Bluestockings Bookstore Leans on Supporters to Survive Pandemic Winter and Open on Suffolk Street
Bluestockings Bookstore announced last week that its three-months-running crowdfunding campaign was a success, allowing the Lower East Side literary stalwart to realize its relocation.
Over the summer, the first such fundraiser helped the so-called feminist bookstore foot the bill for the lease on 116 Suffolk Street after a pandemic rent hike at the original spot. It’ll take the ground floor previously occupied by the Spreadhouse coffee shop, more than doubling their prior footprint. The second cash infusion will help create ADA compliance, create seating, events area, and “much needed technological upgrade” to improve its POS and inventory system. But, most of all, to stay afloat during this pandemic winter.
(Total collected so far is $102,000 and counting.)
Named for the 18th-century intellectual women in the Blue Stockings Society – the store opened at 172 Allen in 1999.
The old storefront, June 2012
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