Katherine Morgan, owner of Grand Gesture Books, a Black woman-owned romance bookstore that launched as an online operation last November, is planning to open a bricks-and-mortar store in Portland, Ore., in September. The Portland Business Journal reported that Morgan, who has run the romance section at Powell's Books, said she is looking at a space in Northwest, where she has lived for eight years.
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| Katherine Morgan | |
Although she wasn't ready divulge the exact location yet, she said the space, which is about 1,400 square feet, including an office and has room enough for a few thousand books, looked promising.
"I walked in. I fell in love immediately," said Morgan, who recently launched a $100,000 GoFundMe campaign to help gather the funds for a physical location, as well as inventory, other merchandise and security systems. She said she has enough money at this point between her personal finances and the donations for the lease, with the possibility of taking possession of the space at the beginning of July.
In a recent interview, Powell's CEO Patrick Bassett called his employee's venture "really exciting."
In an Instagram post after launching her fundraiser, Morgan noted: "I figured that it was about time to announce this campaign since there's not a day that goes by without someone asking when/where the building will come to fruition. I know that the world is in dire straits right now, so please don't feel obligated to donate if you don't want to or can't. I'd love it if you'd shared it with other romance lovers to get the word out. I'm really crossing my fingers here and hoping for the best, so here we go. I promise to make you proud. I'd say 'Make myself proud,' but considering that I'm out here, taking this leap, I've already done that."