Bluestockings

Bluestockings is a radical bookstore, café, and activist center located in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City. It started as a volunteer-supported and collectively owned bookstore; and is currently a worker-owned bookstore with mutual aid offerings/free store. The store started in 1999 as a feminist bookstore and was named for a group of Enlightenment intellectual women, the Bluestockings. Its founding location was 172 Allen Street, and is currently located a few blocks east on 116 Suffolk Street. Influences Bluestockings actively supports "movements that challenge hierarchy and all systems of oppression" and is one of 13 identified feminist bookstores in the United States and Canada. Ideologically, Bluestockings has been influenced by intersectional feminism, anti-capitalism, and the anti-globalization movement of the early 2000s, and conceptually, by other collectively run spaces and infoshops like Time's Up! Its collective members see Bluestockings as an experiment in self-managed autonomous space that challenges the neoliberal economic organization of New York City, creating a community for queer or femme activists. Inspired by feminist consciousness-raising reading groups, Bluestockings provides information on social oppression through its books, zines, and events. Structure Bluestockings is a collectively owned independent bookstore that contains a small fair trade café serving coffee from Zapatista coffee cooperatives. The Bluestockings collective is a small group of worker-owners. They make decisions based on consensus, with the input and support of volunteers and community members. As of 2017, the store is registered as an S corporation in which no one person can own a majority of shares. Volunteers contribute through self-directed projects and working groups. At its peak, Bluestockings had over 70 active volunteers. Bluestockings serves as a community meeting space for literary, activist, feminist, and intellectual gatherings. In this public space, guests can relax and socialize as long as they want without purchasing anything. Most nights, Bluestockings hosts author readings, discussions, screenings, workshops, open mics, and panels, all of which are free to attend. Some notable speakers include members of the band Pussy Riot, poet Eileen Myles, Transgender Vanguard, and the Icarus Project.