Bol Worker Owned Bookstore Cafe

06/17/2026

On June 13, BOL held a gathering to celebrate the legacy of Walter Rodney and the Caribbean Radical Tradition. Walter Rodney represented the best of the scholar activist tradition by taking his scholarship out of the academy in service of social movements and political struggles for liberation. Rodney was a proud Pan-Africanist and Marxist but he resisted the doctrinaire approach to ideology. Rodney engaged people in their own context through dialogue and close conversations, a method he called Groundings. To find out more about the legacy of Walter Rodney check out this great book and others inspired by his legacy at BOL COOP.

06/15/2026

Bol is looking for communication interns! Are you (or do you know) a high school student, college student, or recent graduate who is interested in media, publishing, and community-based cultural work? Do you/they want to become part of the first worker owned bookstore cooperative in DC? If so, check out this link https//shorturl.at/oepChv and apply today! 🌈

06/09/2026

Join us this Saturday June 13th at 10:30am for a bilingual story hour in Hindi-English. Bring your kids, bring yourself!

Shom Tiwari is a local librarian. They will read out stories and play some music.

Some of the books used for the story time include:

My First Book of Hindi Words by Rina Singh
Chaiwala! by Priti Birla Maheshwari
Luli and the Language of Tea by Andrea Wang

These books will be available for sale at Bol.

06/09/2026

Join us on June 17th at 6:30pm for an engaging conversation with Dr. Delia Aguilar about her book Toward A Nationalist Feminism.

Delia D. Aguilar was involved in the women’s movement in the US and in the Philippines at their different moments of inception, engaging with and critiquing both, along with comrades of color in the academy and outside. Her writings reflect this engagement: The Feminist Challenge (Asian Social Institute, 1988), Filipino Housewives Speak (St. Scholastica’s College, 1990), Women and Globalization (Humanity Books, co-edited with Anne Lacsamana, 2004). She has taught women’s studies in the Philippines and in the United States.

The new edition of Aguilar’s Toward a Nationalist Feminism was launched in 2024 in Ateneo University in the Philippines. It was sponsored, among others, by the online journal Kritika Kultura. According to Canadian/Iranian feminist scholar Shahrzad Mojab, this book “gave us the political and theoretical tools twenty-five years ago and its reprint with new additions is critical for understanding the historical roots of the present and forging a feminist revolutionary path forward.”

The book will be available for sale at Bol.

RSVP using the events link in our bio.

06/06/2026

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Join us for a special Cookbook Club on Thursday, June 18 from 7 to 9 pm (after this one, we’ll go back to our newfound convenience of having Cookbook Clubs on Sundays) where we will be joined by the legendary Anela Malik, ( )a DC-based author, speaker, and host whose work centers Black women, curiosity, and the belief that a bigger, more meaningful life is not only possible, but worth claiming.

Anela is one of the authors of American Soul: The Black History of Food in the United States, which was published by National Geographic last year. Often treated as regional, niche, or “ethnic,” Black foodways are foundational to how America eats. American Soul traces those roots across the country, connecting history, place, and people to show how food has always been a tool for survival, creativity, and community. Through stunning photography and thoughtful storytelling, the authors documents what Black communities have built, what they’ve passed down, and how their influence continues to shape American culture today. 

Once you register by purchasing a ticket via our withfriends page, you will receive a sign-up sheet with a list of recipes from American Soul. You can select a recipe to make and bring to the event, where we will be eating and conversing in community with one another and Anela. 

We will also be curating a selection of wines paired to the theme of the cookbook. When purchasing your ticket, you have the option of purchasing an additional “wine tasting experience”. This will be good for one glass of wine or a taste of three wines, along with context about how the production of wine is intimately connected to climate, labour, and politics.

Tickets are expected to sell quickly—reserve your spot now!

05/17/2026

A moving conversation about finding oneself through love, loss, old letters and a dusty well worn book in A Room in Bombay. https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-room-in-bombay-a-memoir-manil-suri/d371caece62fdb0e?ean=9781324106388&next=t

05/17/2026

05/17/2026

Shehzad Ghias discussing satire comedy, silenced history and nationalism from his new book, Pakistan Lost at BOL COOP 5/14