An Old-Fashioned Community Bookstore Raising

September 23, 2009
Topics: Business Models, Community Spaces
Author: 
Scott Ballum

This past weekend we were invited by some friends to volunteer with them staining book shelves at a new bookstore being created on Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn's Fort Greene neighborhood. It's called Greenlight Bookstore, and is about the get just that in the coming weeks. The owners, Jessica Stockton Bagnulo and Rebecca Fitting, have made amazing efforts to be a part of the community around them, and for the community to be a part of them as well. The weekend volunteer crowd (there were about fifteen of us in the Saturday morning session) is just one example of how they've been bringing folks in from the very start.

They've kept a blog of the process, detailing their search and appreciation for what they call Community Lenders (neighbors who are helping to fund the project), the leap of faith quitting their old jobs to dedicate themselves to this, the excitement of finding the perfect space with a wall of windows that lets them become a part of the street's life and activity, hiring the perfect team (photo above), and getting them trained by a bookseller friend from Archivia Books.

In a time when all we hear about is brick-and-mortar stores closing down as a result of impersonal online mass-retailers, these two are gutsy and innovative enough to flip the equation and show what can happen when a community comes together behind a business they care about.

Doors may open soon at Greenlight, and they're pulling for a late October grand opening. We imagine it will be quite a community event.

http://abookstoreinbrooklyn.blogspot.com/

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