WEST TOWN — A Black-owned bookstore will temporarily close this month to add a cafe to its West Town storefront, after previously saying that it was closing for good.
Semicolon Books, 1355 W. Chicago Ave., first opened in 2019 in River West. Owner Danielle Moore launched the store to highlight authors of color and to donate books and promote literacy programs in Chicago Public Schools.
The bookstore has since operated several locations across Chicago in recent years. It moved to Wicker Park, then back to River West before opening its current shop on Chicago Avenue. Last year, Moore also briefly operated a second location in the Wrigley Building.
But the Downtown space ended up being a “six-figure loss” for Moore after her finances were hacked and the store experienced low sales, she said. In January, Moore said that Semicolon would close both of its locations permanently.
After the news was made public, however, Moore said that Kickstarter reached out to her about launching a campaign to save the business. Moore successfully met her goal this winter to start a cafe inside Semicolon’s West Town store to help boost margins and stay open.
Following a block party outside the West Town shop on April 26, Semicolon will close for about two months to build its coffee shop, which will be known as Junction Cafe. Moore is hoping to reopen on Juneteenth.
“When we announced our closure, we saw how the community came out to share with us how they did not want us to leave, and how they were affected by our potential closure,” Moore said on Wednesday. “That was difficult to deal with because we did not intend to desert the community, but we also could no longer function at that point. So, hopefully the cafe is helpful.”
Semicolon has become a staple in Chicago’s literary community over the past six years. But it’s also faced challenges as Moore has pivoted multiple times to keep her business going.
In 2021, the store moved from its original location at 515 N. Halsted St. to a larger space on Division Street in Wicker Park.
While sales were solid, the rent was higher and there was less of a community feel than in River West, Moore previously told Block Club. In 2022, she moved Semicolon back to its original space with plans to buy the building, which ultimately did not work out.
Moore then converted her business in 2023 to a nonprofit to be eligible for grants and other funding to support Semicolon’s literacy efforts, while planning a move to a new development in East Garfield Park.
Last year, Moore also opened the Semicolon location Downtown, thanks to a partnership with the Magnificent Mile Association that temporarily covered her rent in the Wrigley Building through a city-issued Storefront Activation Program grant.
But Moore said the store struggled to make sales, while she still had to pay for shelving, staffing and other expenses. Moore also said she was hacked around Labor Day last year after her car was stolen with financial documents inside.
“I should have shut us down in September, when that hack occurred, and when all of those things occurred. And I did not. I tried to push through and came out of pocket to handle the cost of both spaces through January,” she said. “And it just put me in a horrible financial situation, as well as the business already being a bad financial situation.”
After announcing the closure of both the Downtown location as well as the West Town shop in January, Moore said she had made her peace with the business ending. But when she heard from Kickstarter about launching a fundraiser to keep things going, she decided to propose adding a coffee shop at the West Town store to bring in additional revenue.
The fundraiser has since raised more than $32,000, outpacing a $25,000 goal.
“We were able to raise the funds necessary to add a cafe to the space, which is very cool. And so we raised those funds, and we are now going to be able to stay open as a bookstore cafe,” Moore said. “The community that we have built is irreplaceable, and we would not exist without them.”
Moore is planning to partner with local Black-owned coffee shops to help run the cafe on a rotating basis. Muse Coffee Studio, 747 S. Western Ave., will be the first partner, she said.
Semicolon will close April 27 to make the renovations. The store’s last hoorah — for now — will be the April 26 block party, which coincides with Independent Bookstore Day.
Chicago Avenue between Ada and Noble streets will be shut down noon-7 p.m. with tables selling books, as well as DJs, food trucks and cocktails and other drinks available.
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