Best Black-Owned Bookstores in Chicago 2025
by Allison Yates
Want to support Black-owned businesses in Chicago? If you’re a book lover, you’re in luck. Chicago is full of one-of-a-kind independent bookstores, including three Black, woman-owned bookstores. These carefully curated, welcoming spaces provide inclusive, intentional atmospheres where BIPOC readers and Chicagoans of all backgrounds can read books by writers of color and attend author talks and community events to learn, grow, and celebrate the BIPOC experience. Here are the best Black-owned bookstores to visit in Chicago in 2025.
Semicolon Bookstore
Semicolon. Courtesy of Allison Yates.
Neighborhood: West Town
This nonprofit bookstore and gallery space knows the power of reading to unite and inform. “Reading is a form of resistance against ignorance and apathy,” the website reads. The knowledgeable, friendly staff are the kind of people that love books as much you and could chat with you for hours about your latest reads—and in fact, that’s exactly what happened to me. Sadly, just months after opening the first bookstore on Mag Mile, owner Danielle Moore announced the store was shutting its doors, and that the West Town location would be closing for good just after Independent Bookstore Day in April 2025.
Da Book Joint
Readers & runners in May 2024 at Da Book Joint’s first location in Boxville.
Neighborhood: Jackson Park Highlands
Owned by the delightful mother-daughter duo Courtney and Verlean, Da Book Joint focuses on growing literacy and positive engagement with youth. Collections focus on literature by Black authors, and from hosting brunches and author talks to partnering with Read & Run Chicago on our Book Club Run of Becoming in May 2024, the owners also value creating community. Previously based in Bronzeville’s Boxville, Da Book Joint joined forces with Stoviink Creatives in late 2024 to launch Pen & Paper, a new space in Jackson Park Highlands to inspire literacy, wellness, and creativity. In short, according to the owners, it’s a literary lounge. Sounds like our kind of cozy place!
Call & Response Books
Neighborhood: Hyde Park
Call & Response. Courtesy of Allison Yates.
This cozy Hyde Park bookstore carefully stocks its shelves with fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and more by writers of color, and they won’t disappoint. “Almost every book on the shelf is one I’d want for my own collection,” says guide Cynthia Okechukwu. Owner Courtney Bledsoe opened Call & Response’s doors in May 2023, and though the store hasn’t yet reached its one-year anniversary, Courtney has already created one of the best atmospheres and community spaces in the city. Events include talks with authors like Hanif Abdurraqib, Natalie Moore, and many others. Last time I visited, Courtney walked me through several options to help me find my next best read tailored to my favorite past books.