Mother-daughter duo bringing joy of books to South Side of Chicago and beyond
A dynamic mother-daughter duo works together to bring the joy of books to Chicago's South Side and beyond.
"It was always my dream to open a bookstore that amplified Black stories, and that's what I was able to do," said Verlean Singletary, co-owner of Da Book Joint in the South Shore neighborhood.
From fiction to history, coffee table books to kids' reads, Da Book Joint has it all. If you can't find it, Singletary and her daughter, Courtney Woods, will make sure they get it for you.
"Sometimes we will go above and beyond," Singletary said.
"I have some books in my car I have to deliver later today," Woods said.
The store's history goes back to 2007, at the corner of 95th and Jeffery, the original home of their store. All was good until the mortgage crisis in 2009, when they had to pivot and move online due to rising rent costs.
"We waited until the end of COVID, and I was like, 'You know what? We need to get back out into the community,'" Singletary said.
After a three-year stint in the Boxville enterprise hub near the 51st Street Green Line stop in Bronzeville, Singletary and Wood moved Da Book Joint to a serene spot at 69th and Stony Island.
"We want this to be a space where you can just be you; you can just relax if you need a change of scenery," Woods said.
It looks and feels like home, probably because Singletary and Woods are not just business partners, they're mom and daughter. So how is that going?
"I don't know. I mean it's great most of the time," Singletary said with a laugh. "Sometimes I have to differentiate between being a mother and being a partner. … She says she wants things this this and this way. I wanna be like, 'Do it because I said so."
"It's great when you get to work with your best friend. She's my best friend," Woods said. "We are so different, but so much alike, and it's really that. She handles, like, all the legal, and financial, and all the boring kind of stuff; and I get to deal with the fun. I get to create, and curate events, and I get to work on inventory, and I get to play with merchandising."
Among the fun offerings is "Blind Date with a Book," where books are wrapped in brown paper and labeled with just a few details to draw readers in.
"It's just so fun, and like I said, the only blind date that you're going to completely be satisfied with," Woods said.
Like the rest of the store, the children's section features books mostly by Black authors and featuring Black characters.
Singletary and Woods said there's real meaning behind it.
"I don't think anything draws a child more into a book than to see a book that has someone on the cover that looks like them," Woods said.
"We've had kids come in the store and been super-excited, because, 'Ooh mommy, look, his hair looks just like mine,'" Singletary said.
Access to books like these is crucial in another way.
"The South Side is a book desert," Woods said. "Post-pandemic, literacy rates had dropped significantly; and it was all over the city, but definitely very very significant drop here on the South Side."
That's why Da Book Joint curates literacy events for under-served communities through its non-profit Options for Literacy.
"We have given books to schools in Chicago Heights; books and activity kits to Advocate Children's Hospital," Singletary said. "We do a Books and Brunch once a month for the kids."
It's all about reading and more.
"What goes better together than a book and a great candle?" Woods said.
Da Book Joint shares space with Stoviink Creatives, a wellness and fragrance brand created by Tovi Khali Turner and Storie Warren-Turner.
The four women are friends from back in the Boxville days.
"We want to do amazing things in this community together," Turner said. "We figure if we locked arms together really, really tight, we can sustain ourselves and our beautiful community as it builds up around us."
New customer Candace Brown said the community feeling is what brought her to Da Book Joint.
"It just feels good all around to buy a book by a Black author sold by a Black woman," she said.
Woods and Singletary said the secret to success is going by the book you create.
"I always wanted to create a business that could pass down generation to generation," Singletary said.
"We just worked really, really, really hard, and now we're here," Woods said.
Da Book Joint also has a free book section. Singletary said no one should go away empty-handed. So if someone's really interested in reading, but can't afford a book, there still will be one for them.
