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Rosa Duffy, a commitment to the memory of African-American literature
The artist Rosa Duffy unearths and highlights literature on the identity of black people in her bookstore in Atlanta in the United States.
When he was younger, the lack of recognition of African-American culture in certain artistic circles had a profound impact on bookselling.
She now wants her store to be used to discover these works that are often unknown to the general public.
Rosa Duffy, in her bookstore.
© Edward Maille / RFI
By: Edward Maille
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From our correspondent in Atlanta,
Yellowed books, newspapers and pamphlets are piled up on a long table in the middle of the room.
Very few are for sale.
But everyone is free to come and spend their day reading them.
Shelves still display collections to buy, ranging from classics by the novelist Toni Morrison, the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature, to a biography of the Ghanaian statesman and independence activist Kwame Nkrumah.
In her bookstore “For Keeps Books” in Atlanta,
United States
, Rosa Duffy, 33, collects, exhibits and sells books on “
black identity
”.
“
I want young people to be able to discover what was written before them
,
”
she explains.
She opened her boutique after living in New York, where the lack of consideration of her culture had a profound impact on her.
At 22, Rosa Duffy left her family home in Atlanta to study fashion and art in the cultural capital.
She didn't expect to experience this much racism.
“
Disguised racism
”
,
she says.
Her classes at university disappoint her.
“
I felt like I was spending a lot of money for nothing.
I didn't learn anything about black art.
» Loneliness affects the young artist in her small studio in Manhattan.
Impossible to find your way there.
So, she gets involved politically.
“A dark time”
The student equips herself with a pot of glue and a brush, prints political texts on posters to post them on the red brick walls of her neighborhood.
The first displayed is
Letter to My Nephew
by writer and activist James Baldwin.
“I lived in a space where many people could afford to ignore racism.
In the south, racism is more direct, while in the north, people call themselves progressive, but I was surprised to see the same things,”
she continues.
Sculpture and reading occupy the rest of his time.
“Most books were limited if you wanted to get interested in black culture, especially poetry or art.
There was only a small part on ethnology.
»
All that remains is for him to hunt for these works in second-hand booksellers.
She eventually dropped out of college and worked in restaurants.
A scene still marks her.
Days after an African-American man was killed by police, his boss told him the person deserved to die.
“It was a dark time for me,”
she confides.
New York tired her.
She decided to return to live in Atlanta, where she opened her bookstore on Auburn Street in 2018.
The street is emblematic of African-American culture.
One of the first newspapers run by black people in the United States, the Atlanta Daily World, was born here.
A few blocks away, the songs of Ebenezer Church, where Martin Luther King officiated, resonate every Sunday morning.
“The street has always been a hub for black people.
You can still see the sign for Atlanta's first black barber shop,
she says.
I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
»
“A very political family”
To start her business, the bookseller collects and buys back stacks of books that are gathering dust in garages.
She combs through them to find the future nugget.
Dedicated works.
Texts impossible to find on the internet.
First editions of a novel no longer published.
“
You think you’ve seen everything and suddenly you discover a new book,”
she rejoices.
The year his store opened, a lady offered to collect those that a member of her family had at home.
Thirty boxes fill the back room of the bookstore.
“It was an incredible collection of Harlem history and science fiction
,
”
she recalls.
The single woman modestly explains the reasons for her commitment.
“
I don't have much merit, I grew up in a very political family.
» His parents always had large collections of books at home.
“My father was always quoting Mandela or James Baldwin,”
she says of the man who got involved in politics alongside the first African-American mayor of Atlanta, Maynard Jackson.
Enough to convey a taste for politics.
Her older sister is a journalist and “abolitionist” activist – a political movement against the American prison system, considered unfair and racist.
Rosa Duffy remains close to her family.
His parents go to church in the same area as his shop and his brother regularly visits him in his shop.
She turns around and points to a huge photograph hanging on the wall.
A portrait of his grandmother.
With pride, she recounts her
“very politically active” life.
In her youth, during the civil rights movement, she traveled throughout the South to campaign against segregation.
Today, the bookseller takes her ancestor's commitment to heart, which for her involves reading and the quest for her identity.
“
It’s not just Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. There are other people in the middle and other ways of being black
,
”
she concludes.
It’s up to everyone to read and find their place.
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