Black Garnet Books facts for kids
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| Formation | 2020 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Dionne Sims |
| Type | Bookstore |
| Location | |
| Website | https://www.blackgarnetbooks.com/ |
Black Garnet Books is a special bookstore located in Minnesota. It's the only Black-owned physical bookstore in the state. For about a year, it started as a "pop-up" store, which means it was a temporary shop that would appear in different places. Later, it received a special grant (money) from the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota, to open its very own permanent location.
How Black Garnet Books Started
| Dionne Sims |  |
|---|---|
| @OhDionne |
Minnesota doesn't have a black-owned bookstore. I think that's my new dream.
June 15, 2020
In June 2020, a graduate from the University of Minnesota named Dionne Sims learned something interesting. She found out there were no Black-owned bookstores in Minnesota. She was looking for ways to support the Black community after some important events happened. (There used to be a Black-owned bookstore called Ancestry Books, but it closed in 2015. Other Black-owned book businesses, like Mind's Eye Comics, sell comics, and Babycake's Book Stack is a bookmobile, not a regular store.)
Dionne shared her idea on Twitter, saying she wanted to start a Black-owned bookstore. Her tweet got a lot of attention, with over 14,000 "likes"! This encouraged her to start a crowdfunding campaign on July 10. Crowdfunding is when many people donate small amounts of money to help someone reach a goal. By July 12, her campaign had already raised more than $81,000! In total, she raised over $108,000 using GoFundMe.
In 2021, Black Garnet Books began operating as a "pop-up" store. Dionne explained that the money from the crowdfunding helped pay for starting costs and buying books. However, it wasn't enough to build a permanent store. Later in 2021, a city council member from Saint Paul, Mitra Jalali, told Dionne about a special grant program. Dionne then received a $100,000 grant from the city of Saint Paul. This money will help her renovate a space at Hamline Station in the Midway neighborhood and open a permanent store. The store is planned to be about 1,800 square feet (170 m2) (square feet) and open in summer 2022.
Why This Bookstore Is Important
Black Garnet Books was created to focus on books by Black authors and other diverse writers. It plans to stock books for adults and young adults. This way, it won't compete with Babycake's Book Stack, which is a bookmobile in Saint Paul, Minnesota, that focuses on diverse children's literature.
Dionne Sims shared in 2020 that she wants Black Garnet Books to be a place where people can feel strong and learn. She hopes it will offer "education, connection, [and] the pursuit of knowledge."
What Black Garnet Books Does
In November 2021, Black Garnet Books started a book drive on Bookshop.org. A book drive is when people donate books. The goal was to give copies of The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story to schools in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area. By December 14, 2021, the drive had received more than 700 donations!
