For Jasmine Settles, the love of reading started early.

Her grandmother instilled in her a passion for literature, the theater and the arts, generally. And while she drifted away from books for a while, she rediscovered that love as she pursued her master’s degree at the University of Memphis.

“I was introduced to so many authors that I had never heard of,” Settles said. “I just think about if I had experienced these works at an earlier age, what trajectory would that have put me on?”

That is the idea behind Settles’ business, Cafe Noir, a bookstore highlighting the works of Black authors, queer authors, authors of color and local authors.

"I just want to be able to offer these multitudes of experiences and multitude of authors and multitude of works to folks who might not be introduced to these works,” she said. “Our school systems only can do so much when it comes to educating, so why not be able to give a more diverse look into the world that's around us?”

During her last year of graduate school at the University of Memphis, Settles saw the expansion of virtual gathering spaces prompted by the pandemic. She had been mulling over the Cafe Noir concept and decided, even though she was still in grad school and pregnant with her son in the middle of a pandemic, it was the right time for her to launch her business.

MEMPHIS DEVELOPMENT: Is Uptown Memphis’ Malone Park Commons project a national model for urban development?

Q&A: The Memphis Medical District is 'really growing.' What's next for the area?

Cafe Noir debuted virtually in January 2021 and has been growing ever since.

While she’s had incredible support from friends, family members and the Black Bookstore Collective, there have been moments she has felt in over her head. In addition to being a new mom and starting a business, Settles is also still working full-time at a photography studio.

What keeps her going is thinking of the resource a community-focused bookstore will provide for her son, his generation and the generation that comes after that. Education funding has been slashed across the country, and advocacy groups have been warning for the past several years of a funding crisis for public K-12 schools.

Literacy in the Mid-South

One consequence of those budget cuts could be declining literacy rates.

“Our main goal is to just push literacy in our community,” Settles said. That involves “being able to push the initiative and get folks to read and be able to see more characters that reflect the vastness and multifaceted groups in our community.”

This is especially pressing in regions, like the Mid-South, which have lower child and adult literacy rates than the country as a whole. According to the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, “there is a strong regional divide” in overall literacy rates.

“The Midwest and Northeast have much higher and more regionally consistent literacy rates. In the South and West, literacy rates can vary widely from county to county.”

Those variations matter for individuals, families and communities. Lower literacy rates are correlated with a higher likelihood of incarceration and higher poverty rates.

MEMPHIS AUTHORS: From Opal Lee to MLK, this Memphis author chronicles Black history for children

MEMPHIS-SHELBY COUNTY SCHOOLS: 1 in 4 MSCS schools getting new principals; new communication, safety leaders announced

According to the non-profit Literacy Mid-South, the impacts of low-literacy cost the U.S. at least $225 billion annually due to crime, non-productivity in the workforce and lost tax revenue due to unemployment.

In addition, low health literacy also costs the U.S. more than $100 billion, and up to as much as $236 billion, each year. According to Literacy Mid-South, close to one-quarter of Americans “have only a 2-in-3 chance of correctly reading an over-the-counter drug label or understanding their child's vaccination chart.”

A national trend

Settles, a native Memphian and White Station High School graduate, left the Bluff City to play basketball at Alabama State and then Henderson State before returning home for grad school and later starting her own business.

And while the pandemic, by and large, caused a great deal of economic upheaval, independent bookstores have actually flourished over the past two years, according to Publishers Weekly.

Allison Hill, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, told the publication there had been growth in the association’s membership. She said there were “exciting trends in new stores — more diversity, location-independent formats, smaller sizes with room for growth — and an increased interest in nonprofit and co-op models.”

There has also been a particular growth in independent Black-owned bookstores across the country.

Settles is now in phase two, trying to move Cafe Noir from a solely virtual space to a brick-and-mortar book store and coffee shop. She's looking to raise $100,000 for the physical location.

“Somewhere where folks can come and feel welcome and, you know, maybe enjoy a great cup of coffee or get the newest release or join us in an author talk, an author event, things of that nature,” she said.

Corinne S Kennedy covers economic development and healthcare for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached via email at Corinne.Kennedy@CommercialAppeal.com 

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis bookstore Cafe Noir looking to expand, promote Black authors