Black Garnet Books, a Black, woman-owned business that has been selling books online and through pop-up locations in the Twin Cities for the past two years, hosted a soft opening last weekend for its new physical bookstore at 1319 University Ave. W. in Saint Paul, Minn. Founder Dionne Sims had posted on Instagram Friday that "tomorrow is our first time doing this whole 'running a bookstore' thing!! the store itself may only be 60% finished due to delays (the powers that be will do as they please), but our attitudes are 100% you feel me?? 12pm-5pm or whenever we run out of books bc I'm a rookie and probably should've ordered more. be nice to me omg ok love you byeeeeee."
On the big day, Saint Paul City Councilmember Mitra Jalali, whose office last year awarded Sims and Black Garnet Books a $100,000 Neighborhood Sales Tax Revitalization (STAR) grant to renovate and open the physical store, posted on Facebook: "Congratulations Black Garnet Books on a successful soft open launch of the storefront today! I'm so proud to have gotten to play a role in helping bring this locally owned Black business to the Midway next to Ding Tea and Master Noodle. Dionne Sims is the true shero of this story though.... The whole team is working hard to bring a diverse curated collection of books as well as a community gathering space to the neighborhood. Visit this delightful space soon and let's show some love to Minnesota's newest Black-owned bookstore here in Saint Paul."
Earlier in the day, Jalali had tweeted from the bookstore that the "opening is wall to wall packed."
Marcia Howard shared a video filmed inside the store on Twitter, noting: "It started with a tweet and a dream during the heart of the Uprising. Today, Dionne Sims opened the @blkgarnetbooks brick-and-mortar store! So so so proud!" Sims retweeted, adding that "this means sooooooo much to me. just the absolute world. thank you for being a day one!!"