NEW ORLEANS — Hundreds of authors are arriving in the city for the New Orleans Book Festival. Early Thursday morning, the Literacy Lounge at the festival was being stocked by the team from Baldwin & Company. Owner DJ Johnson says their pop-up store at the festival is bringing together an impressive lineup of writers.

“We have an amazing curation of phenomenal authors here. We have well over 250 authors,” Johnson said. “We have some of the most prominent thought leaders in the country.”

During the festival, readers will have the chance to meet their favorite writers and hear them in conversation with one another — sometimes pairing speakers audiences might not expect.

“People who you’d never think about pairing up in conversation before,” Johnson said.

Events like this are not new for Baldwin & Company. The bookstore frequently hosts author talks and community events at its brick-and-mortar location on Elysian Fields Avenue. The store is a community and cultural hub, something Johnson says isn’t unique to just his store, but for all Black-owned bookstores.

“Most Black businesses, we don’t have the luxury or the privilege to only be that business. We don’t have the luxury to only be a bookstore or only be a coffee shop,” Johnson said. “We have a responsibility through our ancestors that we have to serve the broader community’s needs. Whether that’s household goods, whether that’s rent assistance, whether that’s clothing and shoes, and school supplies. We at Baldwin and Company try to provide all those needs because we understand that a healthy family is a healthy mind, which develops a healthy community, which develops into a healthy world.”

According to a recently curated directory by the National Association of Black Bookstores, Baldwin & Company is one of only two Black-owned bookstores in New Orleans. The other is the Community Book Center, located on historic Bayou Road.

Founder Vera Warren Williams says the bookstore has been rooted in community service since it opened in 1983. Owners of both bookstores say Black-owned bookstores have long served as gathering spaces and intellectual hubs.

“It’s a meeting place, it’s a gathering place. It’s a place where people come together and get energy and give energy, to help strategize on how we can make our communities better,” Williams said.

That mission, Johnson says, is part of a long tradition.

“We are part of a movement, we are part of an infrastructure that has actually preserved democracy more than I would say any other infrastructure in terms of being voices of the people,” Johnson said. “[Black] bookstores have served as places where individuals can not only come and think out loud, but get the information that our powerful voices have helped prolong America into where it is today and position it to be the country it is today.”

Williams acknowledges the work hasn’t always been easy, but she says the need for spaces like Community Book Center remains strong.

“We saw the need that existed way back then and even more so now,” she said.

For visitors in town for the festival, bookstore owners encourage them to explore beyond the festival grounds.

“We welcome them, not only to Community Book Center but to historic Bayou Road,” Williams said.