Griot Arts is  owned and fully-operated by Nicole “Cole” Nfonoyim-Hara with no other staff. We are open part-time. While we do have regular hours, there may be days when we may not be able to stay open during our regular hours. Typically, we are closed on national holidays and school breaks and snow days during the academic year. All closures and breaks will be posted on our social media pages and we will work to also update the website. Please check back periodically for any changes as Griot Arts grows and we are able to have more staff or volunteers to maintain more consistent hours. Please check social media for the latest updates or changes to the hours below. We are also open for events outside of these hours.  You can always shop for books via our online storefront at Bookshop.org and Libro.fm.

The Gallery at Griot Arts

The Griot Arts space takes inspiration from the living rooms and home-spaces central to Black life described by scholar bell hooks in her book Art on My Mind. The vivid hues are reminiscent of candy-colored homes of the U.S. South and the Caribbean as well as African wax-print textiles. Textures of vintage rattan, wicker, and woven straw honor family porches and stoops where griot-elders, grannies, and woke aunties and uncles often hold court and hold space.

The gallery at Griot Arts highlights the work of local and regional BIPOC artists. Here, the art is meant to be part of the everyday life and spirit of the space. As a whole, the gallery and bookstore are curated to “announce” the visual, literary, and cultural complexity of Black people as an invitation toward healing, communal care, reconciliation, and liberation for all of us.

Owner | Nicole “Cole” Nfonoyim-Hara

Nicole “Cole” Asong Nfonoyim-Hara* is committed to liberation and healing through story and the power of language, narrative, and the written word. Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in NYC, her Cameroonian, Afro-Costa Rican and Indian roots/routes ground her creative work and practice. She is founder and director of Griot Arts, an arts hub centering Black literature and art. Her work has taken her around the country and the world. Her writing has been recognized by the Loft Literary Center, Minnesota State Arts Board, Givens Foundation for African American Literature, and VONA/Voices of Our Nation. Her arts writing has been featured on Mn Artists and exhibition catalogs for the MCAD-Jerome Foundation Fellowships for Early Career Artists and the Great Northern Festival blog. Her writing on being Black and multiracial appears in the anthology Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out and her discontinued blog Mixed Dreams. She is also a mentor with the Minnesota Prison Writers Workshop. She serves as host and associate producer of a weekly civic and cultural affairs show about Rochester, MN on the local PBS network. A former Fulbright scholar in cultural and applied anthropology, she holds a BA from Swarthmore College and earned her graduate degree in Migration Studies from Oxford University.

Visit Cole’s website: https://www.coleasong.com/