
By Chardonnay Beaver, The Seattle Medium
Abundant greenery, Erykah Badu playing in the background, a portrait of Zora Neale Hurston hanging on the wall, African textiles and statues perfectly in place.
From the moment customers enter Loving Room Diaspora Books + Salon they’re transported into an Afrocentric reality dedicated to African American literature and celebration. For owner Kristina Clark, Loving Room is far more than selling books. Loving Room participates in Clark’s personal quests for cultural identity, home and belonging.
“Loving room comes out of Black love, first and foremost. What does it mean for us to love ourselves as Black people,” Clark said recently at her store, which is located at 20th and East Union Street in Seattle. “It’s about creating spaces for us to love on each other wholeheartedly.”
Adopted at birth by a white couple, Clark said her cultural identity was often a question mark. Black culture piqued her curiosity when she was a child. She wrestled with her perceived identity and culture. This internal conflict motivated Clark to curate a space for cultural connection.
“Do I really have the qualifications to open up a Black bookstore?” Clark said. “That longing for belonging that really shaped me from the time that I was a young person, and has definitely imprinted me all the way through adulthood.”
To quiet feelings of inadequacy, she turned to Black literature. She found it to be transformative, launching her into deeper understandings of Black diasporic culture.
For instance, through her own initiative as a fifth grader, she read the entirety of the Alex Haley classic “Roots: The Saga of an American Family.” She fell in love with Toni Morrison, James Baldwin and Zora Neale Hurston shortly after.
Clark wasn’t just reading books. She was attempting to unpack white supremacy.

With Loving Room’s one year business anniversary approaching, Clark has partnered with organizations and local entrepreneurs with like-minded agendas in celebrating Blackness. She’s intentional about creating space for community members and friends. In this way, Loving Room operates as a cultural hub, similar to a hair salon, the concept that inspired the “salon” in the bookstore’s name. Jeneva Burton is the owner of Where Is Neva? LLC, a brand that unites the African diaspora through storytelling, travel, holistic wellness and coaching. She says partnering with Loving Room allows her to live out her dreams. Clark and Burton originally met in Summer 2022, when Clark was promoting the concept of Loving Room as a vendor at a community event. Loving Room has generated a homecoming-like atmosphere for Burton, who grew up in Seattle.

Jeneva Burton is a holistic healer and entrepreneur based in the Pacific Northwest. Her partnership with Loving Room allows her the space to host her bimonthly workshop series “Black Love Seat x Where is Neva”. (Photo courtesy of Jeneva Burton)
Clark’s quest for cultural belonging is a common experience among Black Seattleites.
“Being African American, there is a pull to want to call something home. For me, I have a hard time just calling anywhere home. But at Loving Room, I felt seen, deserving and united,” Burton said.
In December 2022, Burton held a soft opening for her holistic wellness workshop series “Black Love Seat x Where Is Neva?” at Loving Room. In her bi-montly series at the bookstore salon, Burton says she leads conversations on issues impacting “melanated bodies.”
On Saturday, June 3, Burton will host another workshop at Loving Room that explores financial wellness.

Outdoor Afro, a national group that inspires Black connection and leadership in nature, recently held an event at Loving Room. In January, Rue Mapp, the chief executive officer and founder of the group, visited Loving Room to showcase her book “Nature Swagger: Stories and Visions of Black Joy in the Outdoors”.
Gina Wright, the program assistant for Outdoor Afro, echoes Burton’s appreciative sentiment for Loving Room. She says spaces like Loving Room are about access to information that keeps communities connected to the legacy of the African diaspora.

“This space is called Loving Room Diaspora Books plus Salon. And I think it’s in the name why spaces like this matter,” Wright said. “We’re thinking about a diaspora and Black people in this country specifically in this place. It’s a point of connection and understanding and fellowship and communing.”