Well, I didn't end up having time yesterday to buy a book after all.
However, I did get a sneak peek at the Lucy Parsons Center in the South End.
I've walked past there dozens of times, but they're always closed. I've been very interested in them since I found out that they're an anarchist commune that communally own the bookstore.
My friends and I were walking home from a late dinner in Chinatown, when we noticed the lights were on at the Lucy Parsons'. We crossed the street, but the sign said "Closed."
We prepared to leave, when two women who were closing up saw us and opened the door. They let us inside and it turned out one of my friends knew one of them, so that gave us several minutes to explore. There were predictable manifestos and guides to, for example, teenage emancipation, but most of the literature there would never be found anywhere else.
Sections were on Feminism, Radical World History, Anarchism, Communism, Socialism, and the evils of George W. Bush. They had an entire bookcase full of the last offering, no joke. Places like this need to exist everywhere. The employees were very friendly and helpful too, they explained a bit about how the store works, volunteers run whatever shifts they want, and the group makes all the decisions. Obviously, this makes for it being closed or open at rather random times, though they do have theoretical hours. Wednesday nights are radical movie nights, open to the public.
I have to go back sometime, to buy The Open Veins of Latin America and maybe a feminist text that doesn't look too dry.
However, I did get a sneak peek at the Lucy Parsons Center in the South End.
I've walked past there dozens of times, but they're always closed. I've been very interested in them since I found out that they're an anarchist commune that communally own the bookstore.
My friends and I were walking home from a late dinner in Chinatown, when we noticed the lights were on at the Lucy Parsons'. We crossed the street, but the sign said "Closed."
We prepared to leave, when two women who were closing up saw us and opened the door. They let us inside and it turned out one of my friends knew one of them, so that gave us several minutes to explore. There were predictable manifestos and guides to, for example, teenage emancipation, but most of the literature there would never be found anywhere else.
Sections were on Feminism, Radical World History, Anarchism, Communism, Socialism, and the evils of George W. Bush. They had an entire bookcase full of the last offering, no joke. Places like this need to exist everywhere. The employees were very friendly and helpful too, they explained a bit about how the store works, volunteers run whatever shifts they want, and the group makes all the decisions. Obviously, this makes for it being closed or open at rather random times, though they do have theoretical hours. Wednesday nights are radical movie nights, open to the public.
I have to go back sometime, to buy The Open Veins of Latin America and maybe a feminist text that doesn't look too dry.
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