Atlanta’s Charis Books & More, the oldest feminist bookstore in the Southeast, is gearing up for a big relocation, the first in its 37-year history. Earlier this month, the store’s co-owners, along with the chairperson of the store’s nonprofit arm, Charis Circle, announced plans to open the Charis Feminist Center, a multi-purpose space that will house the bookstore, the nonprofit, and a café, as well as provide space for other nonprofit organizations.
“We are so excited about it,” Charis Circle chairperson Kelley Alexander told PW. “We’ve been talking about [the move] for a few years, but as the independent bookstore market has changed and people are looking at different sustainability models for bookstores, we figured now is the time.”
For a few months prior to the announcement, Alexander and Charis Books co-owners Sara Look and Angela Gabriel have been putting together teams to scout for new locations, organize fundraising, and work on programming for the new space. At last count, Alexander said, they had 72 people working on the effort, but people have been calling every day since the announcement to ask how they can help, either through volunteering or donations. “We’ve had a tremendous, overwhelmingly positive response,” said Alexander.
The new space will give priority to the nonprofit side of things: “We’ve been this wonderful small independent bookstore, that has offered the community free programming through the nonprofit [Charis Circle],” said Alexander. “Now we’re flipping that model, to a nonprofit center that offers books and book activities.”
Though a long-gestating plan, the move is also a product of necessity in the current economy. “We all know what’s happening to independent bookstores,” said Alexander. “And feminist bookstores even more so. I think the last count [I saw], there were 15 feminist bookstores in the U.S. and Canada, down from a few hundred over the last 20 years. So we’re just looking at, like a lot of other bookstores, a more sustainable model.”
Team Charis is aiming to open the new space in June 2012, an aggressive timeline that could be stymied by the current real estate market: “Part of what we need to do is sell the building that we’re in,” said Alexander. They also hope, over the next 12-15 months, to woo corporate sponsors and perhaps create some kind of government partnership.
In addition to a café, Alexander and company plan to have a large theater space for events (“We’ve hosted authors like Alice Walker and Ann Lamott, and we’ve always had to use space outside of Charis”), offer some child care provisions, and rent office space to “like-minded nonprofits.” The larger goal, Alexander said, is to become a community hub. “We want to be in a high-traffic, retail location, and we want to give people reasons to come all the time, not just for programs.” They point to Washington, D.C.’s Busboys & Poets as one of their models: “It’s a restaurant and a bookstore, but mainly it’s this gathering place where people come together to discuss social justice. That’s how we already see Charis: a place that brings people together in community.”
