Photos and interview by Stacie Joy
We stopped by Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks yesterday to check in with the longtime Second Street bookseller after Friday's altercation and arrest outside the Harry Styles pop-up a few buildings west on her block between Second Avenue and the Bowery.
Slotnick was in good spirits — and busy with customers — after our Q&A about the incident was published over the weekend.
She also showed us bruising on one arm that she said resulted from the altercation and marks on her other wrist that she attributed to the handcuffs used during her arrest.
So how do you feel now that the story is live?
I'm really relieved to see, as much as I did read the comments, how supportive people are.
I spoke to a friend last night, the person who just called me, and he said, "Bonnie, friends love you, your customers love you. This is not going to change the way they feel about you."
And I said, "OK, I'm going to believe that."
And other people I don't care that much about!
I know there's this EV Grieve community, and I'm pretty much one of them. I read the comments all the time.
Has anyone from the Harry Styles pop-up next door come to talk to you?
No. And there's no line here today. I don't know what they did with it. It was raining, but it wasn't raining hard enough to keep people away.
The line is only on the other side of the street, and it's quite short. And I think I actually had a couple of Harry Styles people in here, a couple of the customers, because they were talking about it. Sometimes they have the shopping bag and sometimes they have the T-shirt, so I can identify if they were coming.
I don't know, maybe I'm just so relieved that I'm in a very good mood relative to what I have been in for the last three weeks.
Coming over here, riding my bike up in front of the shop, I was a little tense, and I saw that the line was not coming toward me.
Previously on EV Grieve:
An EVG freakout
ReplyDeleteStyles, American Express and Sony Music owe Ms. Slotnick an apology and a large check for the ordeal that they have engineered. The pop-up shop is not welcome here.
ReplyDeleteOr she could stop screwing obscenely at everyone and not get in people's faces and threaten them. A key is a weapon. She should apologize.
DeleteNot Welcome never stopped anyone from coming here, going back to the 17th century!
DeleteI agree that they owe an apology, to Ms. Slotnick, and so do the police. Compensation would be great - to her, and a contribution to a neighborhood/community organization would also be in order. These people have millions, and in their push to make more and more millions they lose their sense of community and humanity. I don't know if Mr. Styles is even aware of what just happened in his name.
ReplyDeleteHarry Styles should be arrested for being so boring
ReplyDeleteYeah this album he’s touring isn’t worth whatever happened here
DeleteHave you seen clips from his MSG shows? They are incredible. His band seems to be majority women. His dancers, both women, are on fire. I could not even tell you the name of a single Harry Styles song & had less than zero interest in him until I saw these joyful performance clips. Yes, the pop-up ridiculousness -- polar opposite of anything remotely joyful. But just because one thing is true (revolting corporate antics clogging East Village streets) does not mean what Harry Styles is getting up to on the stage in its entirety is totally worthless (and again, never a fan).
DeleteI cannot believe that the old Karma art gallery space on 2nd Street that had such a positive impact on this neighborhood has been turned into a lousy commercial pop-up space that sells junk to teenage girls who have nothing better to spend their parent's money on.
ReplyDelete