Join superstar baker Paola Velez and Camari Mick for sweet treats and sweet books! Explore a co-curated night market where you'll savor an array of  delectable creations from some of NYC's most beloved pastry chefs. Each bite is inspired by the flavors of Paola's cookbook, offering a unique culinary experience. 

​You'll also hear Paola and Camari discuss Paola's creative process and the Bronx bodegas that inspired the book. Following the talk, be sure to grab a copy of Bodega Bakes and get it signed by Paola!

Paola Velez  is a pastry chef and social justice activist from New York with  Dominican heritage. She has worked for restaurants such as Milk Bar and  Maydan in Washington, D.C., and she co-founded the organization Bakers Against Racism, as well as the donut pop-up shop Doña Dona in 2020. 

​Camari Mick is the executive pastry chef at both The Musket Room, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Nolita, and is the Executive Pastry Chef/Partner at Raf’s, a French & Italian bakery, restaurant and café from the same owner.  Camari was a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree for 2024, and made Eater’s 2023 roster of “New York’s New Guard of Pastry Chefs,”.  In 2024, she received her third consecutive James Beard Award  semi-finalist nod for Outstanding Pastry Chef, and she’s been honored as one of Dine Diaspora’s distinguished Black Women in Food ‘Culinarians.’  

​BEM | books & more  is a literary destination at the intersection of food and Blackness.  Established by two sisters in January 2021 as an online bookstore, BEM  is proud to serve as a home for readers, writers, cooks, and eaters  passionate about Black cultures in all their diversity. Taking an  expansive approach to the nexus of food, literature, and culture, BEM  celebrates Black food by bringing works of fiction, nonfiction and  poetry for readers of all ages into conversation with cookbooks and  culinary studies to explore how what feeds us defines us.