Bookstores Take on Social Issues

As President Trump’s administration approaches its first 100 days, bookstores around the country continue to engage with customers on such social issues as immigration, race, women’s rights, and the environment — topics that have remained front and center in the national dialogue since the 2016 election.

Over the past several months, bookstores have provided the means for activism and education in a safe and welcoming environment, where people of all political viewpoints feel comfortable.

Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, Massachusetts, recently hosted a 24-hour readathon of Sinclair Lewis's "It Can't Happen Here."

On Friday, March 31, Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, Massachusetts, hosted a marathon reading of Sinclair Lewis’ classic novel It Can’t Happen Here. Published in 1935, Lewis’ tale of a president who becomes a dictator warns of the fragility of democracy. The 24-hour public reading was staged by Aforementioned Productions, a literary nonprofit run by local writers Carissa Halston and Randolph Pfaff.

Brookline Booksmith manager Dana Brigham said that more than 50 people came in over the course of the all-night public reading, which began at 7:00 p.m. and ended at 7:00 a.m. the next morning. Several attendees and the founders of Aforementioned Productions stayed for the entire time. And to get even more people engaged, Brookline backlist buyer Shuchi Saraswat set up a Facebook Live event of the reading, which garnered a lot of positive feedback.

Saraswat had suggested the bookstore as a venue for the event, since Aforementioned Productions wanted the venue to be more inviting than a traditional theater environment. 

“There is an open-door, free-flowing nature to a bookstore that can really accommodate something like this,” Saraswat said.

For the all-nighter, Aforementioned Productions recruited dozens of guests to read passages from the book, and four brave booksellers volunteered to read during the 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. time slots. Food and beverages were provided by local businesses Union Square Donuts and OTTO Pizza, and digBoston, the event’s media sponsor, interviewed Halston for a cover story that ran the day before.

Brookline featured It Can’t Happen Here on the store’s “Books We Love” table as well as on a display of weekly and annual bestsellers, and a special table display was set up at the event. Brookline has been selling about 20 copies of the title per week for the past 12 months.

Brigham noted that Brookline had hosted a few readathons in the past, but never one as long as for It Can’t Happen Here.

“People were very grateful we were doing it, and the people who read were really thrilled to have that opportunity,” she said. “The quality of the readings was fantastic; some of the people could have been audiobook stars, honestly.”

Last month, Sherman’s Books & Stationery, which has six locations in coastal Maine, started a new book club at its Portland location. Power to the Reader is a monthly intersectional feminist book group focusing on consciousness-raising and social justice. A Facebook post for the club’s first meeting, which focused on We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation by Jeff Change (Picador), reads, “We will engage in critical discussion of subjects broached in each book, then make connections to ourselves as well as current local and national issues. Note: Got prejudice? Check it at the door. Got privilege? Acknowledge it. Haters gonna hate — but not here.”

Meghan Fogg, who founded the book club with fellow Sherman’s bookseller Kirsten Goodale, explained: “Our specific store is filled with a lot of feminist women, and Portland as a city was kind of down after the election and still is, so we wanted to have an outlet to educate ourselves and others.”

Customers who RSVPed to the event and reserved a copy of We Gon’ Be Alright received 25 percent off, but buying the book is not a requirement to attend club meetings, though it is strongly recommended.

This is the first book club of its kind officially endorsed by Sherman’s, said Fogg, adding that it’s still small group, “but hopefully if we gain ground, the other Sherman’s stores would also do something similar.”

The next meeting of Power to the Reader, on Monday, May 15, will discuss The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, and Fogg is hopeful for a larger turnout.

“We’re really excited about The Handmaid’s Tale. Many people have already actually read it and I think they’ll be more eager to come,” she said. “It’s a safer book to start with; also, the Hulu series is coming out later this month, so that should help.”

Square Books owner Richard Howorth also put the focus on civil rights in the April 6 column “Bookselling in the 21st Century: Civil Rights, Today More Than Ever,” published online at Literary Hub. Howorth wrote that while his store has always been involved in activism, recent social justice-related events at Square have been some of the best-received he can remember.

Mississippi has long been a battleground for the Civil Rights movement, and the Oxford, Mississippi, store has staged numerous events for authors of books on racism and civil rights over the years. But, said Howorth, the crowd was much larger than expected for author Timothy Tyson’s visit this February to promote The Blood of Emmett Till (Simon & Schuster), due in part, he wrote, “to a collective hunger for some explanation of where — in relation to the Till murder and its unresolved status — we stand today.”

Other recent successful events in the same vein included a community reading of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

In the wake of a law passed by the Mississippi Legislature providing religious exemptions for LGBT discrimination, Square Books created a printed broadside delineating the store’s philosophy of tolerance and welcome to all.

“We would never use our store to advocate a particular candidate, and I don’t really feel that what we have been doing as described here is political,” Howorth wrote. “It is simply a matter of being who and what we are, and being unafraid of what that is.”

In Northshire Bookstore’s April newsletter, store owner Chris Morrow addressed the importance of climate change and, more recently, the problematic nature of its politicization. “I still don’t understand why this has turned into a political issue,” Morrow wrote. “There is so much unbiased science and the stakes are so large, that one would think this could be a galvanizing issue for all humanity.”

Morrow went on to describe Northshire, which has locations in Saratoga Springs, New York, and Manchester Center, Vermont, as a place where people can come to learn about climate change. “Community bookstores strive to provide inspiration, information, and entertainment, and to be catalysts for conversations about the important topics of our time. I hope you find some time to come in and browse, whether you are in the mood to engage or to escape.”

A passionate advocate for the environment, Morrow said he has made his store into an outlet for people looking for information. In addition to hosting climate change education sessions, including multiple events with author and environmental activist Bill McKibben, Northshire carries a wide selection of books on the topic. 

“We always have a good selection of climate change books in our sections, and sometimes we’ll do a separate display,” said Morrow. “We’ll probably do another climate change display toward the end of the month.”

Northshire has taken its responsibility to the environment even further. “We have solar cells on the roof at the Manchester store, and a couple years ago we put in three electric charging stations for electric cars in our parking lot,” said Morrow. “The number of electric cars is growing in the area. It’s ramping up every year, so the chargers are definitely getting used.”

On April 29, the 100th day of the Trump administration, Morrow said he and his daughters will attend the massive People’s Climate March in Washington D.C. sponsored by 350.org, the environmental advocacy organization co-founded by McKibben. Marchers will protest the administration’s proposals to drop out of the Paris Agreement and to slash the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by 31 percent. Morrow said the store also donated $1,000 to 350.org to bring a bus through Manchester to pick up people for the march.