942 Amsterdam Ave. at 156th Street. The shop sells African diasporic literature and hosts poetry readings, music events, cooking workshops and literacy programs.
In July 2025, as the store marked its 25th anniversary with a fundraiser, Kori Wilson described what was squeezing it: “There’s kind of been a decline in that foot traffic, and we struggled to…pay the bills and keep the lights on.” Rising rents and gentrification in the neighborhood added to the pressure, and she said the store needed about $10,000 right away. Janifer Wilson put it plainly at the time: “If we won’t be here, we will be somewhere else, closing is not an option.”
Saturday’s event, called “Voices of Harlem,” turns the question from survival to celebration. The gala honors Herb Boyd, the journalist, educator and author; Dawn Harris-Martine, owner of Grandma’s Place; Wade and Cheryl Hudson, who have published children’s books for more than 30 years; and Yvonne Stennett, who has led the Community League of the Heights for nearly 50 years.
“It’s not just a celebration of Sisters; it’s a celebration of us as a people,” Janifer Wilson told the Amsterdam News.
The gala also has a business purpose. Wilson says it is meant to bring the community together to talk about the issues facing Black Harlem residents and to build ways for the store to stay open that do not depend on donations and events. The organizers are Wilson, Kori Wilson and Clarence Reynolds. Tickets are sold through GiveButter.
The gala starts a second quarter-century for a store that was nearly out of money one summer ago and is still on Amsterdam Avenue.
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