Word Up Community Bookshop, the “completely implausible store” in Washington Heights, aka “upstate Manhattan,” has successfully raised $60,000 on IndieGoGo from over 800 supporters. The store has signed a lease for a new storefront location at 2113 Amsterdam Avenue, by 165 Street. The reopening has not been scheduled yet.
San Francisco’s Marcus Books, said to be the country’s oldest black bookstore, is due to be evicted from the space they have occupied since 1960 by June 18. The building was sold at a bankruptcy auction in April after the store’s owners defaulted on a loan they say was “predatory.” (They have asked the Attorney General to investigate the loan, according to their attorney.)
A local nonprofit that uses the store’s space for meetings has offered to purchase the building at a modest profit for the new owners, but they are listing the structure for twice what they paid for it.