Crime fiction taught me a lot—about the industry and myself. Back in 2017, I was one of the few weaving intersectionality and the realities of racism into the narrative. The offers came rolling in, mainly from those who thought they could lead a Black man where they believed he couldn’t go alone. They came with smiles and whispered “opportunities” they assumed I wouldn’t understand. Change your titles and your subject matter, they said. Fit in, or face the consequences. But I knew better. I didn't need their guidance—I knew the terrain better than they ever bothered to learn.

I needed The Freedom Number: 2,000 unique readers outside my circle. Real people, not my uncle’s Moose Lodge or a local bridge club. I took a page from Too Short, selling books from my trunk, and hit that number. That was my bag. With it, I built my own house, Bronzeville Books, named after the neighborhood where I was born, that shaped me, and where I launched my stand-up career. What we do works because we’re still in the supply chain business, as we have been since the Great Colored Migration when Grandpa Gardner shipped Black American dailies and weeklies across the Midwest once the automobile put the Pullman Porters out of business.

Through the Allied Gardner Supply Chain (AGSC), the Gardner Family has supported the independence of Black media since the 1950s, offering a path outside the traditional constraints of publishing giants. We’re using innovative tools like geolocation, dynamic logistics, and subscriber management to ensure our stories reach the hands they’re meant for.

Now, the game has changed. It’s not about who got there first or who held the door. It’s about what we build next. We have formed two new imprints for books beyond the BRONZEVILLE brand in intersectional literature, content, and products, each operating within the Bronzeverse’s Social Equity mandate.

Shelter Books by Bronzeville is coming—a sanctuary for those who lost their deals or regained their rights. It’s about reclaiming a rightful place in the world of words. Shelter is more than an imprint; it’s a lifeline for authors in challenging circumstances, offering a chance to reclaim their narrative and thrive in a supportive, equitable environment.

SPEAKEASY, by Bronzeville, caters to the unbound of convention and spirit who seek comfort in bold voices speaking for self and community. Speakeasy works defy standard categorization, yielding a series of titles, not quite novels, but no less literate, that helped us define sustainable publishing opportunities in memoir, spoken prose, storytelling, and comedy.

Each of these initiatives was funded and incubated by the Bronzeverse Social Equity Fund and the Allied Gardner Supply Chain for Books, a joint venture between two entities committed to establishing and growing BIPOC social equity in trade books and adjacent sectors contributing to the advancement of BIPOC communities in LMI areas.

Be you a constituent, an ally, a customer, or a partner, we invite you to join, subscribe, and embrace the vast possibilities of BIPOC social equity in books, content, and information. We are established for the Bronze era, where we’ll make sure you’ll find intersectional books to read for you, your family, and community.

Very truly yours,

Daniel P. Gardner, Sr., Founder

Bronzeville Books, LLC, and The Allied Gardner Company

A Black-Owned Business For Everyone