On the corner of Macon Street and Marcus Garvey Boulevard, a beloved Bedford-Stuyvesant hardware store is getting a second life.
The former Macon Hardware, owned for nearly 50 years by Black proprietor Clara Hayes, is being transformed into North Star Books + Bar, a Black-owned bookstore, bar and cafe from Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and The 1619 Project author Nikole Hannah-Jones.
The North Star partnership includes longtime neighborhood business operator Rotimi Akinnuoye, of Bed-Vyne Wine and Bed-Vyne Brew fame, and DJ Johnson of Baldwin & Co., a bookstore and coffee shop in New Orleans.
Hannah-Jones said she has been dreaming about opening a Black-owned bookstore in Bed-Stuy for a decade.
“When I first moved to Bed-Stuy, there was no bookstore. And there was no Black-owned bookstore. I always thought that was just a tragedy in a neighborhood like this,” she said.
The inspiration clicked for Jones when she visited Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C., a hybrid restaurant, bookstore and event space known for radical talks and political programming.
“From the beginning I knew I wanted to name it The North Star,” she explained, citing Frederick Douglass’s abolitionist newspaper. “Black bookstores in particular have always been these politically subversive places, so I really wanted to call into that legacy of reading Black texts is how we get free.”
Finding the right home for that vision was a challenge, but when Hannah-Jones read a story about the neighborhood mourning the closing of Macon Hardware, she jumped into action.
“When I saw that story, I hurried up and drove by. When I saw the building, I was like, this building is perfect… it’s been Black-owned for like four decades. To keep it Black-owned would be amazing," she said.
After having difficulty getting calls returned from real estate firms, Hannah-Jones said she went directly to Mr. Hayes: “I’m not asking for a hookup, I’m not asking for a discount. But if you’re gonna sell it… give me the chance to be the one to buy it.”
The romance of the project quickly collided with the reality of city construction and historic renovation. The 100-year-old building needed a full gut renovation, and Hannah-Jones said she had trouble navigating all the rules sanctioned by the city Landmarks Preservation Commission.
“They even want to tell you what color grout you can put on your bricks,” Hannah-Jones said with a laugh. “We got a couple stop work orders… It’s New York City. Not for the faint of heart.”
When North Star opens, now slated for the spring of 2026, the 2,200-square-foot ground floor will hold the bookstore, a central reading room, a lounge, and a bar inspired by Harlem Renaissance–era Art Deco design. Shelving will be movable, allowing the store to host large author talks and community events.
Programming will stretch beyond standard readings. Hannah-Jones envisions national and international authors making Bed-Stuy a mandatory stop, alongside local self-published writers, Black history lecture series, spoken word nights, live music, film screenings, and neighborhood-specific talks on Bed-Stuy’s architecture and cultural history.
“I think it would be amazing to turn Bed-Stuy into a literary hub, like a literary corridor… a book festival, a book crawl,” she said. "The goal is collaboration, not competition, with other nearby Black bookstores."
Upstairs, two apartments will help support that vision. One will be rented; the other is being held as a “micro-residency” for visiting writers.
“What I really want is, when writers come and do a book talk, they stay in the neighborhood,” Hannah-Jones said, who is planning on asking the writer-in-residence to conduct workshops and do programming for nearby public housing residents.
Akinnuoye is plotting a sophisticated, but accessible bar program. A cocktail list called The Black List will feature Black-owned spirits, with drinks named after Black writers and the liquors they favored. The daytime coffee program will reflect ambition and access: there will be high-end drinks, but also a “bodega cup” priced to match the corner store.
“We will have failed if only wealthy Black people are coming,” she said. “We really want this to be a space of community.”
In an era of book bans, political backlash, and cultural anxiety, Hannah-Jones is frank about North Star’s purpose.
“It is important for us to defend Black literature, Black artistic creation… and to provide a place of refuge in this moment,” she said. “Unapologetically Black, but open to all.”
