Publishing During a Pandemic | Abygai Peña
Hello, and welcome to Publishing During the Pandemic, a web series which will explore how a variety of book-centric businesses have been adapting to the pandemic. I had the opportunity to speak with Abygai Peña, a volunteer at Bluestockings Bookstore in New York City, about how Bluestockings has adapted to working virtually. It’s no secret that the pandemic has hit indie bookstores hard, but Bluestockings Bookstore hasn’t missed a beat. This activist-centered bookstore is working hard to maintain a mission of equity and empowerment even in the virtual world we’re now living in.
First of all, would you like to start by describing your bookstore and mission for any readers who haven't heard of you?
Of course, I have often described Bluestockings as an activist center disguised as a bookstore. Centered in the lower east side for the past 21 years, Bluestockings carries a long and interesting legacy. Bluestockings was founded in 1999 and was a quintessential feminist bookstore. After a short closing period in 2001, Bluestockings reopened with a new structure that relied on collective formations of volunteers to hierarchically run the space. Over the years, there has been a focus on providing community resources like free condoms, pads, tampons, fentanyl test strips, and Narcan training. Our mission is pretty clear, as it states on our website, "Bluestockings seeks to empower all people to challenge oppression and participate in creating a society which is equitable, cooperative, and free by:
Distributing literature and resources about oppression, intersectionality, community organizing, and activism, and by sharing the stories of marginalized people
Maintaining a space in New York City for dialogue, education, and reflection where all people are respected; and
Building connections, knowledge, and skills in our communities”
Bluestockings seeks to embody and share the principles of intersectional, trans-affirming, gender nonconforming, and sex-worker affirming feminisms and support liberatory social movements. Bluestockings strives to empower our volunteer workers through non-hierarchy, cooperation, and collective-based decision making, providing an example of the society we are working toward.
How have the circumstances of the pandemic affected how bookstores like yours do business?
Our business model greatly relied on building community through in-person events and creating/offering a physical space to gather. This has changed pretty dramatically during the pandemic where we had to switch to selling books almost exclusively online and holding all of our events online.
What were some of the first steps you took to maintain your business when the lockdowns started?
Expanding our online store and virtual event integration. In tandem with more nitty-gritty operations, we also ramped up a fundraising event which allowed us to safely move to another LES location. We are also currently doing another fundraising campaign to raise $150,000 to build out our new home. We have already raised $100,000 and just need to lock down the last $50,000 to keep our queer, trans, and sex worker run space alive and rad on the LES.
Virtual events have become the new normal. What kind of online events have you been holding? What has your experience with them been?
We are still holding all our regular events over Zoom like our book clubs and chronic illness support group. Additionally we have event programming that includes rad book launches and conversations. The biggest difference has been the amount of events we are now hosting. Pre pandemic we held multiple events everyday in our store and now we are more understanding of things like Zoom fatigue.
In some ways, virtual events have improved accessibility, while in other ways the opposite is true. In your experience, have online events allowed for broader participation? Do you see future events incorporating any virtual components, even post-pandemic?
Accessibility, great topic to discuss in a virtual age. During the pandemic, we have invested and created a budget for ASL interpretation and live captions. That is something we are really excited to offer for large events. We have also noticed a few popular events that had a much greater capacity for audience in a virtual space as opposed to our previous physical space. Post-pandemic feels a bit gray as far as what point in time we will be in when mass gatherings are safe again but, until then we will continue to provide donation-based events with no cost at all to speakers or authors who want to host with us.
Many thanks to Abygai Peña from Bluestockings for speaking with me about publishing during a pandemic. Follow Bluestockings on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to hear about their latest events and sales. You can visit their website here to learn more about the incredible work Bluestockings’ volunteer workers are doing—and to buy books, of course.