COMMUNITY FEATURE PETALS & PAGES WAS OPENED BY DYLAH RAY IN 2023 PETALS & PAGES CELEBRATES SECOND ANNIVERSARY STORY AND PHOTOS BY JULI YANAI STANDING AMONG THE GALLERIES, restaurants, and businesses that make up Denver’s Santa Fe Arts District is Petals & Pages, an independently owned queer and feminist bookstore. The store was opened by Dylah Ray in 2023 and has since been voted the “2024 Best Bookstore” by 5280 Magazine. The Petals & Pages name grew from a love of flowers, books, and the desire to create a beautiful space for the queer community. The store is celebrating its second anniversary this year. To mark the momentous occasion, Denver VOICE had the chance to ask Ray about what led to the store’s inception, what it’s been like to own a bookstore, and what the future looks like for her business. Since opening, the bookstore has quickly become a place where community members can embrace creativity in its various forms. Currently, Petals & Pages hosts a variety of events, including writing workshops, art and dance classes. Explaining what initially sparked the desire to open a bookstore, Ray said, “We opened Petals & Pages to provide a space for the community to connect over a shared love of literature. We wanted to provide a beautiful and relaxing space where folks can go to read, write, and build a creative, literary scene in Denver.” And what started as a space created to foster creative expression around the shared joy of literature has since grown into something much bigger. “We’ve grown our customer base to a large and loyal following and are so grateful for the support,” Ray said. “We have a wide variety of titles in the store, as well as art and merchandise from local artists, and have been able to expand our selection widely based on the support we’ve received in our first two years.” August 2025 DENVER VOICE 5
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