Build Coffee, a cafe, bookstore, and community space in Chicago, Ill., is under new ownership and will change its name to Build Coffee and Books, Block Club Chicago reported.
New owners Eve L. Ewing, trina reynolds-tyler, and Andrea Faye Hart will take over officially in June. Ewing is an author, poet, and professor at University of Chicago; reynolds-tyler is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and data director of the Invisible Institute; and Hart is an organizer and co-founder of City Bureau.
The trio will be volunteer owners and do not have any major changes planned for Build. The name change is meant to highlight its selection of books and zines, which focus primarily on "social justice, local political issues, and community organizing," noted Block Club. Ewing also hopes to host most literary events at Build.
"We don't plan to radically change it," reynolds-tyler told Block Club. "We're purchasing the shop because we want it to live. We are just excited to fortify all of those systems that currently exist and be expansive in that, but [be] really true to the mission of Build Coffee and Books."
"All three of us have so much respect for the space, and we’re all in different ways working really hard to build community in Chicago and beyond," said Ewing.
As a volunteer owner, Hart said she feels "really excited about what [it means] to lead in that way, to set Build up in that way, and to be an example for how [to] run a business ethically and equitably in a way that is politically and community-oriented."
Build debuted as a coffee stand in the 61st St. Farmers Market in 2016. In 2017, it opened inside the incubator Experimental Station, after co-founders Hannah Nyhart and Bea Malsky raised around $17,000 through a Kickstarter campaign. Last year Nyhart and Malsky announced that Build was for sale.