This story was originally published by Block Club Chicago.
Three of the earliest supporters of a South Side café and bookstore are set to take over the business this summer as they aim to sustain its role as a hub for art, activism, and neighborly connections in Woodlawn.
Build Coffee, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave., is being sold to Eve L. Ewing, an author, poet, and University of Chicago professor; trina reynolds-tyler, data director of the Invisible Institute and a 2024 Pulitzer Prize winner; and Andrea Faye Hart, a media-based organizer who co-founded the nonprofit news outlet City Bureau.
“Build is special in thinking about that intersection of organizing and food,” Ewing said. “The word ‘nourishment’ is really important to us. Taking care of your body, yourself, taking care of your community—that’s like the center of [the new owners’] politics individually and as a group.”
Build is being sold to “some real day-one folks,” said Hannah Nyhart, who co-founded Build with Bea Malsky in 2017. Hart was formerly at City Bureau and reynolds-tyler works for the Invisible Institute—both organizations housed at the Experimental Station—while Ewing hosted City Bureau’s first Public Newsroom event at Build.
“We talked to so many people about potentially taking over Build, and what was really special about this team is they shared a really deep commitment to Build’s values and what we could be in our community,” Nyhart said. “As a founder, that’s a huge gift to know that this thing you built with your community is in good hands and can grow and thrive.”
Nyhart and Malsky began planning for what would become Build Coffee in 2015, the same year the duo graduated from the University of Chicago. The shop started as a coffee stand at the 61st Street Farmers Market in summer 2016.
After raising nearly $17,000 via Kickstarter for a permanent location, the café opened in 2017 at the Experimental Station—home to community programs such as the farmers market, Blackstone Bicycle Works, and news outlets such as the Invisible Institute, South Side Weekly and the Hyde Park Herald.
Nyhart announced Build was for sale last year. Ewing, reynolds-tyler and Hart had no prior business relationship, but they united to buy the shop as they felt its focus on “food justice, books, nourishment, accessibility, conversation and learning” aligned with their own interests and ethics, reynolds-tyler said.
“All three of us have so much respect for the space, and we’re all in different ways working really hard to build community in Chicago and beyond,” Ewing said.
No drastic changes are planned for Build under new ownership. The shop’s selection of traditional and seasonal coffee and tea drinks and chef Christian Sutter’s food program will remain, as will its involvement in the Market Box mutual aid program and a “commitment to putting community first” in business decisions, the owners said.
“The three of us are not taking income off this,” Hart said. “We’re volunteer owners. I feel really excited about what [it means] to lead in that way, to set Build up in that way, and to be an example for how [to] run a business ethically and equitably in a way that is politically and community-oriented.”
The shop will undergo a slight rebrand to become known as Build Coffee and Books, emphasizing the shop’s sales of books and zines—many of which are centered on social justice, local political issues and community organizing.
Ewing, an author and “book girlie,” hopes to bring more literary events aligned with the shop’s goals of “building community collective power,” she said. Hart, who lives in Durham, North Carolina, wants to use the space to facilitate collaborations between Durham and Chicago authors.
The new owners also hope to expand Build’s catering services, they said.
“We don’t plan to radically change it,” reynolds-tyler said. “We’re purchasing the shop because we want it to live. We are just excited to fortify all of those systems that currently exist and be expansive in that, but [be] really true to the mission of Build Coffee and Books.”
Build’s continued existence would be enough to count the shop’s first year under new ownership as a success, reynolds-tyler said.
Beyond that, the owners will look to their staff’s work-life balance and an increase in attendance by residents of Woodlawn and nearby neighborhoods as benchmarks of success, they said.
“Build has a lot of people who really rely on the space as a source of nourishment and support,” Ewing said. “Our first job is to be stewards of the existing community: the staff, the surrounding neighborhood, the kids who go to Carnegie [Elementary School, on the same block as Build]. We’re taking care of a space that is already so important to so many folks.”
An anniversary celebration for Build will be June 28, soon after the new owners take over. To learn more about Build’s transition to new ownership or offer support, email hello@buildcoffeeandbooks.com.