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“For us, the not-for-profit model makes a lot of sense. We are a cultural institution. We’re interested in alternative forms of funding. We’re interested in changing the conversation within the industry about what bookstores’ roles are. We recognize that buying books used to be the primary role a bookstore would play, i.e., getting a book from a publisher to a reader. Now, it’s much more about the discovery of books and the experience of being in a place created to facilitate browsing, which is its own deeply fulfilling endeavor, and to find ways to support that, recognizing the retail part is broken, and it’s some mix of changing how the industry think about themselves, how readers think about themselves, and in some sense how municipalities think about themselves.” The idea is not unique. In 2018, the city of San Francisco gave cash grants totaling $103,000 to local bookstores because of their civic importance as gathering places, and it’s something that Deutsch discussed in an interview with Block Club Chicago as inspiration for and justification of the Seminary Co-op’s new nonprofit model. Pilsen Community Books, a newand-used bookstore on 18th Street, had just reopened as a worker-owned co-op in March, mere weeks before the stay-at-home order was issued. Mandy Medley, one of the owners, spoke to me about the experimental nature of their business and how risky that experiment has turned out to be with COVID-19. As a co-op, each worker owns a stake in the business; each earns a base wage, and then based on the amount of their stake, receives a percentage of store profits. With COVID-19 they have been able to break even and pay base wages, but Medley is unsure whether they will turn a profit anytime soon. One of the co-owners has already had to step away due to financial concerns, but the rest of the staff has kept working, invested in their vision for the store. Many of the booksellers I spoke to expressed this same sense of civic mission, such as Paragon Book Gallery, an art book retailer located in the Zhou B. Art Center in Bridgeport. “Publishing and bookselling is proving to be a labor of love,” the team at Paragon said in a statement. “It has been tough economically, and we have been much more dependent on online book sales, but we remain committed to our mission as a cross-cultural resource, promoting respect
ILLUSTRATION BY GREG ROGERS
and understanding between international communities.” As the city moves cautiously into Phase 4, bookstores are continuing to adapt. Some, such as Open Books or Pilsen Community Books, are even opening their doors, though neither is sure how long that will last if cases of COVID-19 begin to rise again in Chicago. Both are taking precautions: limiting the amount of customers in the store, making hand sanitizer available at the door, installing sneeze guards at registers, sanitizing surfaces regularly, and requiring that customers wear masks. Pilsen Community Books is also instituting a policy where books that are removed from the shelves are put into a box
so they can be sanitized by employees before being reshelved. Other stores will keep their doors closed for now, either because they can’t physically rearrange their stores to make them safe for both customers and staff, or because—with the added costs of shipping, curbside pickup, delivery, and the staffing that all requires— operating an open storefront as well would be cost prohibitive. Whether or when they’ll reopen, they don’t know. Build Coffee in Woodlawn, which sells books and zines in addition to coffee, recently reopened for window pickup of coffee beans, bread, and books on Saturdays during the 61st Street Farmers Market.
Co-owner Hannah Nyhart sounded a note of hope. “Think about what you want to see on the other side of this, and throw your weight behind that, whether it’s a neighborhood spot you love, or a community, or a movement,” Nyhart said.”The things we protect and sustain right now are going to be what we have to build off of in a year, and nobody can do it alone. ” ¬ Guillermo Zapata grew up in Athens, Georgia and attended the University of Chicago. This is their first contribution to the Weekly. They are working on their first book. JULY 22, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 19
