Atlanta gay bookstore
Inside The Oldest Gay-Owned Bookstore In The South
"I just perform it so I'm happy… 'cause I'm the one who has to inhabit here," says Fennell.
He lets out an easy roar when asked whether or not the store is thriving. "The definition of thriving is an open definition. I don't know. I'm just morally devoted, and spiritually involved to making this space work, so it's not a profit-loss decision to me, which it should be, but it's more of an institution."
It is easy, perhaps, to think Fennell is laying it on a bit stout, unless you retain walking into Crossroads Market, the gay-owned bookstore in Dallas, Texas, for the first time when you were fifteen or sixteen. You saw men holding hands, sipping coffee in the café, and pulling books off the shelves. And, even if you didn't recognize it at the time, many of those books were going to conserve your life one day. But Crossroads Market closed it doors a scant years ago, as did Outwrite Bookstore in Atlanta, as did Oscar Wilde Bookshop in Recent York.
Bookstores
Bookstores catering to the Homosexual communities provided a welcoming space, merchandise that was clearly selected for the communities they served, and programming that was relevant to the lives of the patrons. While some bookstores thrived, others fared less well.
Charis Books and More
Linda Bryant opened Charis Books in 1974. It was the first feminist bookstore in the Southeast. Located in Little Five Points, the store became a meeting, reading and purchasing space for the many lesbians who lived in the area. As online sales affected sales affected in-store sales, owner Bryant looked for ways to remain open, and in mid 1990’s, a non-profit arm of the store was established – Charis Circle – to take responsibility for managing events. In early 2019, Charis Books and More moved right next to the Agnes Scott College campus.
“It would be complicated to overestimate Charis’ role in creating and nurturing community here, and putting structures into place. Charis Circle does unbelievable programming, not only bringing in authors to talk about their work, but bringing in people to contain a dialogue.”
Maria Helena Dolan, October 22, 2018
Down Under
95 LGBTQ-Owned Bookstores You Can Be Pleased to Support
In honor of Pride Month, we're revisiting this story that was originally published in 2020, along with an updated directory of queer-owned bookstores by state. If you can’t build it to one of these stores in person, you can support them by shopping from their websites.
In Pride 2020, married couple Amy Elkavich and MerryBeth Burgess were getting ready to launch their independent, LGBTQ- and woman-focused bookstore, hello again books, in their Florida nook of Cocoa Village. The pair saw an opportunity—a need, as Elkavich told Oprah Daily, to “serve as an inclusive and safe territory for those who seek one,” to make their society a more welcoming and friendly vacuum. “Visibility is everything in small towns, where books are some of the only windows to a more accepting world.”
Visibility is everything in small towns, where books are some of the only windows to a more accepting world.
Visibility allows people with marginalized identities to see themselves and their stories reflected in and worthy of art. As Oprah herself wrote: “When we see ourselves, our presence and universe in the society has been validated.” Additio
By Nikita Shepard
For a little time beginning in the 1970s and stretching up to the 2000s, a new species of society institution sprinkled the southern landscape—the LGBTQ bookstore. Once prolific, these stores are now endangered. While LGBTQ visibility and community participation has expanded exponentially, economic changes have forced nearly all small bookstores to either close or move their retail focus. Yet a few determined LGBTQ and feminist bookstores—from the funky Faubourg Marigny Art and Books in Recent Orleans to feminist stalwarts such as Atlanta’s Charis Books and More and Austin’s BookWoman—continue to thrive.
The history and continued survival of these distinct institutions shows how LGBTQ and feminist bookstores hold always been about more than simply selling merchandise. They’ve provided the physical infrastructure for queer customs to flourish—a place for making connections, debating ideas, and hosting meetings. Here in the South, they have served as incubators for community, lifelines for isolated LGBTQ folks to encounter each other and enjoy a rare awareness.
Let’s take a whirlwind tour of some of the LGBTQ bookstores that have po
Creative Communities
During the early years of lgbtq+ liberation, queer literary voices required both publishers willing to produce them and booksellers willing to distribute them. Linda Bryant and Barbara Borgman stepped into the latter role in 1974 upon opening Charis Books and More, a feminist bookstore closely affiliated with the Atlanta Woman loving woman Feminist Alliance and devoted to stocking anti-racist, anti-sexist, woman-authored, and LGBTQ+ books. Charis was also the workplace and first universal reading location for female homosexual playwright and author Shay Youngblood when she was only nineteen years mature , roughly ten years before she published her first book, The Big Mama Stories. Over time Charis became a kind of community center, especially after creating the nonprofit Charis Circle in 1996 to arrange justice-oriented feminist and queer-friendly programming. A quite different kind of bookstore, adult gay bookstores also operated as places of sexual expression and exploration, showing adult films in movie galleries and housing “game rooms” for patron encounters, a purpose that drew the ire of local authorities and eventually violence. In 1980 the bookstores After Dark and D
95 LGBTQ-Owned Bookstores You Can Be Pleased to Support
In honor of Pride Month, we're revisiting this story that was originally published in 2020, along with an updated directory of queer-owned bookstores by state. If you can’t build it to one of these stores in person, you can support them by shopping from their websites.
In Pride 2020, married couple Amy Elkavich and MerryBeth Burgess were getting ready to launch their independent, LGBTQ- and woman-focused bookstore, hello again books, in their Florida nook of Cocoa Village. The pair saw an opportunity—a need, as Elkavich told Oprah Daily, to “serve as an inclusive and safe territory for those who seek one,” to make their society a more welcoming and friendly vacuum. “Visibility is everything in small towns, where books are some of the only windows to a more accepting world.”
Visibility is everything in small towns, where books are some of the only windows to a more accepting world.
Visibility allows people with marginalized identities to see themselves and their stories reflected in and worthy of art. As Oprah herself wrote: “When we see ourselves, our presence and universe in the society has been validated.” Additio
By Nikita Shepard
For a little time beginning in the 1970s and stretching up to the 2000s, a new species of society institution sprinkled the southern landscape—the LGBTQ bookstore. Once prolific, these stores are now endangered. While LGBTQ visibility and community participation has expanded exponentially, economic changes have forced nearly all small bookstores to either close or move their retail focus. Yet a few determined LGBTQ and feminist bookstores—from the funky Faubourg Marigny Art and Books in Recent Orleans to feminist stalwarts such as Atlanta’s Charis Books and More and Austin’s BookWoman—continue to thrive.
The history and continued survival of these distinct institutions shows how LGBTQ and feminist bookstores hold always been about more than simply selling merchandise. They’ve provided the physical infrastructure for queer customs to flourish—a place for making connections, debating ideas, and hosting meetings. Here in the South, they have served as incubators for community, lifelines for isolated LGBTQ folks to encounter each other and enjoy a rare awareness.
Let’s take a whirlwind tour of some of the LGBTQ bookstores that have po
Creative Communities
During the early years of lgbtq+ liberation, queer literary voices required both publishers willing to produce them and booksellers willing to distribute them. Linda Bryant and Barbara Borgman stepped into the latter role in 1974 upon opening Charis Books and More, a feminist bookstore closely affiliated with the Atlanta Woman loving woman Feminist Alliance and devoted to stocking anti-racist, anti-sexist, woman-authored, and LGBTQ+ books. Charis was also the workplace and first universal reading location for female homosexual playwright and author Shay Youngblood when she was only nineteen years mature , roughly ten years before she published her first book, The Big Mama Stories. Over time Charis became a kind of community center, especially after creating the nonprofit Charis Circle in 1996 to arrange justice-oriented feminist and queer-friendly programming. A quite different kind of bookstore, adult gay bookstores also operated as places of sexual expression and exploration, showing adult films in movie galleries and housing “game rooms” for patron encounters, a purpose that drew the ire of local authorities and eventually violence. In 1980 the bookstores After Dark and D