Legendary Feminist Bookstores Celebrate Big Anniversaries

Two stalwarts of the feminist bookstore community are celebrating milestone anniversaries this fall, each with a series of in-store and off-site events, featuring locally known and nationally recognized authors. Chicago's Women & Children First is celebrating its 30th anniversary throughout September and October. And, in Atlanta, Charis Books & More will hold a weeklong party in November to mark its 35th year.

"It's a great feeling to be celebrating our 30th anniversary," said Women & Children First (WCF) co-owner Ann Christophersen, a former president of the American Booksellers Association. "That we're still around is testament to the fact that people in our community still find what they want by browsing our bookshelves, still enjoy the opportunity to discuss books face-to-face, still love to bring their children to story times, and still want to meet and listen to the authors whose books they are reading. It raises my spirits to be among them, and I am very glad to still be a part of this dynamic and nourishing cultural exchange."

The WCF birthday celebration includes both in-store events and an off-site benefit. "We've been thinking of this whole fall as our 30th anniversary," said co-owner Linda Bubon. "All of the programming we do in the store has had a special glow and is getting extra publicity. One of our favorite writers of all time, Sara Paretsky, who has a new V.I. Warshawski book out this month, will be here for a signing the day the book comes out." Other guest authors include Nami Mun and Audrey Niffenegger, who will have a "big, launch-type of party" for Her Fearful Symmetry at the bookstore on September 30.

The 30th Anniversary Celebration & Benefit for the Women's Voices Fund, a nonprofit created by WCF in 2005 to help support its feminist programming, takes place October 3. Guest authors include Alison Bechdel, Dorothy Allison, and more than a dozen local writers. The benefit, which will feature cocktails, appetizers and a buffet, a dance, and a silent auction, will be filmed by a documentarian working on a larger project about the bookstore. A group of women scholars will also be creating videos of attendees discussing their memories of past WCF author signings, book clubs, and other events. Bubon was pleased that the contributions of the bookstore would be preserved. "It's very gratifying," she said.

In years past, male writers weren't included at WCF, but that has changed. Men will take part "representing the gay community and the straight community," said Bubon. "One of the ways Women & Children has grown over the 30 years is by taking on more male writers. We're still predominantly women writers, but now we have some guys in the mix."

Bubon and Christopher have grown WCF from a crowded 800-square-foot bookstore to its current 3,500-square-foot storefront in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood and made it into a regular venue for big-name and local authors.

From its start, WCF enjoyed steady growth for 14 years. It moved to a larger space and business leapt by 20 percent. In 1991, it was "wonderful," said Bubon. "Susan Faludi was all the rage, everyone was reading Backlash. She came to the store, and we had so many people we had to put speakers outside.... It was a really great time in history. Our sales went over one million for the first time."

However, multiple chains soon moved into the neighborhood and Internet sales started siphoning off business. Then two years ago, the bookstore's situation turned dire, said Bubon. Christophersen and Bubon went public with the news, and the response was "fabulous." Sales shot up 70 percent and membership tripled. Then the economy tanked. Now, said Bubon, like everyone else they're tightening their belts and have instituted a wage and hiring freeze. The good news is WCF has seen an improved second quarter and a steady summer with lots of tourist traffic and a renewed appreciation of indie businesses among its neighbors.

To help the odds of feminist bookstores nationally, Bubon talked about joining with other feminist bookstores to collectively strategize. She also hopes to eventually pass the store along to members of the next generation of feminist booksellers. "I've been working since I'm 15," Bubon said. "And I'm not one of those people who wants to be working when they're 70. I don't want the main responsibility, but I could be a part-time worker into my dotage. But, if in the next four to five years, I don't have a good team to take it over, I won't let it go. We have a lot invested in the community, and it means a lot to them."

"To celebrate our 35th birthday, we do indeed have a grand celebration planned!" said Charis Books & More co-owner Sara Look. "On November 4, we will have an evening of local writers in collaboration with the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival, which is the same week as our birthday celebration." Slated all-star guests include Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Gloria Steinem, bell hooks, Alice Walker, Pearl Cleage, and the Indigo Girls. This will be followed by a weekend of book signings and a sale and party in the store. Some of the events will be fundraisers for the nonprofit Charis Circle, created in 1996 to fund all programming and community education and outreach at the bookstore.

Since its founding in 1974 by Linda Bryant and Barbara Borgman, Charis has been through several ownership configurations. Look joined Charis in 1994 and currently co-owns the store with Angela Gabriel. Linda Bryant continues to work there part-time.

Look noted that when she started working at Charis there were over 120 feminist bookstores in the U.S. and Canada. "I didn't know we were at our peak!" she said. "Today there are only around 14 feminist bookstores left."

Charis, she said, is "part of many overlapping communities" -- feminist, progressive, GLBTQ, and more. "We want our books, sidelines, and programs to reflect and feed the many communities we are part of because we believe books can change lives. We are a place therapists send their clients for books on partner violence. We are a place mothers come for books if their child has been sexually abused. We are a place people come to when they are coming out as Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender."

The store's specialties include multicultural children's books, and titles for children and adults that deal with issues such as abuse, GLBT families, spirituality, and peace and justice. Bestsellers at any given time are lesbian romance, literary fiction, beautiful children's books, spirituality titles, and the latest feminist/queer theory and global concerns books.

"As a feminist bookstore, with a sister feminist nonprofit organization, I think we're constantly looking at what the future holds for feminist bookstores," said Look. "We believe people still value us and need us -- we know there is so much social justice work yet to be done." --Karen Schechner