Author Archives: Nicole Barnett

AMIBA

AMIBA is building a strong Local Economy Movement through support, training, and advocacy nationwide.

We became a member of AMIBA in February of 2025 and have since participated in three campaigns: Choose Indie Sustainable, Choose Black-Owned & Choose Indie Pride Month. We are currently one of just two businesses in all of Illinois that are active members of AMIBA, so this membership means a lot to us!

We were proud to have been featured in multiple newsletters for our collaboration with Project Sun at their “Creating An Inclusive Community” event in May 2025.

Check out this article we were featured in:

https://chooseindielocal.substack.com/p/choose-black-owned-month

Audiobook Sale
Now through June 22, get two audiobooks for one credit during @librofm’s members-only, buy-one-get-one sale!
This is the perfect way to celebrate your love for reading and for independent bookshops like ours
Not a member? Start a new monthly membership using code SWITCH and you’ll get three audiobook credits to redeem from the start, plus the ability to shop the sale.*
Visit the link below to start shopping today!

Watercolor Bookmarks For Beginners – Fri, June 13th 6p-7p

We love partnering with local businesses, especially those in the arts! If you’ve never heard of Little Me Studio, then you’re in for a real treat 

Join us for a relaxing, beginner-friendly watercolor class where we’ll turn upcycled book pages into beautiful, handmade bookmarks!

This class is perfect for beginners—yes, even if you’ve never held a paintbrush or think you have zero artistic talent.

There’s no pressure, no judgment—just a fun evening of playing with watercolors, exploring creativity through trial and error, and making something uniquely yours.

You’ll leave with a one-of-a-kind bookmark and a reminder that art is meant to be fun, imperfect, and entirely within your reach.

The cost is $12 per participant.

Register at the link below

https://www.hisawyer.com/little-me-studio/schedules/activity-set/1471140?source=semesters

Everywhere Is Queer – Founding Supporter

Everywhere Is Queer is a public resource (and ever-growing searchable map!) created for the LGBTQIA2S+ and ally community to find welcoming, queer-owned spaces to shop, connect, eat, learn, and grow all over the world… even in your own neighborhood!

Your community is waiting for you just around the corner.

The Everywhere Is Queer App features 17,000+ queer-owned businesses of all shapes and sizes and growing. The EIQ app is constantly-updated allowing you to find queer-owned businesses wherever you are in the world. Plus a job board, connecting you with your next best job that sees you as your most authentic self! Download the QUEER BIZ MAP using the links below to start finding your next fav queer-owned spot!

IOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/everywhere-is-queer/id6467166300

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.everywhereisqueer.app&pli=1

We have been a Founding Supporter of Everywhere Is Queer since February 2024 and have contributed $624 to the organization to date.

 

Boozhoo Bindery – Indigenous Lit

Boozhoo Books is a publishing imprint dedicated to uplifting diverse voices.

Naomi @fromthemixedupdesk is an Indigenous book content creator who is passionate about championing underrepresented voices in literature. Boozhoo means “Hello” in Anishinaabemowin.

We love what Naomi does for the Indigenous community, so we became a subscriber to the Boozhoo Bindery at the Enemies to Lovers level. We have been a subscriber since November of 2024 and have contributed $96 to date.

Bindery is a membership platform for tastemakers of the book world to cultivate community, champion the authors and stories that matter to them, and earn a sustainable income doing so from the most passionate members of their audience. Tastemakers with larger communities, upon invitation, may open a publishing imprint that surfaces new books by authors their communities will love. Bindery partners with the tastemaker to design their imprint brand, solicit submissions, and manage editorial, design, printing, publicity, and distribution to everywhere books are sold.

Follow Noami on Instagram using the link below for the best Indigenous books recommendations:

https://www.instagram.com/fromthemixedupdesk/

15 Percent Pledge

“Black people make up 15% of the US population. So, we asked businesses to dedicate 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned brands.”

The Pledge is an invitation to partners to give their valued community what they are asking for: variety and economic equality. The Pledge allows us to learn and grow together, led by a sustainable model for long-term change.

We became a monthly donor of the 15 Percent Pledge in February of 2025. To date, we have contributed $79.60 to the organization!

We make it our goal to ensure that at least 15% of the books we sell are by black authors, although we typically shoot for closer to 40%.

Representation matters.

In literature, and everywhere!

Learn more about the organization at the link below.

https://15percentpledge.org/

Book Signing with Author Rev Dr. Beverly Dale – Friday, May 30 4p-6p

Please join us next Friday, May 30th, to welcome Rev. Dr. Beverly Dale for a meet & greet/book signing. She will be here from 4pm-6pm.
The Rev. Dr. Beverly Dale (“Rev. Bev”) is an ordained minister whose calling has a specific focus: to help people of faith heal from the wounds of Christian theology that divorces the spirit from the body. She is the founder of the Incarnation Institute for Sex & Faith, an educational nonprofit that teaches an inclusive, science-friendly, and sex-positive Christianity. Her previous work was aimed at sexual health professionals and clergy, Advancing Sexual Health for the Christian Client, Data and Dogma. This new book is for the rest of us.
Both self-help guide and spiritual inspiration, Who Told You That You Were Naked? is packed with meditations that are biblically grounded and tangibly liberating. Each meditation includes a prayer and prompts for reflection, with themes focusing on purity culture, sacred-sexual bodies, and ethics without repression.
Who Told You That You Were Naked? takes the body’s experiences seriously and honestly, wrapping readers in love where they are wounded, inviting holistic reflection on the faith that informs our living, and encouraging movement to (re)connect the spirit and the flesh.