Porter Square Books Aims to Help Community “Be the Change”

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

Be the Change is a new civic engagement program at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, consisting of gatherings, workshops, projects, discussions, and traditional author events. Launched in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, the initiative provides both a safe space for the community, as well as the intellectual and tangible resources citizens need to make change at all levels of government and in society.

Porter Square logoAccording to bookseller Josh Cook, Porter Square staff members who attended this year’s Winter Institute were inspired by Roxane Gay’s impassioned speech to several hundred booksellers on how bookstores serve as places for people to take refuge and find solace, culture, and community. Gay’s speech emphasized how incredibly important bookstores are as a resource for those who may be feeling frightened and powerless in these turbulent political times.

“A number of us were at Winter Institute and were there for that kind of big upswell of the need to do something,” said Cook. “So when we got back we met with our staff and had a conversation about what bookstores should be doing, and also what bookstores shouldn’t be doing.” The conclusion generated from that discussion, said Cook, is that bookstores, ideally, have two responsibilities: to provide the resources their communities need to take action and to meet the needs of people who are looking for sanctuary and community support.

Be the Change logoBe the Change, which meets on the last Sunday of every month, has two distinct currents, said Cook: traditional events such as author talks and public meetings and activities around issues of social change. The first monthly gathering, which took place on Sunday, February 26, drew about 30 to 50 people to hear Cambridge author and activist Jen Deaderick, the founder of the Equal Rights Amendment page on Facebook. During the event, the store provided postcards, stamps, and addresses for people to send messages of concern and support or thank you notes to their local elected representatives. More than 100 postcards were sent on a variety of issues, including the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and climate change.

Coming up on Sunday, March 26, Porter Square will host a discussion on immigration, and on Monday, March 27, it will present Sheila Katz, author of Connecting With the Enemy: A Century of Palestinian-Israeli Joint Nonviolence (University of Texas Press). Upcoming Be the Change topics will include civil rights, nonviolence and protests, healthcare, Israel and Palestine, and the media.

“Another event we are planning will be designed to give people the skills and information they need to get more involved in volunteering,” said Cook. “And, of course, we’ll continue to keep our ears to the ground to see what is important to the community.”

“The response so far has been universally positive,” he added, noting that the store probably should have always had a program centering around civic engagement. “We live in Cambridge in a very politically active, very engaged community, so it’s probably always going to be a good fit. It did take us a little while to piece it all together and to find a way to strike that balance where we still fundamentally get books to readers without judgment but also make sure what is best about our community stays and grows.”

As it moves forward with its Be the Change project, Porter Square will do what it can to continue to honor the responsibility of bookstores as judgment-free zones, said Cook.