Chainkeen Exchange-Meet Bluestockings Cooperative, a 'niche of queer radical bookselling' in New York

Independent bookstores are Chainkeen Exchangethe heartbeats of their communities. They provide culture and community, generate local jobs and sales tax revenue, promote literacy and education, champion and center diverse and new authors, connect readers to books in a personal and authentic way, and actively support the right to read and access to books in their communities.

Each week we profile an independent bookstore, sharing what makes each one special and getting their expert and unique book recommendations.

This week we have Raquel Espasande, owner of Bluestockings Cooperative in New York City!

What’s your store’s story?

Bluestockings began as a women's bookstore in 1999 in the Lower East Side of New York City and quickly developed into a niche of queer radical bookselling. Every decision is made by consensus among the cooperative of worker-owners that own Bluestockings together. This space is primarily a community space that anyone can feel welcome to lounge in a beanbag or attend an event, and community always comes before profit for us.

Check out: USA TODAY's Independent Bookstores Map

What makes your independent bookstore unique?

In addition to the carefully curated shelves, we also offer our community a harm- reduction program to decrease overdoses in our neighborhood, free Plan B, a donation-based free store full of essentials like socks and snacks, and a promise to always be a haven that does not charge you to exist or use a restroom.

Since 1999, many icons of queer and activist communities have visited the store, from members of Pussy Riot to Janet Mock, who graciously donated so much during a fundraiser that we dedicated the Trans Studies shelf to her. This is the local spot to plan your queer book club, meet coworkers to start a union, attend a combination graphic novel reading and cakesitting performance, and make your own protest signs out of our excess cardboard and provided markers. To the disdain of some of our neighbors, we never kick anyone out on the basis of their economic class, drug use, housing status, sexuality or identity.

What's your favorite section in your store?

We have a lot of sections you may not expect in a bookstore: Carceral Systems & Abolition, Activist Strategies, Sex Work, Drug Use & Harm Reduction, Disability Justice, Diaspora & Decolonization, etc., but my personal favorite is the simply called "NYC Babyyy!" table that holds fiction and nonfiction set in New York City and usually about radicals, queers – or queer radicals.

What book do you love to recommend to customers and why?

Andrea Lawlor's "Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl" not only helped lead me to change my pronouns, this book is now one of maybe three that I reread on an annual basis. This story is a beautiful nonbinary dream of magical realism and steamy '90s queerness from leather daddy bars to lesbian music festivals. I love to watch people's eyes light up when I recommend this to customers who are starving for good, fun, gendershifting magical transness representation.

What book do you think deserves more attention and why?

Though in some circles it's already a classic, I strongly believe "Times Square Red, Times Square Blue" by Samuel R. Delany needs to be read by everyone, especially anyone who moves to the city with dreams of being a New Yorker. It covers nasty ground of some of the cruelest, most classist and homophobic, saddening policies that changed Times Square irrevocably in the 1990s. Regardless, Delany manages to paint a portrait of city life and community that can give you only hope and courage. I recommend this book so much that my co-worker-owner gifted me a shirt that simply reads "Read Times Square Red, Times Square Blue by Samuel Delany," in order to help me "save your breath," they said.

Why is shopping at local, independent bookstores important?

The last place we should want zombified into corporate AI algorithms competing for profit is the place you come to for community, knowledge, learning and connection. Local independent bookstores like us are a physical space for community and a touchstone of personal connection with human booksellers who know just the book you need. The experience cannot be replicated by industrial giants.

What are some of your store's events, programs, or partnerships coming up this quarter that you would like to share?

We have two regular big music events: On the last Sunday of each month, we have an all-ages punk show called PUNKS TAKE BLUESTOCKINGS and our monthly Open Mic Night.

We also have some monthly clubs/meetings that are hosted it at our space or on our Zoom: from 4 to 7pm the first Sunday of every month, Black and Pink NYC hosts Letters for Liberation, where people sort and write correspondence to queer and HIV impacted prisoners; a Queer Book Club meets the third Saturday of the month in-person, and over Zoom the next day; the support group for trans and gender-non-conforming parents Transparency meets on our Zoom the fourth Thursday of the month.