Help Establish The Salt Eaters Bookshop
Donation protected
The Salt Eaters Bookshop is an emerging independent, Black woman-owned bookstore based in Los Angeles prioritizing books by and about Black women and girls, femmes, and non-binary folks.
The Salt Eaters Bookshop aims to create a Black feminist literary hub and resting ground for dreamers, seekers of knowledge, creatives, writers, community archivists, artists, change agents, and those invested in a liberation practice that holds Black women, girls, femmes, and non-binary folks at the center.
Currently, we are in the process of securing our dream space in our dream location of Downtown Inglewood, located - fittingly - on Queen St.
We envision our shop lined with books, art, comfortable seating, a space available for co-working, and a printing press serving local Black writers and creatives.
We need your help to make the first bookstore of its kind possible.
According to the 2018 survey conducted by small business financing firm, Guidant Financial, 80% of Black entrepreneurs surveyed said lack of capital was the most challenging aspect of running a business. According to ProjectDiane, only 0.2% of all venture capital funding was allocated toward startups founded by Black women in 2016.
We are crowdfunding $65,000 of start-up costs to ensure our efforts to create a liberatory-based community space have a long lasting, and sustainable promising future.
Our start-up cost breakdown:
*Monthly rent: $1,800 x 12 months = $21, 600
Utilities + misc repairs x 12 months: $1,200
Renovation/build-out costs: $25,000
External/internal signs + furnishings: $7, 200
Operating expenses: $10,000
Total: $65,000
*Given our renovation costs, build-out timeline, COVID-19 restrictions, and our anticipated opening date of Jan 2021, monthly rental funds will be allocated to our first year open to the public for business.
In the words of ancestor Toni Cade Bambara, “The dream is real, my friends.” We hope you’ll join us in building the reality we need for the future we deserve.
Stay tuned to our instagram for updates on what we’ve got planned for 2020 and 2021 and additional ways you can support.
Thank you in advance for your non-monetary expressions of support via affirmation, good energies, and shares.
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About the organizer:
My name is Asha Grant. I'm a Los Angeles native, freelance creative media consultant, bookworm, and director of The Free Black Women's Library - Los Angeles (a Black feminist traveling book swap).
Ever since I was a tiny, safehouses for me have been libraries and independent bookstores. In indie bookstores, I had the room as a Black girl to be brave with my curiosities, affirmed by characters in places I knew and wanted to know, and comfortable knowing I was surrounded by folks who, too, loved the community built around a good story.
Through my work in launching + sustaining @thefreeblackwomenslibrary_la, I’ve been able to create mini literary safehouses for us all throughout the city, lugging tubs of books in my car and cramming bags of craft supplies in my trunk to community centered businesses and museums who hosted us for little to nothing and loved on us more than I can express. It’s been a beautiful, humbling journey. It is far from over.
Last fall, I began looking for spaces. It marked my first step in claiming the vision - a loving and inviting bookshop dedicated to prioritizing books, comics, and zines by and about Black women, girls, femmes, and non-binary folks. A resting ground. A brave space. A Black place. A quiet nook to visit and read and print after school. Somewhere for the babies to have storytime. A place to nerd out in and be cool in and feel loved.
I been working on the vision - crunching the numbers, meeting with the realtor, planning with my contractor, designing mood boards, brainstorming programming, and praying. Nightly. Sometimes all throughout the day. It’s the dream I can’t shake and I’m rolling with it. It is sooo close.
The Salt Eaters, is derived from Toni Cade Bambara’s book THE SALT EATERS that provided my first in depth, and, admittedly, destabilizing look into the murky waters of mental health for folks that looked like me and expanded my understanding of wholeness (“no trifling matter”), interdependency, astrology, Black feminism, and beyond. Her unwavering principles and ethics guide both my personal and professional endeavors, leading me here.
The Salt Eaters Bookshop aims to create a Black feminist literary hub and resting ground for dreamers, seekers of knowledge, creatives, writers, community archivists, artists, change agents, and those invested in a liberation practice that holds Black women, girls, femmes, and non-binary folks at the center.
Currently, we are in the process of securing our dream space in our dream location of Downtown Inglewood, located - fittingly - on Queen St.
We envision our shop lined with books, art, comfortable seating, a space available for co-working, and a printing press serving local Black writers and creatives.
We need your help to make the first bookstore of its kind possible.
According to the 2018 survey conducted by small business financing firm, Guidant Financial, 80% of Black entrepreneurs surveyed said lack of capital was the most challenging aspect of running a business. According to ProjectDiane, only 0.2% of all venture capital funding was allocated toward startups founded by Black women in 2016.
We are crowdfunding $65,000 of start-up costs to ensure our efforts to create a liberatory-based community space have a long lasting, and sustainable promising future.
Our start-up cost breakdown:
*Monthly rent: $1,800 x 12 months = $21, 600
Utilities + misc repairs x 12 months: $1,200
Renovation/build-out costs: $25,000
External/internal signs + furnishings: $7, 200
Operating expenses: $10,000
Total: $65,000
*Given our renovation costs, build-out timeline, COVID-19 restrictions, and our anticipated opening date of Jan 2021, monthly rental funds will be allocated to our first year open to the public for business.
In the words of ancestor Toni Cade Bambara, “The dream is real, my friends.” We hope you’ll join us in building the reality we need for the future we deserve.
Stay tuned to our instagram for updates on what we’ve got planned for 2020 and 2021 and additional ways you can support.
Thank you in advance for your non-monetary expressions of support via affirmation, good energies, and shares.
.
.
.
.
.
.
About the organizer:
My name is Asha Grant. I'm a Los Angeles native, freelance creative media consultant, bookworm, and director of The Free Black Women's Library - Los Angeles (a Black feminist traveling book swap).
Ever since I was a tiny, safehouses for me have been libraries and independent bookstores. In indie bookstores, I had the room as a Black girl to be brave with my curiosities, affirmed by characters in places I knew and wanted to know, and comfortable knowing I was surrounded by folks who, too, loved the community built around a good story.
Through my work in launching + sustaining @thefreeblackwomenslibrary_la, I’ve been able to create mini literary safehouses for us all throughout the city, lugging tubs of books in my car and cramming bags of craft supplies in my trunk to community centered businesses and museums who hosted us for little to nothing and loved on us more than I can express. It’s been a beautiful, humbling journey. It is far from over.
Last fall, I began looking for spaces. It marked my first step in claiming the vision - a loving and inviting bookshop dedicated to prioritizing books, comics, and zines by and about Black women, girls, femmes, and non-binary folks. A resting ground. A brave space. A Black place. A quiet nook to visit and read and print after school. Somewhere for the babies to have storytime. A place to nerd out in and be cool in and feel loved.
I been working on the vision - crunching the numbers, meeting with the realtor, planning with my contractor, designing mood boards, brainstorming programming, and praying. Nightly. Sometimes all throughout the day. It’s the dream I can’t shake and I’m rolling with it. It is sooo close.
The Salt Eaters, is derived from Toni Cade Bambara’s book THE SALT EATERS that provided my first in depth, and, admittedly, destabilizing look into the murky waters of mental health for folks that looked like me and expanded my understanding of wholeness (“no trifling matter”), interdependency, astrology, Black feminism, and beyond. Her unwavering principles and ethics guide both my personal and professional endeavors, leading me here.
Organizer
The Salt Eaters Bookshop
Organizer
Inglewood, CA