Updated 8/8: Bluestockings has a new home here.
Bluestockings, the collectively owned and volunteer-powered bookstore, cafe and activist center on Allen Street between Stanton and Rivington, is on the move.
They shared the news this morning in posts on Facebook and Instagram:
Due to so many unforeseen circumstances both pandemic-related and otherwise, we must leave our current location at 172 Allen St. in search of a new, more sustainable, accessible and safer home.
The copy reads:
This is not goodbye. This is “wait for our new location announcement,” hopefully soon. The facts are: we have outgrown our space and we want features that better accommodate and center our disabled collective and community. We want ramps and bathrooms and ventilation and chair lifts! We are committed to realizing this for our future home!
Though we wish we were making this decision on our own terms, our decision has been forced by the demands of our landlord for more money and by their inaction on necessary repairs to the structural damage our wild little slice of space has endured over these last 21 years.
With so much afire, we’re evermore committed to doing all we can to keep this project alive and rooted at a physical space (such a rarity in NYC). We know our movements need spaces–to share and grow and learn and build alongside each other.
It’s going to be hard, and take a lot of work. But we’re here for it. We humbly ask for your patience and continued support in the coming weeks and months as we relocate, store and continue our virtual programming.
With all our hearts and guts,
The Bluestockings Collective
9 comments:
This sucks.
The now former Lions & Tigers & Squares would be a gorgeous location for them. Right across a church, overlooking Stuyvesant St., tons of space, and accessibility ramps already set up. The kitchen could be pared down to allow for a Paris café-type menu. Although how can a non-profit afford $16k/month rent. Alas one can dream...
Who knows what the real estate environment will look like in 6 months.
As much as I hate this, I can see the logic of a long-lived collective like this pulling up stakes, and cutting overhead, until (one hopes!) the pandemic doesn’t limit hanging out in a bookstore anymore.
Devastating.
The owner of the old Alt Cafe is trying to raise funds to reopen the coffee shop now. Also wants to make it a performance space. Maybe these places with all open in the east village with all the empty storefronts if the rents ever go down for them.
Oh wow. I really really really hope they can re-open in another space. What is the landlord thinking in this climate? More money? Not repairing structural? So the space sits and rots empty now.
alt cafe!!!!
alt cafe? one of the primordinal cafes where you could read or relax in scruffy East Village comfort. Prime people watching for me along with Veselka and the Holiday.
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