Give & Steward
Griot Arts is a community bookshop and local home for literature and art, a place to ground in our shared stories, imagine new futures, and build community. By becoming a steward of our mission, you help sustain a vital independent bookstore and creative space in downtown Rochester, Minnesota. The griot, a tradition found in African and Black diasporic cultures, is a keeper of memory, history, culture, and community wisdom—a storyteller entrusted with carrying the past forward while helping communities imagine their future. At Griot, we understand this work as both preservation and creative stewardship, and through your support, we invite you to join us in this living tradition of caring for stories, art, culture, and community across generations.
Community-Supported Bookstore Progam
A Community Supported Bookstore is a bookshop member model in which supporters make ongoing financial contributions to steward and sustain an independent bookshop.
For most small independent bookstores, book sales are not enough to keep us thriving. Inspired by Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs, supporters of a Community Supported Bookstore invest directly in the long-term health of a beloved community resource and, in return, deepen their connection to the bookstore's mission and community.
Community Shares begin at $10 per month. CSB Stewards receive:
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10% off all in-store purchases
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1 complimentary book credit a year (may be gifted to others)
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A free gift
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The satisfaction of knowing you're helping sustain an independent bookstore and creative home for our community
As our CSB program grows, we'll continue adding new opportunities and benefits for our stewards.
You are welcome to purchase a larger share, make an annual contribution, or make a one-time gift in support of Griot's mission. Every share, regardless of size, helps sustain this work.
Additional FAQs can be found at the bottom of this page.
Become a Community Supported Bookstore Steward
Frequency
One time
Monthly
Yearly
Amount
0/100
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why Become a Community Steward?
Griot opened with a simple but ambitious vision: to create a place where literature, art, and community could flourish together in the heart of Rochester. Since opening our doors, we've welcomed authors and writers, exhibited the work of local artists, hosted performances, poetry readings, book clubs, children's story times, community conversations, and created space for people from every background to gather around ideas and stories. But perhaps most importantly, we've become a place where people feel they belong.
Your Community Share helps ensure that Griot can continue to:
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Curate thoughtful collections of books that inspire, challenge, and delight.
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Host authors, artists, educators, and performers.
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Support local artists through creative opportunities.
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Offer free and low-cost programs for our community.
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Create welcoming spaces where neighbors connect across difference.
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Celebrate and center Black history, literature, and culture
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Invest in the future of independent bookselling and the arts in Rochester.
When you purchase a Community Share, you're not simply supporting a bookstore. You're helping cultivate a more vibrant, creative, and connected city.
Why Does This Matters Now?
Griot is entering a new chapter. Our founder and her family have committed to purchasing the historic downtown building that Griot calls home. This decision was about imagining a different way of stewarding community space. Across the country, beloved third spaces like bookstores, galleries, cafés, and arts and cultural organizations are often displaced as neighborhoods grow and commercial rents increase. Too often, the very places that make a city feel alive become the most vulnerable. We believe there is another way. By placing this building in the hands of people deeply invested in Rochester's cultural life, we're working to create a permanent home for literature, art, and community—one that can grow alongside our city. Your Community Share helps make that vision possible. It supports not only the daily work of Griot today but also a long-term commitment to preserving an independent, locally rooted cultural institution for generations to come.
Where does my money go?
Every Community Share helps sustain the everyday work of keeping Griot open and thriving. While every book sold contributes to our mission, independent bookstores earn relatively small margins on new books. Community Shares provide the reliable support needed to host programs, invest in inventory, support artists, and maintain a welcoming space for everyone. Rather than relying solely on retail sales, Community Shares provide predictable support that allows Griot to plan for the future instead of simply surviving month to month.
Isn't buying books enough?
Buying books is one of the very best ways to support Griot, and we hope you'll continue to shop with us often.
A Community Share simply provides another way to invest in the long-term health of the bookstore. It gives Griot the stability to plan ahead, expand programming, and continue serving Rochester for years to come.
Why call it a "Community Share"?
When you purchase a Community Share, you're becoming a steward of a community resource. Like a CSA farm, public radio station, or neighborhood museum, Griot belongs to everyone who believes that stories, art, and community-centered spaces matter.
Why does Rochester need independent bookstores?
Independent bookstores do more than sell books. They create places where children discover a lifelong love of reading, artists find audiences, neighbors connect with one another, difficult conversations happen with care, and communities preserve their stories. We believe every thriving city deserves places like this.