It's a beautiful day on Auburn Ave in Atlanta. Auburn Ave used to be what fortune magazine

called in 1957, the richest Negro street in the world. And today, the vast majority

of those businesses are gone. But what does stand is a new business, paying homage

in a way to that old legacy.

My name is Baudelaire and today on Atlas Obscura, I'm taking y'all to a summit called

an interactive art museum of black thought for keeps bookstore. More after this.

I am a lover of books. All kinds of books, but specifically, I love a good book by some

of the greatest minds in black history. Folks like Maya Angelou, Franz Fennon, and

Mel Corka Brawl in Zora Neal, Hurston. Now I've been living in Atlanta for about

nine months, and recently a cousin of mine, knowing my interest, suggested I check out

this bookstore downtown called for keeps. I tell folks every day, it's not Barnes

and Noble, so don't come in expecting Barnes and Noble vibes. This is Rosa Duffy, the

shop owner, and a book lover like me. I knew that like across the board, it didn't matter

kind of what your interest was. You could be, you know, a doctor, you could be into music,

be a podcaster, you could be, you know, a fashion designer, you could be whatever, and

you're going to find something to, you know, trigger your inspiration in this space.

Rosa's right. This place has everything. James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Angela Davis,

Tony Morrison, Walter Rodney, and others. And even better than that, it has original copies

of some of the works by these icons. And it's all because of Rosa, who as I found out,

has her own dope origin store. Yeah, I was born about, you know, less than a mile from

where the store is now, which is funny. My parents still attend church service, literally

you can see it from the front of the store. The store is on the historic Auburn Avenue,

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