On Monday, August 12, Norie Reading Room, based in Rochester, NY, faced an unspeakable loss. Their house caught fire, and the bookstore lost all its inventory, and the Rochester Fire Department deemed it a total loss. Thankfully, no one was physically hurt, but this loss is going to have lasting effects.

Not only is this where founder, Kris, has her bookstore, it also houses Flower City Noire Collective, another local nonprofit, and it is also their primary residence.

About Noire Reading Room:

Noire Reading Room is a Black and Queer independent bookstore based in Rochester, NY.

Noire Reading Room is birthed from Flower City Noire Collective, INC's Read with FCNC reading and discussion group that met in person until 2020 when the world demanded a shift in our ways of gathering. While moving our discussions to the digital space, the need for sourcing Black, Queer, and Radical texts to critically engage our minds during an uncertain time was made alarmingly clear when looking for 12 copies of Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements by Charlene Carruthers. Without utilizing the man in the moon's company, it was impossible to locally source the text and quantity needed for our community. This signaled how inaccessible books by Black Women, Femmes, and Queer folks are to source and further illuminated how erasure happens in subtle ways, in this instance, empty shelves.

Noire Reading Room officially launched on 4.20.2021 as a pop-up bookstore at events and markets across Rochester, NY. Our aim is to increase literacy engagement for folks of all ages and stop the erasure of Black Women, Femmes, and Queer authors.