Urban Reads Renovation & Literacy Project

Happy 5 Years, Urban Reads (December 15, 2024)

My name is Tia Hamilton, the founder of Urban Reads Bookstore. Urban Reads was founded on my magazine, State Vs Us Magazine, which is a criminal justice magazine. When no one wanted to put my magazine in their store, I decided to start Urban Reads Bookstore to not only give my magazine a home but also incarcerated and local authors that same opportunity.

Incarcerated authors are making more with me than with Amazon.

We are a premier outlet for community resources and opportunities.

Hailed right here in the heart of Baltimore City, we do a lot of community engagement for our incarcerated population, our youth, and the elderly. Book donations for incarcerated individuals are number one when you speak of illiteracy in prisons. Prison illiteracy is 76% high the highest it's ever been. Americans are on a 7th-9th grade reading level, while black children are on a 3rd to 4th grade reading level, and all of this ties into one another. We have to get these children reading to keep them from prison.

We are asking for your help to renovate Urban Reads Bookstore with new bathrooms, painting, upgrading, and fixing our stage, lighting, cafe area, flooring, and shelving. I also want to have an upgraded internet cafe where the community can come and use the computers. I would also like to have a reading section for children. We also want to create a child and Latino section due to our high Latino population surrounding our store. They are not receiving enough tools needed to help them read. I want to bridge that gap.

Your donation will help make this happen.

Urban Reads is also a 3x winner of Bookstore of the Year, listed as Baltimore Magazine's top 18 bookstores 2021, winner of Black Girls Who Write, ICarr Foundation Leadership Award, and a list of other awards.

Thank you

Renovations will include

Bathrooms

Flooring

Shelving

Stage

Children corner

Lighting

Paint

Computers

Desk

Cafe inventory(refrigerators, espresso machine, tea maker, coffee maker, panini machine, blenders, etc