Bluestockings, the collectively owned radical bookstore, cafe and activist center in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which announced last month it needed to relocate, has found a new site several blocks away, at 116 Suffolk St. The store has launched a GoFundMe campaign to finance the renovation of the space, make it fully accessible and upgrade technology. In three days, the campaign has raised more than $12,000 toward its $150,000 goal.
On the campaign site, the store noted that a June fundraiser brought in enough money to put down a security deposit on the new space, which is double the size of its old space, but that Bluestockings has "a lot of work ahead of us to make our new location into a home for our queer, trans, and SWing family."
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| Bluestockings' future home | |
That work will include "a fully ADA-compliant bathroom, expanded café seating, lower café countertops, clear exit paths and wider aisles. We are excited to have more space and need your help to install a platform lift in our cafe area to make sure that our disabled comrades are able to take full advantage of the space."
In addition, the store plans to replace its "very outdated software system" and "reopen with a new POS and inventory system to make ordering from Bluestockings as easy as possible."
The store noted that the new location's "extra room also gives us the opportunity to have a much needed area dedicated exclusively to events and meetings for our friends who run book clubs, labor organizers, and anyone else who utilizes Bluestockings as a hub for radical thought."
Bluestockings said in July that it is leaving its site at 172 Allen Street because of "many unforeseen circumstances both pandemic-related and otherwise," including "the demands of our landlord for more money and by their inaction on necessary repairs to the structural damage our wild little slice of space has endured over these last 21 years."