Pages Bookshop is extending its shelf life.
Weeks after the Rosedale Park bookstore announced that its founder was retiring, the retailer is now under new ownership and is headed to a grand re-opening on Independent Bookstore Day on April 26.
“I’m excited,” Pages’ new owner, Jelani Stowers, tells Model D. “I’ve been a part of this community for this long time, but this will be stepping into this community in a new way.”
Stowers was raised in Rosedale Park and still resides there, having first become familiar with Pages as a teenage customer when its first owner, Susan Murphy, opened its doors in 2015. In the decade since, Stowers has emerged as one of Detroit’s leading Gen Z voices, working with the
Steen Foundation, a Detroit-based youth-focused philanthropic organization, as well as an advocate and educator in computer science and entrepreneurship for young Detroiters.
Murphy, a retired Detroit Public Schools educator, opened Pages on Independent Bookstore Day in 2015 after two years of doing pop-ups across the city. After connecting with the Grandmont Rosedale Development Corporation, Murphy set up shop on Grand River Avenue, simultaneously
joining a wave of then-new restaurants and retailers debuting on the resurgent corridor
while adding to Detroit's rich literary landscape.
Wishing to make Detroit a tour stop for traveling authors, Murphy turned into a popular venue for national and local writers alike. Its grand opening featured journalist, musician and legendary community leader Luther Keith, the first entry in a long guestbook that would later include Angela Flournoy, who debuted her Detroit-set “The Turner House” there to a standing-room only crowd; Jeffrey Eugenides, the Pulitzer-winning Grosse Pointe scribe of “Middlesex” and “The Marriage Plot”; Stephen Mack Jones, author of the Detroit based “August Jones” crime series, and more.
"Reading made a big difference in my life. Even though reading can be a solitary experience, ideas and books can bring communities together,"
Murphy told Model D at the time. "I hope this becomes more than a bookshop."
Two of Pages’ more popular reading demographics were women and youth. Stowers hopes to expand on the latter, building off of Pages’ family-friendly rep and expansive offerings for middle-grade and young adult readers.
“I’m really interested in engaging the youth in and around Rosedale Park. The neighborhood in general is aging, but there are schools being served in the neighborhood, so there is youth somewhere,” Stowers says.
Part of that includes partnering with the aforementioned Steen Foundation, where Stowers holds a post as vice president of narrative and research. A rolling Community Advisory Board composed of Detroiters will help shape programming, book selections, and operations “to ensure the bookstore continues to reflect the community’s needs and aspirations,” while the foundation will fund a new $1,000 scholarship fund for Detroit Public Schools Community District students.
The scholarship, named in honor of Murphy and her popular pet “bookstore cat” Pip, will be tied to the purchase of select books in-store, with each book sold actively supporting students’ education directly and indirectly.
“Middle-grade literacy is shrinking in places across the board — not just in Detroit,” Stowers says. “What you choose to read in middle school sets your pace for the personal choice to read later on. I’m really wanting to engage that aspect through the Steen Foundation.”
When Stowers first approached Murphy about the idea of taking the helm of Pages, he was up front about not having any experience in running a bookstore. (Incidentally, most indie bookstore founders don’t.) Since January, when Murphy announced her retirement, Stowers joined the American Booksellers Association, which offers a course in bookstore ownership, and attended a flurry of trade shows, networking with publishers, retailers and authors. Around Detroit, he says, he’s sought counsel from both Murphy and Janet Jones, the longtime owner of Midtown’s Source Booksellers.
In late February, while traveling in Atlanta with the
Institute for AfroUrbanism as a member of its fellowship cohort, Stowers and Murphy closed the deal. “You will still have a local bookshop and you will be part of the new chapter of growth,” Murphy posted to Pages’ social accounts.
In the lead-up to Pages’ relaunch, customers shouldn’t expect much change. Stowers is a personal fan of science fiction and memoirs, and is well aware that he’s becoming one of a handful of Black bookstore owners across the country, but will keep shelf offerings closer to Murphy’s stock. But Stowers is looking to engage other community partners, faith-based organizations, chambers of commerce and, of course, Detroit residents to further build on Pages’ stature as a community-orieneted staple.
“Even though we’ve been here in the neighborhood, it’ll be getting to know each other in a new context,” Stowers says.