Most people heard “pandemic” and put their plans on hold. Dara Landry and her husband David heard it and opened CLASS bookstore. Not a quiet little shop either. A full community space in Houston’s Third Ward, right next to an HBCU, with a red, black, and green flag out front so nobody misses it.
What inspired you to open CLASS?
My husband and I have always had a love for reading. In 2015, we read a statistic about the decline of the Black-owned bookstore, and there were less than 39 Black-owned bookstores in the country at that time. That made us super nervous, because we grew up in Black-owned bookstores in our city.
We wanted to change that, and so we set out on a journey to find all the stores that we knew about, asked them a lot of questions, and in 2020, we decided this is the best year to open a bookstore.
In the midst of the pandemic, we still decided to forge forward. A lot of folks weren’t outside, so we decided we would start with a pop-up and do delivery. We did that for the first two years. Then in December of 2022, we opened our brick-and-mortar location, CLASS Bookstore.
How different was running a brick and mortar from the pop-up days?
It was very different. Doing pop-ups, you go to markets and you’re going to run into folks. When we opened our brick and mortar, it was very much about bringing the business to the physical location. But it also opened up the opportunity to do a lot more community events, which is where our heart was.
We desired to be a place for convening, a place where the community could really have a third space. It was a no-brainer that we would have to have a physical location to create the level of community we were trying to create with CLASS Bookstore.
What does a typical day at CLASS bookstore look like?
We start every day raising the flag. We have a red, black, and green flag, and we let folks know that means the bookstore is open and community space is available. We have a lot of community regulars. We’re in the heart of Third Ward, right next to two universities. We sit basically on the campus of Texas Southern University, which is an HBCU.
My husband is an adjunct professor at TSU, so we get a lot of students that come through just to hang out. We’re very close to Cuney Homes, which is a community development that is historic to Third Ward, and we’re next to the high school that is the alma mater of George Floyd.
Folks come in wanting to learn about themselves. We love to say that we sell the truth. At CLASS Bookstore, we’re nonfiction niche, so folks come in to learn a little bit more about who they are. Knowledge of self breathes pride in self and love in self.
How does it feel when a customer finally finds what they’ve been looking for on your shelves?
That’s the best feeling. That’s why we do it. When a customer comes in and they find that hidden gem, sometimes it’ll be, “I read this book back when I was in college in 1992,” or “this was the first book that helped me on my discovery and knowledge of self.” A lot of books that main street bookstores have stopped selling still have very valuable information about who we are as a people. It’s a joy to be a part of that journey for them discovering that. And we know they’ll be back, and we’ve got more books.
What made you want to connect the whole city with the bookstore crawl instead of just focusing on CLASS?
CLASS Bookstore is community-minded, and for me, it was never about just CLASS Bookstore. Houston is strong because of the amount of bookstores this city has, and each bookstore is as unique and diverse as the city. We pride ourselves in Houston as being the most diverse city in the country.
I wanted folks to have the opportunity to really see the diversity in their bookstore offerings, because sometimes there’s the feeling that if you went to one Black-owned bookstore, you went to the Black-owned bookstore. But there are six in this city, and they each offer a unique perspective. Wanting people to discover that was my desire when we started the Houston Independent Bookstore Crawl.
Where can people find all the stores in the crawl?
For all book crawl information, you can go to htxbookcrawl.com. You can find the list of all 31 stores participating this year. There’s an interactive map and a newsletter folks can sign up for to stay connected throughout the year, because we’re only growing. I think we’re going to be at 40 bookstores next year. We’ll be doing the crawl the whole month of April.
Where do you hope CLASS and the crawl will be in 10 years?
I hope the literary landscape of Houston has grown astronomically. In a city of millions, we can support many more bookstores. I hope folks are encouraged to open their own slice of community in their part of town. Chicago has like 89 bookstores on theirs, so I know we can get there.
I hope that CLASS Bookstore is still here doing community work. The goal is for us to be here as long as the community desires. We’ll still be here selling your favorite nonfiction niche books, waiting for you to come in and bring your children in, and one day your children will bring their children in. That will be the goal, legacy.
Where can people find CLASS Bookstore?
Classbookstore.com is our website. You can find us on social media @classbookstore. You can also find us in Third Ward at 3803 Sampson Street, right at the corner of Sampson and Cleburne, right next to TSU. You can’t miss it. Just look for the red, black, and green flag.
