Zakiyyah ‘Silly Sally’ Shahid’s family archive of Black literature is seriously worth sharing 

Her name is Zakiyyah Shahid, but she goes by “Silly Sally.”

“I’m a giggle-box” she says. “My whole life I’ve been called ‘Silly’ or ‘Giggles.’” Then, as if to demonstrate, she erupts into laughter like a just-popped magnum of Champagne.

But nicknames aside, Shahid has a serious mission: to make reading a festive, communal, group activity. And to that end, she brings some heavyweight literature to the table. She’s presenting Books & Bevs on November 7 in the event space of My Milk & Money, where her vintage shop, The Blonde Gazelle, is a vendor.

Think of the event as an interactive, pop-up literary festival. Known as the Blonde Gazelle Archives, Shahid’s collection of historic books documenting the Black experience — from literature, Civil Rights and political thought to sports, journalism and culture — will be available for a public-facing reading room experience.

“I believe the story extends beyond the event itself,” says Shahid. “These books preserve not only ideas and history but also traces of the people and institutions that owned, read and passed them along over the decades.”

The books are the legacy of her parents, who were part of the Black Power movement in Chicago before migrating to the Black Mecca of Atlanta, where her father was a chaplain in the Gwinnett County detention system. “I was born at Grady Hospital, so I’m as Atlanta as you get,” says Shahid, who also teaches home-schooled children. 

Seventeen years ago, her parents gifted her their extensive library, which includes antiquarian Black reference books from 1897 as well as editions of Gloria Naylor, Zora Neale Hurston, H. Rap Brown and James Baldwin. Also in the mix is a slew of old National Geographic magazines.  

“Honestly, they were just sitting in my garage collecting dust,” Shahid says. “I didn’t want to throw them away or sell them, but I didn’t know what to do with them.” 

Inspiration came from the mouths of babes — specifically, one of her students, Ari Okoli, an 8-year-old bookworm. “I was looking around [My Milk & Money], and I wanted to make a spot for books since they were missing a book corner,” says Okoli. “I wanted to come up with an event called Books and Vibes.”

Shahid’s 13-year-old son, Robbie, reminded her of the sprawling archive she already owned. “He added the ‘Bevs’ part of the event title for beverages, and thus ‘Books & Bevs’ was born,” she says. 

The event invites the community to come and sit a spell, explore selected books, enjoy coffee and refreshments and connect through conversation.

“Where else can you read something from 1897?” Shahid says. “You don’t have to be a professional historian to touch and experience history. I want to use this event for building community and bringing people together in a spirit of unity and learning.”  

Once the books have been gently perused, she plans to donate them to the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Studies. 

“I don’t want them to go to waste,” she says. “I want them to be always in use somehow, to continue to spark people talking and exchanging ideas.”   

And, maybe in lighter moments, giggling. 

Where & When

Books & Bevs, hosted by the Blonde Gazelle, is at the event space of My Milk & Money in Conyers on November 7 from noon until 3 p.m. • 895-A Flat Shoals Road SE., Conyers.

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Candice Dyer’s work has appeared in magazines such as Atlanta, Garden & Gun, Men’s Journal and Country Living. She is the author of Street Singers, Soul Shakers, Rebels with a Cause: Music from Macon.