May 2, 2015 was Independent Bookstore Day. I took this opportunity to visit Ancestry Books in North Minneapolis. Ancestry Books is a new bookstore, started by writer/teacher/activist Chaun Webster and his wife, Verna Wong, a writer and teacher in the public school district. They had long had a dream of opening a literary space with a focus on indigenous authors and authors of color that would engage the immediate community.
Ancestry Books had been open for a year, launched with a Kickstarter and the volunteer labor of the community to build out the store. It is a small, highly curated shop that welcomes you from the street with a mobile library of books and a chess game out front. The books they carry emphasize voices that have been underrepresented in the canons and contemporary conversations of literature. I’d heard from several friends that they have an incredible selection of children’s books that again, are representative of a wide range of race, politics, and gender narratives that are often absent in mainstream stores. I purchased a copy of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric (published by Graywolf, a Minneapolis press) and several ‘zines that Chaun had written. I spent some time talking with Chaun about the shop, his own writing, and the influence of Lewis Micheaux, founder and owner of the Nation Memorial African Bookstore in Harlem, on Chaun’s own vision.
Ancestry Books is more than a bookstore and Chaun more than a business owner. The space is a community hub and a fulcrum for intellectual thought and exchange in even the smallest transactions. Here is a piece Chaun wrote to provide further description of the project.
Ancestry Books has an online shop http://www.ancestrybooksmn.com
Ancestry Books had been open for a year, launched with a Kickstarter and the volunteer labor of the community to build out the store. It is a small, highly curated shop that welcomes you from the street with a mobile library of books and a chess game out front. The books they carry emphasize voices that have been underrepresented in the canons and contemporary conversations of literature. I’d heard from several friends that they have an incredible selection of children’s books that again, are representative of a wide range of race, politics, and gender narratives that are often absent in mainstream stores. I purchased a copy of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric (published by Graywolf, a Minneapolis press) and several ‘zines that Chaun had written. I spent some time talking with Chaun about the shop, his own writing, and the influence of Lewis Micheaux, founder and owner of the Nation Memorial African Bookstore in Harlem, on Chaun’s own vision.
Ancestry Books is more than a bookstore and Chaun more than a business owner. The space is a community hub and a fulcrum for intellectual thought and exchange in even the smallest transactions. Here is a piece Chaun wrote to provide further description of the project.
Ancestry Books has an online shop http://www.ancestrybooksmn.com
One Large participant: SS
Name of black-owned business: Ancestry Books
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Race/ethnicity of participant: Preferred not to answer
