Bridgeport’s Kindred Thoughts Bookstore features hundreds of in-store books and millions of online titles penned by Black authors.
Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz and Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim visited the store on Tuesday for national Black Literacy Day.
Bysiewicz said the small business is a model for communities around the state.
“Every community needs a bookstore, at least one, hopefully many,” Bysiewitz said. “Because these are books that you can't get anywhere else. And they're very inspiring and well chosen. And this is just like a fun community space.”
Bysiewicz, who said she comes from a family of librarians, bought a book before she left: “The Truths We Hold” by Vice President Kamala Harris.
Co-owner Derek Tompkins said the store attracts all kinds of people and has grown into its own community.
“Trying to emphasize authors of the African diaspora is where we started and it started small,” Tompkins said. “We were a book club that kind of morphed into an online book store, then we started doing local vending.”
Kindred Thoughts is owned by Derek Tompkins and Karin Smith and is located at 1001 Main Street.
