From The Classroom Into The Community: The Story Behind Brooklyn Book Bodega
Brooklyn Book Bodega Cofounders, Tamara Jachimowicz, Seema Aghera, and Rebecca Cohen
By Tyler McClure
Rebecca Cohen and Seema Aghera, cofounders of Brooklyn Book Bodega, share the journey of creating a nonprofit focused on increasing the number of 100+ book homes for kids in New York City. Rebecca’s teaching experience at various schools emphasized the positive impact of reading on students’ academic and personal growth. Seema, as PTA president, noticed a discrepancy in book access among students and partnered with Rebecca, combining their strengths to address the issue. Tamara Jachimowicz, the third cofounder, is no longer involved in daily activities, but is a proud member of the Brooklyn Book Bodega board of directors.
In this interview, Rebecca and Seema share their journey and their firsthand perspective on the transformative power of increasing book access for children and the role Brooklyn Book Bodega plays in fostering connections within the community.
A Teacher’s Perspective on Literacy
Rebecca: I went to college, became an English major, and then applied to Teach for America. Then I went and taught in Baltimore City.I had no books in my classroom outside of the books that were part of the curriculum. I'd get all these points through Scholastic books for my classroom. I would buy dollar books from Scholastic for a bookshelf. Then there was this guy, Russ, who ran The Book Thing of Baltimore. I would go there, fill up boxes of books, and then I had a shelf of books. That flipped how I was able to talk to my students about books.
I would be able to say to them, "Do you like this book? Keep it. If you don't like it, bring it back. I can get more next Saturday.” I started to notice that my students became readers. Then I moved from Baltimore. I taught in South Texas. I taught in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. And everywhere I went, I saw that kids became readers when they read what they wanted to read. Kids who were readers were better students. They're better students in my class, better students in the school. I saw that impact on their lives.
The Team
Rebecca: Seema's oldest daughter and my oldest son were in the same first grade class and Seema is very energetic and an involved person. She immediately got involved in all the parent committees and became head of the PTA. We knew each other casually, so we became friends. Tamara, our third cofounder was another parent with kids at the school. I knew her ... then basically shared this idea with Seema and we just started to talk to other people about it, and Tamara was like, “I'm in. Let's do this.”
Then Tamara, Seema, and I started to look at the research. The research confirmed what I had anecdotally seen over and over again with my students—kids who read do better in life. Tamara's a psychologist. Seema brought the operational aspect. I brought the education aspect. I think we were a very good team from the outset…looking at what we were trying to do from our own unique perspectives on kids, learning, and families.
How Brooklyn Book Bodega Got Its Start
Seema: I would say that we did market research, to figure out if this is something that makes sense to do in the community. We thought there was not something quite like this in New York City. How about we hold some pilot programs to see if it makes sense? At that point, there was another parent at our kids' school who was the gym supervisor, Mel Carnegie or Coach Mel, at a NYCHA community center not far from the school. He had offered the space to host some programming for us.
In December of 2018, we had free programming. He had some books in his gym, we asked people if they wanted to donate books, and we collected some books. We hung up flyers and invited people to come to the community center to get books, donate books, and participate in the activities.
There were 35 people at the first one.
And then we did a second one, and then there were more people, and then we did a third one, and there were more people.
Word had gone around and we realized that this was something that families were looking for. They were looking for things to do on the weekend with their kids. They were looking for book access. They were looking for places to donate books. They were looking for places to volunteer. But the other piece of it was this idea of bringing together a community that could potentially be different races, and different socioeconomic backgrounds in a space where you feel like you're all there for the same reason. So you're all there around this idea of literacy for your family. It was focused on community.
Getting Brooklyn Book Bodega Up and Running
Rebecca: When you start a nonprofit, you can start in a couple of ways. We had to visualize. We had to become a nonprofit. We had to learn about nonprofit laws. We had to learn about governance. We had to set up a board. There's all this backend operational and business management that you have to do.
Initially, we saw ourselves as a community organization—this idea of a community centered on books. We didn't know it would look like what it looks like today. And it was only during the pandemic that we shifted to book distribution. Pre-pandemic it was all basically Big Book Parties. We had no distribution mechanism.
I think one of the things that we did first is we came up with our core values, our mission, and our logo. Anita Walsh drew our amazing logo. We had six core values [Community, Choice, Access, Re-use, Discovery, Ownership]. We would always double-check every decision to see whether it aligned with those core values.
Bringing Diverse Backgrounds Together
Rebecca: Our first events were at Ingersoll, and Ingersoll is like a crossroads where there's a new-ish development on one side but there are also city housing projects. Neighbors were meeting neighbors. One of the things that we talked about early on is the idea of a big tent. We wanted people to find commonality where they might normally only find differences.
We had people crossing the street and talking to people who they wouldn't necessarily have crossed paths with before, but they're talking [to each other]. Asking things, like: “What book do you like and what are you going to get for your kid?” And then we also had people who told us “I'm a young parent, this is my 3-year-old kid. I do not own any books. The book I'm taking today is starting his library.” It was really fun and very rewarding.
How Brooklyn Book Bodega has influenced Seema
Seema: I never would've imagined five years ago, seeing myself do what I'm doing now. I think I've become more confident. I think I've learned a lot about myself that I can take some risks…and there can be success in that. Maybe it's not a straight path. There's been some ups and downs. Some days it feels like I'm climbing a mountain, to get to what needs to be done, but the end impact I know is real.
There's nothing better than to hear a parent or a kid say, “Oh my God, I love this book. Oh my God, you helped my kid at school.” Or if some family says “Now we spend more time together”, or “I learned about this because I got a book from Brooklyn Book Bodega.”
It's also been extremely inspirational to my kids, which I didn't think was going to happen. That's been really amazing because I didn't think that they were paying that detailed attention to what Rebecca and I are building, but they are. I think for them to see mom doing this, they really are inspired.
Brooklyn Book Bodega’s journey highlights the importance of literacy and the power of bringing people together. Rebecca and Seema’s passion for increasing book access has created connections across diverse communities, breaking down barriers between people from different backgrounds. Their work has shown that a simple mission can have a significant impact on education and community.
Tyler McClure attends St. Francis College and majors in Literature, Writing, & Publishing. She was Brooklyn Book Bodega’s spring 2024 intern.
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