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| Cindelle Harris-Blackmon | |
Cindelle's Bookstore, an online bookstore centered on Black voices and stories, has opened a free Little Library in Plainfield, N.J., where the bookstore is based. Owner Cindelle Harris-Blackmon told Tapinto Plainfield that she wants to open another five Little Libraries in town and eventually find a bricks-and-mortar location for Cindelle's Bookstore.
Harris-Blackmon, an English teacher and composition professor, held a ribbon cutting for the first Little Library, located at 1038 Central Avenue, earlier this week. The next Little Library will be placed by a church in Plainfield, and Cindelle's Bookstore will monitor and maintain the libraries.
In addition to focusing on Black books and literary culture, Cindelle's Bookstore emphasizes independently published millennial writers. The bookstore also has a selection of stationery and gift items available, and has a Bookshop.org affiliate page.
Harris-Blackmon explained that growing up, Spanish was her first language, and she learned English through reading books. That love of books has stayed with her.
Her journey to opening an indie bookstore of her own began with an online book club she founded in 2011, which went on to have more than 700 subscribers. Eventually Harris-Blackmon had the idea of directly selling the books she recommended, and in August 2020 started selling books officially.
"And it was cool because at the time during the pandemic so many people wanted to read," she told Tapinto. "And they knew that I came out with a bookstore, an online-based bookstore, and so it kind of projected sales during the worst of times."
And as the online bookstore grows, Harris-Blackmon continues to explore options for a bricks-and-mortar store. "We're trying to figure out what a bookstore owned by a millennial--post-pandemic--looks like."