We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nikkya Hargrove. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nikkya below.

Nikkya, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

For me, it’s two-fold, bookstores provide a place of comfort and community, and in my town of Stratford, Connecticut, we did not have a single bookstore. We live in the richest county in the state and we do don’t have a single bookstore. As a writer, and author, I wanted to change that. I’d known only one side of the publishing industry and as a queer, black woman, I knew the road to opening a brick and mortar, would be a long one for many reasons, but the biggest being that raising capital would be an endeavor, in addition to learning the bookselling industry. I want Obodo Serendipity Books to be a place to bring our community together, around books, and eventually around programs that feed the soul, from the teenagers to parents to our elders. Books open the doors to other worlds, other kinds of people, and takes us all on adventures no matter the genre. The books will be curated as well as the programs around social and emotional development in hopes of building a strong community of readers and people. It is my dream that through books, we can build a community of people who all take part in making the community we live in that much better.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

In 2015, I began writing in a freelance capacity. I’ve written for Elle, Cosmo, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian and others before landing a gig as a staff writer with a publication called Scary Mommy. My writing focuses on LGBTQI+ issues, motherhood, and social issues. Soon thereafter, I was invited to join a community of writers as a contributor for a publication called Confident Parents, Confident Kids, and this is where my love for social and emotional development really took off. I wanted to bring my two passions together – the written word and community building, and I could not think of a better way to do that then right here in my own community? Once our doors open, as a brick and mortar, I look forward to bringing some of the authors I’ve gotten to know over the years, into my store for an author talk, opening up our space for organizations in need of a meeting space, invite teens to work in our store from stocking shelves to giving their own book recommendations to customers, Obodo Serendipity Books will certainly be a place for and by the community.

I have spent my entire career working in the nonprofit sector. I have been with a heart health nonprofit since 2018 helping heart surgery, liver transplant, and pediatric kidney transplant patients and their families with critical resources like food, housing, and transportation so they can focus on getting better. I am a graduate of Bard College, ’05 and hold a degree in Human Rights. I have a master’s in Counseling from Mercy College. I have a book hitting shelves in October 2024 called Mama: A Memoir of a Family Lost and Found (Algonquin Books), which I am very excited about! I am the mom of 3 a teen who is soon to be off to college, and twin daughters who are 8-years-old. My wife and I can be found hanging out with our two Cockapoo puppies, Oliver and Evelyn, when we aren’t working or schlepping our kids around.

As an author, with my first book set for an October 2024 publication, my book Mama: A Queer, Black Woman’s Story of a Family Lost and Found by Algonquin Books, I know what it’s like to get your voice heard, which is what I want Obodo Serendipity Books to do for both authors and our community members at large.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I’ve long had a dream to start my own business. It sort of began as a child. I was raised by my maternal grandparents, and they had a small convenience store. They were hardworking, but didn’t have the business education needed to make their business as successful as it could have been. Over time, and after lots of money poured into the business, it did not survive. I held onto their failure and in some ways their failure is what kept me from pursuing my dream of opening a bookstore long ago…the fear of failure. In 2017, I failed when I tried launching a crowdfunding campaign which high expectations that that would be the way to raising the most capital for my bookstore dreams. It did not. I built partnerships, had articles written about me in local newspapers, trying to create buzz, for a buzz-worthy cause, but I did not have the business education (like my grandparents didn’t) I needed then. Though I failed all those years ago, the dream never left me. I went back to the drawing board, never letting the fire of the dream of being a bookstore die down, I came back stronger, with a better strategy, a more realistic timeline, new and stronger community partnerships, and a social media strategy that required the support of interns. Like my grandparents, I am unafraid of hard work, and I know that I cannot build this business alone. I’ve befriended mentors both in and outside of the bookselling industry who offer me guidance along the way.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson that I had to unlearn is that you must go all in to prove “it’s” possible. This is simply not true. I thought that I could only start a bookstore with a brick and mortar or I could not start one at all. Currently, I have an online presence and partnerships with vendors like Ingram Content Group, which is where I get all of my books from. I have partnered with a local coffee shop, family owned, who will allow me to host monthly pop-up shops, and I am actively building bridges with our mayor and our Board of Education to see how my bookstore could be of service to them. I had to unlearn the “go big or go home” mentality because slow and steady wins the race…as cliche as both of those sound, it’s certainly true. There is so much about being a business owner that is sort of trial and error, and nothing teaches you better than good ol’ on the job training. For me, I won’t know if something works if I don’t try it once or even twice.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.obodoserendipitybooks.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/obodoserendipitybooks
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=100087203756080
• Other: My author site is: www.nikkyamhargrove.com

Image Credits
My headshot only was done by Jordan and Anna Rathkopf of The Rathkopfs Their website is www.rathkopf.com Nikkya Hargrove, all other photos