Contributing writer Lizzy Nyoike profiles Urban Lights Music, one of the last Black-owned record stores in the Twin Cities, where owner Timothy Wilson has kept the doors open for 32 years through industry transformation, the pandemic, civil unrest and construction by staying rooted in community connection and culture.
For more than three decades, music has filled the shelves and speakers inside Urban Lights Music, but owner Timothy Wilson says the store has always been about more than records.
Tucked along University Avenue in St. Paul, Urban Lights stands today as one of the last Black-owned record stores in the Twin Cities. Over the decades, the store has survived industry changes, neighborhood shifts, economic shifts and periods of uncertainty that forced many other independent music stores to close their doors.
Wilson opened Urban Lights during a time when physical music stores were everywhere. Large retail stores dominated the industry, while locally owned stores across Minneapolis and St. Paul competed to keep customers coming through the door…