By Semicolon
Semicolon Bookstore located will celebrate its grand opening at 515 North Halsted Street in July from Tuesday the 9th through Saturday the 13th.
The store has been open with shortened hours since June 8th in a soft-launch period to smooth operations and get to know the neighborhood.
Semicolon owner Danielle Mullen inside her store
Created by Chicago entrepreneur Danielle Mullen, the idea for Semicolon came from the owner’s love for reading in museums. The store provides a gallery space downstairs where interested readers can watch the artist of the month work in their gallery space.
“I wanted literature and art to kinda collide and create this experience that would further connect the two worlds – or at least cause a lover of one to want to know more about the other,” Mullen says. The store will host authors for readings and artists for live installations monthly.
One of only two woman-owned bookstores in Chicago, Semicolon is the only Black woman-owned bookstore in the city. Soft-opening hours are available on the website, as well as a calendar outlining grand opening festivities.
–
See also:
* Meet Danielle Mullen.
” . . . It has been anything but smooth, haha! The major struggle has been finding a space for what I want to create. Chicago retail real estate is fast-paced and expensive, which I expected. What I did not expect is the incredibly thorough vetting process just to lease a space. Even with financials and everything else in perfect order, it has been really difficult to find a landlord willing to take a chance on leasing their 20,000+ square foot space to someone who is relatively ‘unknown.’
“The obvious solution to that is to team up with a big name company or investor to back the project, but I am set on self-financing and not allowing any investor to control more than 30% of my concept . . .
“Think Soho House vibes, WITH books.”
* Danielle Mullen on LinkedIn.
–
Comments welcome.
Posted on June 24, 2019