Bookstore Briefs: Hurricane Sandy, Pop Ups, and Expats

Photo via Printed Matter on Facebook

[New update below]

Since 1976, Printed Matter has been an organization that fosters, exhibits, and sells books and publications created by artists. Sadly, they lost many unique and limited edition books to basement flooding after Hurricane Sandy. Donate to help the store--or browse their exciting and extensive online catalog--here: http://printedmatter.org/.

Primary Information, a press influenced by Printed Matter (and co-founded by former Printed Matter employee, James Hoff, along with Miriam Katzeff), also lost much of their inventory in a Manhattan Mini Storage unit that flooded during Sandy. They are taking donations here. Read more about the press, which is interested in 60s conceptual practices and reviving out of print artists' books and artists' writings, while creating a conversation with contemporary artists: http://primaryinformation.org/index.php?/about/.

Tomorrow, Saturday, November 17th, publisher and bookstore powerHouse Books will hold a book fair and reading (Noon to 9pm) to recoup some of the $50,000 of losses they incurred when Hurricane Sandy waters entered their DUMBO, Brooklyn space. Details and lineup: http://powerhousearena.com/newsletters/sandyhatesbooks/

Word Up Books is currently without a brick and mortar space, and is fundraising in order to resume their wildly popular community bookstore (originally conceived to be a one-week pop up) in Washington Heights, Manhattan. Their promotional video featuring bookstore volunteers and neighborhood readers will warm any bookstore lover’s heart, and you can find the video and the Indiegogo fundraising campaign here: http://www.indiegogo.com/wordupbooks.

Pittsburgh’s East End Book Exchange started in the summer of 2011 as a pop up bookstore at events, moved on to a three-day-a-week book stall at a gourmet farmers market, and tonight (Friday November 16) holds its grand opening in a brick and mortar space in the Italian neighborhood of Bloomfield. They feature gently used books and the output of local small press writers. Read the article in Pop City.

ADDED NEWS ITEM:

I forgot when I was blogging on the fly this morning to add another important item of bookstore news:

Under the Volcano Books, an English language bookstore in Mexico City, has moved to a new location, one that sounds very promising for a store still cultivating its audience. Owner Grant Cogswell says the new store is situated in "the upstairs of the American Legion, with full access to their magnificent bar and lounge with stage, and the best burgers in the city. Meeting and event space, and cineclub schedule forthcoming." Their grand re-opening in Condesa is scheduled for November 24. Facebook event page is here: http://www.facebook.com/events/164430983702510/ 

Previously:

Word Up Community Bookshop to Grace Upper Manhattan for One Month

Under the Volcano Books Opens October 15, Mexico City

Bookseller of the Month: Grant Cogswell

Bookseller of the Month: Grant Cogswell

I don't usually give a Bookseller of the Month award, but I'm inventing one for Grant Cogswell, who just made a death-defying drive through the most dangerous part of Mexico, all to retrieve some books. The books, waiting for him in Austin, were donations from Stateside friends and supporters, for his future store: Cogswell will be opening an English-language bookstore in the heart of Mexico City, Under the Volcano Books. The bookstore will be in the vein of Paris' Shakespeare and Company, catering to both a literary expat community and to residents of Mexico City interested in learning about the literature of the English language. Cogswell has said that he wants to foster a better dialogue between Mexico and America; instead of guns, drugs, border patrols, and anti-immigration talk, Cogswell wants to introduce each side to its more creative side. He'll be trying to lure American friends to experience his view of Mexico City (known in Mexico as Distrito Federal), and trying to offer the better angels of America to Mexicans who know mainly our indifference or our scorn. An international literary journal, Mexico Review, will be part of Cogswell's venture.

Grant Cogswell is an American citizen who spent his childhood in some far flung locales, including Paris. A filmmaker, journalist, and longtime resident of Seattle as an adult, he had an infamous and colorful campaign for Seattle's city council where he ran on a platform of creating a citywide monorail. That campaign inspired a book, Zioncheck for President, and a forthcoming movie, Grassroots, directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal. A few years ago, driven by health concerns, Cogswell began spending his winters in Mexico City. He soon fell in love with the city's vibrant culture, and its likeness to some of his favorite childhood memories. La Roma is the area of Mexico City where Cogswell is seeking a space for the store, and it was laid out (in the early 20th Century) in imitation of Parisian boulevards. Its street vendors, street musicians, and lively sidewalk life remind Cogswell of the street life of 1970s Paris. Once serving as the haunts of William Burroughs and film location for Luis Buñuel, La Roma has been home to artists and expats for the last hundred years.

Cogswell will be selling books in Mexico City street markets until he secures a space to open the store. I'll be running an interview with the intrepid bookseller as the opening of Under the Volcano Books gets closer.

Make a donation to the bookstore here.

See a partial inventory of Under the Volcano's books here.

Read Grant Cogswell's bookstore blog here.

Find the Under the Volcano Books website here.