One day in April 2019, DL Mullen was wandering around Halsted and Grand. Right before then, she had just left another project that she was trying to get off the ground, Athenaeum Librarium, which was supposed to be like a Soho House for book lovers. From construction delays to the building flooding, things kept going wrong, and Mullen knew that she’d have to put it on hold. Her dream of founding a luxurious membership club, library, and coworking space would have to wait, even after partnering with tech giants like Google. Then she walked past a retail space for lease. She didn’t have an interest in opening a retail space, but figured she’d inquire anyway. She made a call. The landlord arrived within 30 minutes. By the time she went home that day, the place was hers.
Semicolon has reopened with caution; despite bookselling being a hands-on activity, they’ve been enforcing social distancing and keeping the store extra clean. “If it means consistently having a line outside, that’s perfectly fine,” she says. “Whatever feels safe. And people are so happy to be in a bookstore.”
Mullen curates author events to what’s of interest to her customers, including moderators, who she scouts for by perusing the the #bookstagrammers hashtag on Instagram. “We can’t just do like the popular book and the popular author because it’s likely not that popular with the Black community.” When Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments came out, she remembers people lining up at other booksellers, but at Semicolon, it didn’t sell. “It’s a little more effort that’s put into things instead of just picking an author of a popular book and having them come sign.”
