Events!

Dear Reader,

Ever since we opened, people have been asking us if we plan to do events. We’re so pleased to announce that we have a couple in the pipeline and will soon be actively planning more!

May 10 - Jarvis Square Artisan Market

It may not feel like it today, but Patio Season is here, and the first Jarvis Square Artisan Market of 2025 is this Saturday, 10-2. Shop 28 local artists’ booths and then drop by the bookstore—or spend all your money here first, whichever! (Note: We’ll be open 11-6 as usual, despite the market starting earlier.)

May 17 - Closing at 4 p.m. for Chicago Tap Theatre Community Event at Burke’s Pub

On Saturday, May 17, we’ll be joining Chicago Tap Theatre for their free community event, “for all we know: Footnotes.” Their upcoming show, “for all we know,” was inspired by bell hooks’s all about love, a book we do our best to keep in stock at all times. The event will feature director and choreographer Sterling Harris in conversation with some of CTT's Tap Dance Artists, and we’ll be there selling copies of all about love.

The event will run from 5-7 p.m. at Burke’s Public House, 5401 N. Broadway, and we’d love to see you there! (Especially since we can’t be here at the same time. We’ll close at 4.)

June 14 - Kevin Smokler & Maureen Ryan

We’re still finalizing venue and time details, but please save Saturday June 14 for a conversation between friend of the store Kevin Smokler, author of Break the Frame: Conversations with Women Filmmakers, and Maureen Ryan, author of Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change In Hollywood. Either one of them would give a terrific talk, but both of them? We can’t wait!

(BTW, while you’re waiting for Kevin’s book to come out on May 22, you should probably come by for a signed copy of local critic Marya E. Gates’s Cinema Her Way: Visionary Female Directors in Their Own Words.)

Supporting small publishers who lost NEA funding

From the Department of Everything Is Terrible, the current administration rescinded hundreds of NEA grants this week, including from 41 of 51 literary arts grantees. That means many of the independent publishers we love are losing crucial funding. The following publishers have posted publicly about the weird form letter announcing their grants have been terminated, and we expect to learn that more of our favorites are affected.

• Alice James Books

• Arte Público Press

• BOA

• Feminist Press

• Four Way Books

• Hub City Writers Project

• Milkweed

• Nightboat

• Red Hen

• Transit

• Tupelo

• Ugly Duckling Press

For the rest of May, we’ll be discounting new books by affected publishers by 25%. We’ll keep an eye on the list and include any new additions—please feel free to tell us if you know of others. We already have dozens of books by these publishers on the shelves, and we’ll offer the same discount on orders of books published by folks on that list. (This will only affect our cut, not the publishers’.)

This sucks.

Have we mentioned we need books? 

In happier news, our first Independent Bookstore Day, April 26, was incredible. We were busy from open to close, and we’re so grateful to everyone who came out to support indie bookstores all over the city. Even though we tried to prepare for the hit our stock would take on the busiest sales day of the year, the shelves are looking a little bare—especially in sci fi/fantasy!

We’re working as fast as we can to replenish stock—and we’ve brought in lots of new-new books—but as always, we could really use your help with keeping our used shelves full. If you have books to trade for store credit, please email [email protected] to set up an appointment. Thank you!

See you soon,

Kate & Michael