Midtown detroit. However from the downtown area in detroit. Were eight or nine miles. Downtown is one district, as they say now in detroit, and midtown is the next district after that, and years ago, new center was created like another part of the city, and that is another maybe five or seven miles beyond us. So were really right in the heart of the cultural life of the city with the universities, the library, the main library, the wayne state university, the health centers, and a lot of galleries and africanamerican museums, historical museum. So were in a wonderful cultural rich area of the city. I call it the heart of the city. And youre just a couple blocks off woodward avenue if people know detroit. One block off. I knew a little train that goings up and down the road and says one mile one block from woodward avenue and turn left and youre right with us. Allison, whats the last month been like for you at source book sellers . Well, we had to get used to having our doors shuttered because of the covid covid19 situation. We had to go into the very unfamiliar ground of online selling. So, we have our website, source book sellers online and so instead of greeting customers we have been packing things up and just this week we were able to do curbside so the custom evidence can pick up book inside a contactless way. A big dropoff in business. Very big. Yes. Are you going to be able to survive . Well oh, yes. Yes. We look like feels like the future is still really bright. Were learning and finding people are get able to get online and were able today to do our new release tuesday. Its just that the books you need to look at are online versus to come into the store. So, i really do think its promising for us. Im going to ask you both to lean in so we can see your full faces there we go. Now, what is new release tuesday . New release tuesday, every tuesday the publishers release particular books, and we celebrate them as their book birthday, the first day they came out and the first opportunity to purchase them. And go ahead, janet. Alyson has tried that as well as other things and puts it on instagram and makes little notices about it. For example, yesterday we heard but the Pulitzer Prize winners and three of them are books we have had in the store so we were really excited. She had a dancing message on there. So the winner is. And the other two. So, we sort of make that a special day and try to create an environment where people look forward to that. And so we just keep doing that. Is source a general book seller or too you have a specialty . We are primarily a Nonfiction Book store. We started out like that and continued on like that for 3 years, and were okay with it. Now, our categories are history and culture, health and wellbeing, books by and about women, met fiscal and spiritual and then we add the arts and then repeat the categories for young reader and theres a lot of wonderful nonticket books for young reader. Were a boutique book store. In this past month, have your customers been asking for books about pandemics, david qualm or books like that . One book in particular, i dont want to get her name wrong but the become is called pandemic and its by sonya shaw. Right, yes. So we sold quite a few of those. Advertised it on our put it up on our online site. We have not done a lot of titled like that. One thing we have had to Pay Attention to is trying to sell the books we have in the store and fortunately we brought that book in before the hit really happened, and we sold that a lot. Coming out as well. Heres a portion. Booktv covered sonya shaw, talking about her book and heres a portion of it we want to show you. Great, great. Then in 1940s we started developing specific chemical cures. We had penicillin, ddt, and this created a whole new kind of biomedical establishment that became extremely powerful and extremely potent at curing disease, very effectively. We sort of gave over Public Health to our biomedical establishment. So what happens now when we have outbreaks of contagious disease, we dont really look for the social and political roots. We wade for the epidemic to erupt, people gettic and we hope we can throw sufficient drugs and veeps its it to make it go away and that can no, some cases. Was i try to say in the become its not sufficient for new diseases because we dont when new pathogens come up we dont have the vaccines all made up. We dont have the drugs and yet these things can spread exponentially. Were talking about exponential forget of untreatable disease. That was just a little bit from sonya shahs pandemic. You can watch the full program booktv. Org. Egypt Webster Jones what other books have been selling. Oh, my. Just today another feature we had. We put on our online sales that we had the mothers day special coming up, and that we have copies of a new paperback edition of the world according to fannie davis, and she talk about her being here in detroit as a main library, right down the street, and how much enthusiasm we had for that, and we sold the books there, and had a roomful of people. So that was very exciting. Just get an order in today for the book, for mothers day. So thats going to be selling very well. We sold a lot prior to that, and then of course with this special we have on this one. So thats been happening a lot. What else . The world according to fannie davis. When did that come out . The original must have come out about a year or so ago but this is another paper copy, the paperback copy. Who is fannie davis. Fannie davis was the mother of Bridget Davis, she was a woman who lived here in detroit, and her who took in the numbers and so its the world according to fannie davis, my mothers life in the numbers the detroit numbers,. What are the numbers . The lottery. The numbers preceded the lottery and it was an informal he read this in her book an informal economy, and i think im not really sure hough it bass based. Had to do with the racetrack and a few other things. There were people and she said it was not only africanamerican people but there were people who took in the numbers from the neighborhood and when the numbers, like in the lottery, when the money came in, people about got money and then also shared money with others, too. So it was really quite an event. Read in here a little while ago that someone praised her for doing this book because the unknowable people who lived in a time when things were a lot more difficult, and that fannie davis had bet on the american dream, but she bet in a way so in this informal economy. So its a wonderful memoir by Bridget Davis who is a journalist and people dont make history of this so she talked to people, she talked to her relatives, she looked through heir diary she happened to keep as a young child because she was the youngest in a family of people. So its such a human story and such an american story that we really of love this book a lot. Was that considered illegal activity. It was illegal according to the law, but it was so illegal that along came the lotteries so must have been great. The term the informal economy, and i think we can liken that to today as the gig economy, people going out doing things but not the regular expected line of work that people would be in and its not it wasnt recognized. So, yes there, was an element of the underground, and so many people in the Africanamerican Community and in as she says many other communities had contact with this kind of informal economy. So one of the good wounds. Now, janet Webster Jones, ever play the numbers . Old enough to remember that. I remember very well. In fact i had an uncle who was took in the numbers at his house. People didnt talk but its whole lot because it was grownup talk so to speak. I remember that and i remember people saying, oh, so and so hit the numbers. And i remember hearing how little children listen in hearing but a relative who did very well in the numbers and they were able to buy a house, which people did at that time, to for their family and was a cowssen of ours. Always remember that. That was really good the children that came up in that family now are very accomplished, along with their children, too. So its a long trail of things that happened that allowed people to grow. Also have one for you. I guess before we get to that, we covered that become, the world according to fannie davis, and heres just a little portion of it. Good, good. My son was ten years old. This is nine years ago help was ten years old, and he looked at a photograph of my mother on the night stand and he said to me, mom, what was she like . And i said, oh, she was amazing but my heart was breaking. Because that hit me. Thought, oh, my god, i have done such a good job of keeping my mom secret i have kept her secret from my own children, and i vowed right then this is crazy. Whatever concerns or fears or reservation i have had its just time to stop. And within a week i get on an airplane and flew to detroit to sit down across from my moms remaining sister, who at that point was celebrating her 80s birthday mitchell moms youngest sister and she adored her so much. I just thought heres the person whose permission i need because my whole family never talked but the thought of revealing what my mother did for a livingful just forgot talked but. So here i am asking her this really scary thing. I was so nervous and said, so, aunt florence, i was wondering, im thinking about writing about fannie, like, everything and i just wondered what you thought, and she said, hell, im going to help you tell that story. And if youd like to watch the entire program, the world according to fannie davis, you can go to booktv. Org. Its on or website, alyson jones if you can lean in closer to your mother there we go. What another book thats been selling during this quarantine period . Hooray for profits bit taylor. This book was just released just last evening, i guess. She was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in history. This bookler ands the real estate practices or the exploitative real estate practices that continued even after college discrimination was banned and its a book of man awards so in 2019 the finalist in the National Book award and also in 2020, this book won the polly murray prize, but africanamerican intellectual history society. And thats another one that booktv covered. Heres the portion of i dont want to mispronounce the name taylor. Very good. Heres a portion. Perhaps we should think about what it means to live in a society that hinges social mobility and a decent quality of life on your ability to own a home. And if you dont own one, then er on your own and what does that mean when 40 of the number of black home owner is dropping precipitously because of racism in the Real Estate Industry and also because of higher rates of underemployment, unemployment, poverty, the racial wealth gap, all of that lead to a situation where the number of black home owner its is dropping precipitously, and so we have a society where your access to owning this asset determines your quality of life, owning a home determines for so many miami many people where you can finance your child another college education, whether you have the financial means to weather a financial crisis, the quality of what your retirement may by. If you have a retirement at all. This is all hinged on do you have a home . And so 60 of black people arent included in that conversation. Now, for the 40 who are, what does Home Ownership mean for them . Functions in a completely and wholly different way than it does for white people. Black houses are vowed as having less value, black neighborhoods are viewed as having lest vallejo our. So even if you lucky new to have stub beamed upon Home Ownership it still doesnt function in the same financially beneficial way it does for white people because the real estate market, the entire notion of how value is accumulated, calculated, is completely tied up in racist motions about who black people are, which is to say the market itself is socially constructed. Janet Webster Jones, what of your regular customers been saying to you . My regular customers have been so very supportive and so kind to us. In fact i have to say on tv we have people even make contributions to us that we did not ask for but they send in the mail to us, and i am so overwhelmed by that. Really makes me feel very emotional when i hear that. Tells me we have truly embed ourselves in the community and our motto has been to serve the community, and even through this time were in now, i think our work is really served the community. The community is coming to us through the electronic devices, online media, phone calls and email and we have been able to be the touch with people we didnt know other states but heard of us or looked us up, and so our experience has been shocking to say the least, when it first happened, but its been so rewarding in the long run because people have wanted to help us and to support us. Now, a lot of book stores were Holding Virtual author events. Have you explored that . Have to talk to this one again. Last friday we had our first foray in entire online author talk, two young enemy who went to the university of michigan young men who went to the university of michigan, and landed in detroit as part of teach for america, and then they began to explore in their minds, what is this going nondetroit . And they wrote become called the peoples history of detroit, and i have to give theyre young millenial able toes, two young white boys who work hard to figure out what was going on in detroit during the several years in detroit. Now a pursuing ph. Ds at the university of southern california, one in santa cruz and one in santa barbara. So they were charming young mean and we were in our dining room talking to them. The book spans from 1913 to the present of detroit. What i had did you learn about detroit from the book . What did we learn . I guess youre both natives, correct . Yes. Duke University Published the book and i guess in looking into things coming up, we found it, and it was due to come out on may day and we thought it would be very interesting as a may day book to come out because they do talk about the workers and the history of workers of detroit as well as workers of the world. Now, alyson jonesturner if you could lean in just a little bit so we can see all of you. Company, sorry. Not a problem. What has it been like talking with the publishers and the Booksellers Association . Have they been helpful during this period . Theyve been helple. The publishers have really supported us, and theyre really trying to hundred us get through this time period. And the american book severals Association Even have virtual meetups to help cheer us up and help to spread resources and share i, i guess, among the industry that could help us at this time. Theres a new website called book shop. Org. Have you taken part in that at all . We are on the edge of it but we can find out for book shop, and we have our spot in there but have not utilized its lot because we have been working so hard what were doing now. So, yes, part of it. We heard from other book sellers they have used it successfully. A young woman in brooklyn talked about it on one of our zoom meetings, and others have as well. Sometimes its a combination of ones open website, the store, the physical use of the store, book shop, the audio, opportunities to by using so i think its a good thing and i think that all of us are planning to use [inaudible] combination so we can get books in hands of the custom ares. Do you have a machine to reopen your Physical Plant . Plan to reopen your Physical Plant . Our governor is thinking may 28th. That could change. Were definitely going to have to open differently. Meeting whatever standards are safest for our customers and offers. We have to think but how to serve our customers best. One thing we came up with for that weekend, we want to have a special gift for all those people who have made sales online so this is a little surprise gift. Im not going to reveal it. Well sort of gather up these almost 200 sales, individual sales of people, doing theirs time period and give them a big thank you at that time, and then ive been thinking but having some because were under 900 square feet in our store so we have been thinking about having an appointment day for our very special loyal customers, and invite them to come with invitation to come and spend an our browsing the store. We have people saying i miss browsing in the store so we thought wed do a little event like that. And then after that, if we maybe have our hours adjusted a little bit so we dont have as many people coming but letting people know what is possible. So its going to be different. Not the same as it was. And of course we want to abide by the governors rules and regular layings. When i vivid your book store last summer i mitt some of your employees. Have you had to lay them off. Yes, theyre both we put them on temporary leave, and theyve both been able to acquire unemployment. We have to laugh all the time at this store bus we have old people. Old people are at home so theyre good. I did take into consideration that ppp and i almost finishwood if but i kind of leaned back from that because its a situation where we dont have a lot of employees and in order to have employees you need sales so we can hardly predict what the sales would be and what people would do, so this time period has taught me a lot about the financial aspect of business at this time. We have been very grateful to receive a small grant from our local tech town, and it helped us pay our end of the month of march bills, few left over left to be paid. Still have a couple more. And then making applications to other grants. So, were just sort of plodding along, and see what happens. Dont really know. Before we lows close out, one more become from you. Alyson jonesturner, what do you want to rem recommend. I want to recommend driving while black. This book is. I ask you to lean in one more time. This book is hold on to it. Change the life of africanamericans, and the book was used for a pbs documentary as well called driving while black. And its a wonderful read. She also enter weaves interweaves her own family history. I believe she teaches in upstate new york. I could be wrong but booktv has covered her as well. Heres a portion of that book. Oh, good. Thank you. So the grown book is the most longlasting of the africanamerican travel gods and the rope it was so longlasting was because of their relationship with standard animal which is exon are so formerly esso gas stations, esso w