Tampa councilwoman writes her next chapter, opens bookstore

Much like the books on the shelves at her store, Gwen Henderson is an educator and storyteller. She opened Black English bookstore in the Tampa Heights neighborhood in November 2023, and now small business owner’ is one of more role in her busy schedule. 

Henderson, a Tampa native, is a city councilwoman who recently turned in her retirement papers after working as an educator in Hillsborough County for 30 years. Henderson won a four-year term to the council in March 2023 for District 5, which covers McKay Bay/Palmetto Beach and downtown Tampa, the Channel District and Ybor City.

Henderson was teaching an entrepreneurship class in 2022 when she decided to tackle the assignment of building a business alongside her students. Black English Bookstore leapt off the pages and into an online store before the addition of the brick-and-mortar location.

“It's very intentional. I'm very intentional. And no one else has that,” Henderson says.

Henderson is also intentional about growing the business, with ideas from serving food to finding more ways to connect with the wider community. 

One key facet of Henderson's entrepreneurial venture is the counterintuitive nature: opening a touch-and-feel bookstore in world of digital and audio books is rare, as is opening a minority-owned bookstore. Lee & Low Books, for example, released its Diversity Baseline Survey in 2023 that revealed 5.3% of participants in the publishing industry self-report as Black or African American, while 72.5% of publishing, review journal and literary agency staff are White/Caucasian.

That statistic motivates Henderson. 

“Entrepreneurship is about opportunity and a need,” she says, “Meeting a need or opportunity.” 

The store name is inspired by James Baldwin’s 1979 essay titled, “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Tell Me, What is?” Everything in the store has Henderson’s stamp on it. Foregoing traditional section names like ‘romance’, ‘sci-fi’ and ‘memoirs’, the books are sorted into ‘black love’, ‘melanated sci-fi’ and ‘I’m speaking’ — a callback to Vice President Kamala Harris interacting with former Vice President Mike Pence. 

Henderson is an alumnus of Florida A&M College, an HBCU (historically black colleges and universities) and a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Her involvement in these communities are woven throughout her life as a small business owner. 

A photograph of her with her sorority sister, Felicia Taylor, who owned Books For Thought bookstore in Temple Terrace before passing away from cancer in 2009, inspired Henderson to open her own place. “Once I [looked] at this picture that my daughter took with a portable camera, that's how long ago it was, I realized, ‘Oh my goodness, there's an opportunity there.’”

Her sorority sisters encouraged her to start popups at different events; they actively support the shop with purchases of books for youth; and even helped her place orders for the Tampa store. The HBCU author section is prominently placed in the front of the store. 

Henderson also finds support in the indie book community at large. “The indie bookseller world, regardless of race, is a family,” she says. Other area bookstore owners brought her flowers at her grand opening, shop her shelves, and give her encouragement. ”If I had to say what the best advice was,” Henderson reflects, “When we were sitting around the room, talking about our different bookstores, is that our community deserves it and they need it. I know that that's true.”

The support from booksellers and sorority members keeps her going as she faces challenges in her new chapter. “My challenge is time,” she said over the phone ringing in the background, “And balancing out community needs with my personal needs.”

As a city council member and local business owner, she is uniquely positioned to encounter people from her different paths. “Being a bookseller and city council woman means sometimes people want to talk more than books,” she says. “I know they want to see the councilwoman. Some people do. And I try to push that down as much as I can” by redirecting chatty customers so they understand she’s currently at work.

Looking ahead, Henderson has big plans. In the immediate future, she is consulting with the owner of Elevenses Bakery in Ybor City about potentially serving coffee in the shop. She also dreams of author talks, cooking demonstrations from her cookbook section and franchising opportunities.

Although the focus is on Black authors and businesses, Henderson insists, “This is a welcoming space for everyone. My customer base is extremely diverse, very intentional and I love that. It's a bookstore that does carry predominantly Black authored books that's open to everyone."