Black Garnet Books

Dionne Sims, Owner of Minnesota’s Only Black-Owned Bookstore, Talks About Books and the Future of the Store

By: Marley Richmond

Early in the summer of 2020, Dionne Sims set out to find the nearest Black-owned bookstore to support, but she hit a roadblock. Not only was there no such bookstore in Minneapolis or St. Paul, there was none in the whole state of Minnesota. Sims, with a lot of courage and support, founded Black Garnet Books to fill that void. Now an online bookstore with weekly pop-ups (currently closed due to the pandemic), Black Garnet Books is on its way to becoming a permanent hub of the Minneapolis literary community. Sims spoke with “The Wake” about her journey opening and running the business, the future of Black Garnet Books, and her latest literary recommendations.

*This interview is lightly edited for clarity.

Marley: I've heard a lot about the story of how Black Garnet Books got started with a viral tweet and then a crowdfunding campaign, which is so incredible. Can you tell me a little bit more about how that surge of interest and support felt for you, and what inspired you to take on this endeavor?

Dionne: Yeah. I mean honestly, I was really surprised by the amount of interest in it, because I genuinely, I mean, I say a lot of things on my Twitter, and I never expected them to go viral when I say to them. So for me, I, I think that morning I’d just woken up and had this feeling that, you know, a bookstore would be a cool thing to have, and especially a Black-owned bookstore in Minnesota. And so I just, like I do with many things, I just typed it out in a tweet and sent it out.

For it to receive that kind of reaction, it just felt kind of surreal, in a way. But at the same time it felt really affirming, just the amount of people who were like, “Oh, yeah, this is absolutely a thing that we need and also you specifically would be great at this.”

I do think a large part of it had to do with the burgeoning interest in Black businesses that came after the protests earlier in the summer. And so there's kind of like a bittersweetness with that too. I wish that people had had this kind of excitement for Black businesses before now, because I think if that were the case, there would already be a Black-owned bookstore here in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Because that is the case, one thing I feel really strongly about is just making sure that the way I set this bookstore up is sustainable, and also that I can do something to support another black owned bookstore coming up so I'm not the only one.

What was it like to open your own business during a pandemic? That seems like a pretty big challenge.

Yeah, yeah, it was. It was definitely a challenge in some ways. I think the biggest way is that I was kind of lacking the ability to just meet with people and talk about [the bookstore]. And I lacked the ability to go to other bookstores and just kind of like move around and see how things are and talk to the booksellers and talk to the owners.

I mean, I still made some really great connections with other booksellers and bookstore owners here in the city and also outside of the Cities, but it's different when you can sit and, you know, really talk to someone, or have the ability to, like, if they bring something up, get up and look at that thing together.

I think that there's some limitations that come with Zoom meetings, especially because a big part of the reason why I wanted to start this bookstore was because—besides the fact that I love books—I wanted this bookstore to be a space of connection for people. And you know I'm lucky to get to have that connection with people at the pop-up. But it is for short periods of time just for safety reasons. It's not as organic as it can be, just because I have to be appointment-based.

I think your store model is really interesting with the online orders through Bookshop.org. Can you tell me a little bit more about how that process works?

Yeah, so Bookshop.org is basically a response to the monopoly that Amazon was trying to have over online book sales. So, anytime someone buys a book on Bookshop, a percentage of the purchase goes into a larger pool, and then that pool is dispersed between indie bookstores that sell on Bookshop. As well as you can buy books directly through an affiliate link, and an even larger percentage goes directly to the bookstore that you were trying to support.

So for me, starting out with Bookshop.org was a really great way to answer the excitement that people had about wanting to support the bookstore and also at the same time make sure that I don't completely fall apart trying to keep up with orders.

The first week that I opened up the Black Garnet Books page on Bookshop.org, it received like thousands and thousands of orders. I think it was like $10,000 worth of orders just in the first week, which is amazing. It's also, like, I could not in a million years keep up with that many orders if I had been like “Okay everyone, here's my page, and I'll be responsible for all the shipping and handling,” you know, because it is just me right now.

[Black Garnet Books also runs a weekly pop-up store, which is currently closed due to the pandemic.] 

Now that media attention is largely and unfortunately shifting away from the Black Lives Matter movement, have you noticed any changes in how folks are engaging with your store after this initial wave of support for Black-owned businesses?

Yeah, actually. It's been interesting because, on one hand, there are the people who are supporting the bookstore genuinely because they believe that it's an important part of the Twin Cities, and that, you know, they love books and they're just like, “I think that this should exist and therefore I'm going to support it.”

And then I've been getting more specifically white people who either followed me on Instagram or followed me on Twitter, because that's kind of how I got the word out about the bookstore, and realized that my personal politics don't align with the popular like two party system politics. I would consider myself more socialist and leaning into what I would consider, like, community anarchy.

So it's been really interesting to see people who are like, “Oh, this is who you are as a person? That's not what I thought you would be like.” They kind of assumed that I would be this kind of quiet librarian-type person since I wanted to open a bookstore, and not a very radical, confident Black woman.

It’s been interesting to navigate that and try not to let it make me feel pressured to be someone else that I'm not in order to placate people so that they come to my bookstore, or to make people feel comfortable so that they don't stop supporting the bookstore.

I feel very strongly that bookstores are political. I feel really strongly that trying to take the politics out of bookstores, especially a bookstore owned by a Black woman, is just really violent.  I'm trying very hard to keep in mind that this bookstore is for the community, and it also is going to be largely built on what my beliefs are, and the future that I want to see in Minneapolis.

I guess now that the excitement of supporting Black people has worn off, it's become more critical. That’s definitely something that I'm aware of and something that has made itself apparent in the last, I would say, month or two.

Somewhat along those lines, what has it been like creating a sustainable model for this store and how is that going for you?

It's interesting. It's involved a lot of research into what previous Black-owned bookstores have done in the city, and why they're no longer here. A big part of it has been just landlords pricing them out, gentrification pricing them out. And obviously gentrification hasn't stopped, it's only gotten worse. So it's something that I have had to be very mindful of, and seek outside help and support with. How do I pick a permanent space that I'm not going to get kicked out of or priced out of?

So I'm working with a real estate broker as added knowledge and expertise when looking for a place. There's a lot that I don't know when it comes to this. I think that's the case for a lot of Black business owners, especially ones who are the first in their families to start a business. There's just a lot of resources that aren't available to us.

That's something that I'm trying to be really mindful of as part of the sustainability of this bookstore. I think where it ends up is going to be really, really important to its life here.

The other thing, as far as sustainability goes that I’m looking into is, you know, how do I make this bookstore a community thing, and not just like me as a boss getting paid 30 times more than the booksellers? I really want it to be worker-owned or a cooperative, or some kind of model that is more sustainable than the classic “capitalist boss with employees,” you know what I mean?

But yeah, we'll see what works. Those are kind of the two big things that I've been looking at as far as trying to make sure that this bookstore lasts.

Are you planning on, or hoping to, open a physical bookstore around next summer? Is that right?

Yeah, I really want to open… Most likely it'll be early summer. I've been, I've been saying maybe late spring, but probably early summer.

My last question for you, of course, is, do you have any book recommendations at the moment?

I'm always like a year behind when it comes to reading books just because there's so many books to read! I'm like, how am I supposed to get through all the books I want to read in 2019, and then get through all the books, you know… So, I’m always a year behind.

But I'm currently reading “The City We Became” by N.K. Jemisin. It is so good. It's basically a magical surrealism fantasy novel about if New York City were personified. How would it deal with things like gentrification and police brutality and everything that comes with living in a big city? It's really fun, it's really cool.

But as far as books that I haven't gotten to read that are brand new, there is a book called “Memorial” by Bryan Washington. And that book looks really, really good and I'm so excited to read it. I think right now it has wildly good reviews. It’s a book about a young gay couple, but it also brings race and class and culture into it, which I think is really cool to see that intersection between things.

So yeah, I'm really excited to read that one once I finish “The City We Became.”

I have a book recommendation for you, too. So I love young adult books, and I just finished “Cemetery Boys” by Aiden Thomas.

“Cemetery Boys!” How was it?

It’s so good, it’s so good. The main character is Latinx and trans, and I was like, finishing reading it at 1am and just sobbing. But it's really good!

Oh my god, yes!

So yeah, a little bit of magic, a little bit of queerness, all the things you need in a good book.

Oh, that's amazing! Yes, that is on my list, I sell that book at the pop-up actually. Every single time I see it I’m like, “When am I gonna get to read this?” It’s absolutely not gonna be until 2021.

Right, of course not. But it’s on the list.

It was an absolute pleasure to speak with Sims and hear about her journey opening Minnesota’s only Black-owned bookstore. Given the challenges that come with being a first-time business owner, and the added hurdles BIPOC face, it is more important than ever to continue intentionally supporting such stores. Find Black Garnet Books online at bookshop.org/shop/blackgarnetbooks. I know where I will be doing my Christmas shopping!