Q&A with Brain Lair Books founder Kathy Burnette
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Growing up on the south side of Chicago, Kathy Burnette, founder of Brain Lair Books, frequently role-played as a bookstore owner with her friends. After moving to South Bend, Burnette explored different career paths and ultimately wound up living out her childhood dream.
Facing imminent closure in October, Burnette made a call on social media, inviting community members to purchase over 5,000 books so the store could stay open longer. Following a successful sale drive, Brain Lair will continue to serve the community and evolve its service offerings.
Burnette spoke with Inside INdiana Business on the importance of independent business in Indiana communities, her passion for books and how residents can continue to show support.
This article has been edited for brevity and clarity.
What motivated the switch from accountant to librarian?
I was the first person in my family to go to college and one of my teachers in high school suggested that since I was good with numbers, I should major in accounting. So I did. There was no love or anything for it; I just didn’t have any other guidance. But I had always actually wanted to be an educator. After being an accountant, we moved to California and I did a bunch of just random jobs. Then I went back to school to get my teaching license and taught for a number of years. I was teaching second grade at the time, doing a research project with the kids in my class, saw how the library worked and decided that was what I wanted to do. So I went back to school and got a master’s in library science.
And what inspired you to start your own bookstore?
Owning a business is not something I ever thought I would do. But I could see that as a nation we were lacking in empathy, and I came across some studies that said the more you see yourself in books, the more you know your place in society. The opposite is also true. If you don’t see yourself, you don’t know your place. Chimamanda Adichie has a TED talk called the “Danger of a Single Story.” I watched that and thought, “How am I contributing to the problem as a librarian? What should I be doing as a librarian?” So I started trying to bring in more diverse books as a librarian. Then I started doing that for friends of mine who are also librarians and teachers.
Growing up, we would play “library and bookstore” because we were poor in the south side of Chicago and that’s just what we did. So I thought, “What if I become a bookstore owner?” which is like the next step from being a librarian. I wanted to keep making sure kids had access to more diverse literature, I prefer inclusive than diverse. Because diverse still seems separate, whereas inclusive feels like we’re together. So bringing in more inclusive literature.
I was looking through a basket of books at the eye doctor and I mentioned that I’d always wanted to own a bookstore. She told me about the Spark Program at St. Mary’s College, where they help women start businesses. I called and that was the last day they were accepting applications for the next cohort that was coming up. I got accepted to the program in 2017 and that was how I got started.
What was the most important thing that you learned from the Spark Program?
It’s something I had forgotten until this year, that you can’t do it by yourself. Even if you are the sole owner, you don’t have to be the sole person involved. When I first started, there were different women in the class, some of them who I am still friends with, that came to help me get started, that had lunch with me and talked me through different things. That’s something I had forgotten. I don’t have to do it by myself and I shouldn’t actually do it by myself because the more people that you trust and that you can talk with, it’s more helpful. And with the idea of the store closing, the community stepped up and helped with that.
What prompted the book sale campaign?
We had been struggling all year, actually. We’d already seen a 2% decrease in sales and it was only getting worse. Back in May, we started exploring how we can combine the nonprofit with the bookstore and other solutions. Then in September, I decided that I didn’t know if I really wanted to still keep it open because I was so tired of just struggling and trying to make this work. Maybe it didn’t need to work because like I said, I thought the community wasn’t behind it. We’ve been open for six years. They know what they want, what they don’t want, and maybe this is not what they want. And so maybe it is okay that I’ve done what I needed to do. We recently got the key to the city and on the key it said, “Thank you for uplifting these voices.” That made me think that we had actually succeeded, that we had done what we wanted to do and I can close. So in September, we planned to close at the end of October.
The Tuesday before I made the announcement, I went to see Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy, speak. He shared that he also wanted to quit the work that he was doing, which was powerful for me to hear. I love Just Mercy and what he has done for the community of people in prison, especially if they’re wrongly accused. Listening to him say that the reason he continues to help broken people is because he also is broken, made me think, “Maybe I still need this. Maybe I’m the one that needs to do this work.”
So I decided to give it one final push and ask the community one last time. I didn’t think it would happen because it was a big ask. Listening to him speak, I felt as if he was talking to me about the work and how hard the work is sometimes. Realizing that I am working to help myself become a whole person, really struck a chord with me.
Burnette speaks on what motivated her to reach out for community support.
And how has your vision for Brain Lair evolved over the last six years?
Now, I want to go beyond the books. Before, my whole thing was making sure that we had these books because there’s research that shows fiction builds empathy. I also wanted to make sure not just Black and brown people had books they could see themselves in but that everybody had books they could see Black and brown people in, that was important. Within the last two years, I started discussions because I feel after 2020, yeah, you have these books but are we talking about them? What are we doing as a result of having these books? In 2020 there were 10 to 13 books that everybody was buying across the country but were we reading those books? And as a result of reading those books, what were we doing? Because how are we where we are now with books that are out there? How are we still in the same kind of divided place that we are now? So what I would like to do going forward is making sure these discussions are happening, making sure that I can see a change in the community and the neighborhood based on the readings and discussions of these books.
Has being a business owner changed the way that you look at the world?
Honestly, I don’t think it really has. I’ll be 58 next year, so I was older when I started the business. I’d already raised my child, put her through school and gone to school several times myself. I don’t think it changed the way I think about things in terms of business. I think it changed the way I think about things, in terms of what knowledge is available to people, what knowledge we accept, how we accept it and what we do with it. I can more clearly see what we aren’t teaching in schools and that determines what the future looks like. If we’re not giving kids everything, then they can’t really run the world the way we want. The status quo won’t change.
And have you been able to bring the community on board with the vision for Brain Lair?
Up until September, I didn’t really think I was bringing them. I thought I was in the beginning because I could see it. I could see the results of what we were doing. But these last few years, I didn’t feel like I saw that. I don’t feel like I saw the community support, like I would have liked to see the community support. This past month says that I was wrong, that maybe what my factors were for looking at success or integration with the community were wrong things.
Now, it looks like they think that what I offer to the community is valuable and a lot of that is what I personally offer, not just the space itself. They want the space, they want a place where they can come, discuss things, be and feel safe. So I’m looking at how to provide that going forward. It’s not really just about the books. It’s about the community that it brings together and the people that it brings together.
How do you think the city and other community stakeholders can begin to improve the pathway for success for small business owners?
There’s a lot of things I feel could be done. One, there are no breaks for small businesses. There’s breaks for big businesses moving to Indiana but there’s nothing for the small businesses that are trying to make the cities in Indiana special. Where are my tax cuts? I employ people and we all shop local, so we’re putting our money right back into this community. I wish more people knew about the Small Business Development Center at IUSB. That’s a great place that offers resources to help. Even the idea of “small business” is tricky. There’s a big difference between a business that has 500 employees and a business that has two high school kids and one other person. I wish they would really stop calling it small business and call it local or independent businesses.
What do we want to say that South Bend offers when we go out and we’re convincing people to move here? We can say we have this book shop, we have this plant shop, we have this collective, we have these cool things that you’re not going to see exactly the same way in another city and that gives our city value. So maybe some new policies that provide accessible financing. Right now, it’s not just hard, it’s impossible. So financing, coaching, providing places to go so that you can meet with other business owners, which the library has been trying to do. The things that they would give bigger businesses, I wish they would offer something similar to smaller businesses to make sure that we are successful and that we stay open. Without the small local, independent businesses, it wouldn’t be the same town. Who would want to be here if the only places you get to go to are chains? Even if you don’t go to all of them yourself every day when you get visitors, you’re taking them to these cool little shops that they don’t have in their city. You want to show them what’s different about South Bend, things that you are proud of. So we need some support from the city and the state government.
Have you been having the conversation around support with other businesses in the area?
We have been having these conversations. There is a group that meets every second Thursday. We would rotate meetings to different places and talk about the struggles, what each person is doing and how we could help. It’s an informal thing that was created out of necessity, not by the state or the city government. I think in the next iteration, the Small Business Development Center will be involved. Hopefully they’ll be able to connect people to resources quicker.
I talk with the owners of the Botany Shop and the Portage Collective the most because we’re all right here. So it’s an ongoing conversation. We talk about our hours, who’s open, when? Different ways that we can partner on different events, what connections we have to see if that connection can also help someone else. We do a lot of sharing and conversation, just trying to make sure that they know that somebody else is here. It’s hard to be up there by yourself as an entrepreneur.
Now that the book sale drive was successful, what can the community expect from Brain Lair?
There’s a lot of things we have in the works already, programming within the store that I have been wanting to do, that I will do now, that seems like that’s what people want. We have several book clubs already. We’re adding a historical one in December and I’m bringing in more community people to run them as opposed to running them myself. Part of them buying all the books means I don’t need as many bookcases and I can bring in more seating. I’d like to provide a space where people can come and hang out, where we can also do these different types of workshops that I had wanted to do, looking at kids going to college, especially first time students. How do you choose a college? How do you write an essay? What is the FAFSA like? I’ve always wanted to offer different programs like that. Maybe provide a space for people to come and do tutoring or find tutoring. I definitely want to have a wall of information where people can learn about health care options and what’s available food-wise, since this is a food desert. What’s available education-wise, maybe you didn’t get a chance to go and you need some help with reading as an adult. I want Brain Lair to be the place where you can come and find out what resources are available to you as well as fun stuff like workshops, crafts and community game nights.
Will you be extending your opening hours?
Probably not. We might bring back Wednesdays next year. We’re going to be closed all of January, while I think about that. One thing I had looked at was bringing in volunteers during the week, which would then allow us to be open more during the week. I don’t think I can do more during the week because it’s already a lot. We still have to be closed at least one or two days so that we can receive books and get books out because we don’t have another place to do all of that and it’s hard to do when people are in store. The only way I can extend, is if I can get enough volunteers to help me run it during the week. Volunteers are the reason we got through all the community support as well. I enjoyed working with them, so I want to see if that’s something that can be sustainable for us.
But past research shows that people aren’t coming on all those days. People think you should be open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, but I have the data that’s telling me nobody is showing up to justify the cost of having somebody here. I used to be open seven days a week but people don’t seem to be shopping that way.
Any final thoughts?
This idea that I would never want to do this again. If it came to the point where we were losing money and doing how we did this year, I would just close this door. If the community would like for us to stay open, it has to continue to be a two-way street throughout the year, not just seasonally. It has to be something that’s sustainable. If the community has ideas of what they would like to see in a bookstore that they would visit, then please let me know. We’re looking at how we can keep ourselves in front of the community so that they’re coming more often.
That’s the biggest thing, staying sustainable so that I’m not in this situation again. I still want support but I don’t want to ever have to be in a spot where it’s if you don’t help me, I close. People say, “I’ve always been meaning to go” and then when they eventually go, that place might not exist. This used to be a hardware store, there used to be a grocery store at the other end, those places don’t exist because people stopped coming to them thinking that they would always be there when they were ready. That’s not the case with a lot of independent businesses. We can’t just stay open in the hopes that one day you will come to us.