ST. PAUL, Min. – Black Garnet Books’ Dionne Sims wants to transfer ownership of her beloved St. Paul bookstore to pursue her next dream.
Sims announced on Instagram Tuesday that she is returning to school to hone her craft as a writer and will have to step away from her business, one of Minnesota’s two Black-owned brick-and-mortar booksellers.
“Being someone who throws myself wholeheartedly into my goals, I refuse to half-ass run Black Garnet, or half-ass my education. And here we are! I hope for your support and understanding,” Sims said on Instagram.
Sims founded Black Garnet in the weeks following the murder of George Floydwho first created it with this tweet: “Minnesota doesn’t have a black-owned bookstore. I guess that’s my new dream.”
She then turned her vision into reality through a crowdfunding campaign, first launching an online marketplace during the pandemic before opening a pop-up shop in Minneapolis.
“There are enough Black and racially diverse authors to fill a bookstore,” Sims told WCCO in 2020. “We don’t have to be just a shelf in the corner labeled ‘miscellaneous books’.”
WCCO
In October 2022, Sims officially opened Black Garnet Books at University and Hamline Avenue in the Midway neighborhood, then the only operating Black-owned bookstore in the state, stocking 2,000 works by full-color authors and illustrators.
Now Sims is looking for a kindred spirit to continue her mission.
“Black Garnet Books is a manifestation of so many things that are bigger than me, bigger than the very simple dream I had of ensuring that there would always be a Black-owned bookstore in my home in Minnesota. A dream that I know which is shared by so many people here,” Sims said on Instagram.
And her pitch is compelling, considering she did all the heavy lifting.
“May I point you in the direction of a fully established, thriving, beloved bookstore in the heart of capital Minnesota?” Sims said.
Since opening Black Garnet Books, Mary Taris has founded Strive Publishing & Bookstore in downtown Minneapolis. And months before Sims published her fateful tweet in 2020, Zsamé Morgan set up her Babycake’s Book Stack bookmobile in St. Paul, which still travels the metro today.
NOTE: The original air date of the video for this article is March 7, 2023.
