After a three-year hiatus due to Covid-19, the 2022 Brooklyn Bookstore Crawl has returned to the borough. Starting Saturday, April 23, the Crawl will run for one week, culminating in a celebration of Independent Bookstore Day on April 30. This year, 21 bookstores across Brooklyn are participating, including Adanne in Dumbo, Cafe con Libros in Crown Heights, Community Bookstore in Park Slope, Mil Mundos Books in Bushwick, and Quimby's in Williamsburg.
On the first day of the Crawl, booksellers met the week's first crawlers and looked forward to the days ahead.
Ikwo Ntekim, general manager at Greenlight Books in Fort Greene, said people had been "stopping in all morning" and sensed palpable excitement from participants eager to enjoy the annual Crawl again after three years. "The support for indie bookstores is definitely still there," she said.
At Books Are Magic in Cobble Hill, bookseller Natalie Orozco noticed that most crawl participants who had come into the shop were on their second stop of the Crawl, having started their journey at Greenlight, which is located about a mile east. The warm and sunny day encouraged many crawlers to traverse the borough by foot.
In Greenpoint, Mindy Chen, events coordinator at WORD, said the bookstore was thrilled to participate, as it has many times in the past. For Brooklyn dwellers, the Crawl is a great opportunity to "check out your favorite bookstores and get to know new ones," Chen said. Within Brooklyn's "small community" of booksellers, Chen added, "we all know each other and want to support one another." Steven Warren, store manager of WORD's Jersey City location, who was visiting from across the river, agreed that the Crawl is a unique way "for bookstores to collaborate as a community effort."
Jory Southurst, bookstore manager at the Center for Fiction in Fort Greene, felt the Crawl was a great way to highlight Brooklyn's many independent booksellers. "I think people would be surprised by how many indies there are in Brooklyn," he said. He added that the Center for Fiction would also be hosting the Bookstore Day Afterparty on April 30, featuring a celebration and prizes for the week's most intrepid crawlers.
Customers who visit at least five bookstores, collecting signatures or stamps on their Bookstore Crawl passports, which can be picked up at any of the Crawl's 21 locations, will receive a 25% coupon to use at any participating store.
