Harriett’s Bookshop

Why it matters: Jeannine A. Cook opened this Black-owned Fishtown bookshop on 1 February 2020 and built it around a single idea – celebrating women authors, artists and activists in honour of Harriet Tubman. Six weeks later the pandemic shut the doors, and Cook kept it alive by moving the stock onto the pavement and selling on the honour system, then delivering books to Philadelphia kids on horseback. It worked: sister shops followed in Collingswood and Paris, while the original still stands on the corner of Girard and Marlborough. It is a small room, so go with time to talk to whoever is behind the counter rather than to browse in silence – open daily, noon to 6pm.