Akron independent bookstore Elizabeth鈥檚 is celebrating its first anniversary.
, which started online and eventually opened up a space in Akron鈥檚 Middlebury neighborhood, highlights BIPOC and LGBTQ+ voices in literature.
Founder, writer and activist Rachel Cargle said opening Elizabeth鈥檚 has been a dream come true.
鈥淲e're trying to be really creative and innovative in how we're able to highlight and celebrate the people that we're serving and the values that we hold,鈥� Cargle said.
In the last year Elizabeth鈥檚 , to coffee shop pop up, to a bookstore and writing center for authors who have historically struggled to find places on store shelves.
鈥淲e've all come together with this vision of showing up, you know, for the black community, for the queer community, for women, and how we're doing it boldly,鈥� Cargle said.
, many Black-owned businesses like hers have boomed.
She credits much of that growth with the heightened conversation around antiracism and critical race theory in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of the mental whirlwind that goes into it having grown out of one of the hardest and most traumatic years that we鈥檝e had as a Black community in a long time,鈥� Cargle said.
鈥淚 remind people often that the successes that a lot of black businesses are seeing on the heels of Black death is something that a lot of Black entrepreneurs have to sit with and that we're really grappling with. That we had such a 鈥榞ood year of growth鈥� and of building teams and of bringing in revenue to do the work that we want to do.鈥�
That work includes using the bookstore's revenue to help build a mental health care fund.
A percentage of all sales from Elizabeth鈥檚 goes to Cargle鈥檚 , which provides free mental health services to Black women, girls and gender nonconforming people.
鈥淭his is an anniversary of kind of the fullness of the way Loveland is showing up in the world. And it's just so special,鈥� Cargle said.
Celebrating the first year of Elizabeth鈥檚
Elizabeth鈥檚, which is located inside Compass coffee at , is partnering with the Akron Art Museum with a series of celebratory both at the museum and at the bookstore, including a special reading by Cargle鈥檚 mother.
鈥淪tory time with my mother, who is just deeply, deeply excited. Early childhood is a space she's worked in and relished in for all of my life. So, she's been very excited getting her story time together with her puppets and her felt board,鈥� Cargle said.
Carlge is also holding a conversation with Ohio-native and New York Times bestselling author Hanif Abdurraqib
What鈥檚 next?
Elizabeth鈥檚 Writing Centre will continue to grow the space for writers with workshops every month.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had everything from memoir writing to particularly serve older communities in the ways that they want to remember their lives and make sure that it's written down and celebrated, to working with workshops around graphic novels, to erotica and finding ways to bring our readers and our writers together to remember that if you write, you are a writer. And we want to bring you in to do just that,鈥� Cargle said.
Though it鈥檚 not the biggest retail space, she said she鈥檚 committed to keeping Elizabeth鈥檚 in Akron鈥檚 Middlebury neighborhood.
Though she鈥檚 not ruling out the potential for opening up a second space somewhere in the future.
鈥淢oving through Akron throughout my childhood, my teenage years, and now coming back as an adult and being part of the community in such a beautiful way with an established bookstore has been really, really special and something I don't take for granted at all,鈥� she said.
