Aurora Anaya-Cerda will open a bookstore, La Casa Azul, on East Harlem’s E. 103rd Street in spring 2012 after raising the needed $40,000. Organizers of the Word Up pop-up bookstore at Broadway and W. 176th Street is negotiating to stay permanently. Organized by Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, the store has been there rent-free for five months, and is negotiating a paying lease and looking to raise funds for what has become a community arts center.
As we clipped earlier in the week, the NYDN says that Astoria’s Seaburn Bookstore will close rather than renew their lease after 16 years in business. Owner Sam Chekwas says he has been losing money for years; “he said he plans to open a small book shop in his Long Island City warehouse used for his independent book publishing and online sales business next year.”
The Bodhi Tree Bookstore in West Hollywood, CA is having a storewide sale as they prepare to vacate their current location on Melrose Avenue. A deal for a sale of the store fell through in October. On their web site, owners Phil Thompson and Stan Madison write, “We are continuing to talk to people interested in the Bodhi Tree Bookstore legacy. We are hopeful for a reincarnation of a physical store in a few months at a new location.”
In Fresno, CA, the Fig Garden Bookstore will close after the holidays, as wwner Jean Shore and her daughter and manager Kathi Lamonski prepare to retire after 24 years of running the store.
NYDN
Fresno Bee