Apollo Kagwa

Son of Lillian Kagwa and Brian West, Apollo Kagwa grew up in a single-mother household in 1980s-'90s New York City. His mother's arduous work ethic, and thus schedule, along with his hunger for books molded him into a voracious reader and then, from his late teens into adulthood, a book dealer. He fixates on and memorizes one children's book, Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak, because it is his only artifact of his father. Apollo ultimately bypasses college to pursue his vocation of book collecting and selling. Like his parents, he pursues his dreams.

On many of his trips to procure books—from his days as a dorky teen with glasses and book-filled backpack to match, to his visits as a 30-something established collector—he experiences racism. When he is the victim of discrimination in the company of his best friend Patrice Green, they both cope...