My favorite writer is Hanif Abdurraqib. Because of Egypt Otis and Comma Bookstore and Social Club, I had the chance to babble a few words to him while he was browsing the store prior to a talk he did in 2024 as part of his book tour to promote, ‘There’s Always This Year.’
During his talk, as he was discussing one of my favorite topics, legendary city hoopers who never “make it” in the traditional sense but become immortal icons on the playgrounds in their cities, he uttered one of my favorite quotes I’ve ever heard: “If your name rings out in the streets you played in, that’s making it, that’s legendary.”
Abdurraquib is one of the most accomplished essayists and poets in the country. He has a long list of notable literary awards and recognitions, including a MacArthur Fellowship. He’s a best-selling author of several books. The fact that he was in Flint was a big deal, and he was only here because Egypt and Comma existed. On his book tour, he intentionally went to several non-major cities, but in order to be a city that could get him, you needed to have some sort of venue or literary space to host him as well as a curator of that space who understood the magnitude of getting a writer like him to the city. Egypt had both, along with the vision to understand why bringing writers like him to Flint is vital.
I first met Egypt five years ago, shortly after she’d opened the store downtown Flint. I was interviewing her for Flintside, and one of my favorite parts of that conversation was how she connected Comma to a deeper legacy of the space she was in. The building that housed Comma once housed Pages Bookstore, which was also a Black woman-owned bookstore.
In the years since, Comma has become one of my favorite places in the city to stop in. My nieces, nephews, and kids of my friends all have books from the really beautiful selection of kid-focused literature in the store that was a go-to for me any time any of them needed a gift. My home is full of artwork from Flint artists whose prints Egypt made available in the store (Pauly Everett, Keyon Lovett, and Isiah Lattimore to name just a few). Whether I was just in a mood to spend money I didn’t have on something random, or I had a mission to find something specific, Comma became the first place I’d check for books, vinyl, shirts, stickers, and other things I didn’t know I needed.
Comma is closing this month, and I’m trying not to be depressed about it. So I wanted to take a few minutes to, instead, focus on what it meant to me and the unique element it added to downtown.
Understanding Community
Another Flintside story: when I was editing the publication, my friend Eric Woodyard, an ESPN reporter and Flint native, came to me with an intriguing project. He’d completed a draft of a book about legendary Flint basketball player Kelvin Torbert, but he was having trouble finding a publisher.
Flintside had relationships with some funders, but obviously no history of publishing any print product let alone a book. The business side of that publication also wasn’t local and didn’t have a deep understanding of Flint, and didn’t really appreciate sports as a topic area worthy of regular coverage, so needless to say trying to get them to make fundraising asks to publish a book about sports was a tough sell.
I wanted to do it, though, and it involved a lot of tough sells after that, to my bosses at the time, to local funders to try and explain the “why” behind the project, and to come up with a plan to distribute books into the community.
There were a lot of hard parts, but the easy part was working with Comma. In the midst of several lengthy conversations to explain the value of the project, my conversation with Egypt lasted about five minutes. In that short time, she’d agreed to host an event in her store, help with promotion, and sell copies of the book in her store.
What resulted was a beautifully designed book that properly honors a Flint athletic giant, that features writing, photography, and design by Flint natives, and that was unveiled to the community in a beautiful environment at Comma.
Community matters above all else, and I always felt that immediately when I’d walk in the door at Comma.
A Real Legacy
A unique aspect of Comma’s story is that Egypt shared the ups and downs of owning a small business pretty regularly. I think anyone who tries to turn a passion project into a business venture that you can make a living on experiences those struggles, but often, we hide them. Egypt shared when the store was struggling, she shared when she needed things, she shared triumphs, and she shared her frustrations.
I’m going to be petty here for a second, because that’s just a part of my nature I can’t turn off. There is fairly significant money downtown Flint. More specifically, there is money concentrated among a few sources that has been thrown at some business concepts that … let’s just say … were odd fits at different points in the recent history of downtown Flint’s resurgence. Several individuals contributed to Comma and supported it in different ways, so this is not meant to say that the store had no support, because that isn’t true. But support from the “ability to write one check and fix something” sort of people exists in this city, we’ve seen that level of support done for other things, and it would’ve been nice to see support on that level for a place that was truly unique and actually wasn’t asking for much to stay afloat in the grand scheme of things. Okay, that’s the end of my petty aside.
There are still at least a couple of chances to give Comma a sendoff, as the store plans to close permanently by December 31, so stop in this weekend if you can. Egypt will still be visible, too – she recently spoke with Flintside about her future plans, and we profiled an amazing archive project over the summer that aligns with research she’s doing in her master’s program.
Egypt willingly sharing her vulnerabilities, challenges, and experiences trying to make a business take off while balancing being a parent, pursuing an advanced degree, and many other busy parts of life provided valuable insight. Those lessons, along with the programs, music, literature, art, and vibes her store regularly brought to life in the community have possibly already inspired the next young person who will continue the Pages-to-Comma-to-TBD lineage in that space someday. That’s making it, that’s legendary.
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