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Troy
Newbie Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 25
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2004 - 02:31 pm: | 
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This past Saturday the wife and I went to Baltimore to check out the celebration for the grand opening of Zane's Endeavors Book Store.
Zane's ENDEAVORS
1622 Thames Street
Baltimore, MD 21231
I got there about an hour after it started and the line was out the door and down the block. I'm sure hundreds of people came through to check the store and get books signed.
In fact, there were so many people Zane rented space at a local club (the store is in the Fell's Point Section of Baltimore less than a mile from the inner harbor) and provided limo service for anyone who needed it.
The crowd and I do mean crowd was overwhelmingly female. The atmosphere was very friendly Zane and a couple of other authors were busting their butts signing books. Many people had serveral books to sign. The turn out is a tribute to Zane's hard work and the obvious popularity of her books.
I have to draw this contrast between Zane's store opening and the opening of another Bookstore called Hue-man in Harlem: Zane invited anyone who wanted to come. While the store was crowded the atmosphere was friendly.
Conversely when Hue-man opened here in Harlem. The invitation list essentially excluded most of the community (including myself). Celebrities, politicians were included -- however people in the Harlem community were simply not invited nor permitted to attend the opening (mind you, I still promote the store one the web and financially - buying books I already own at signings etc.).
I raise this issue to say that a bookstore is about community, just like a church or a local barbershop. I can already see Zanes store, though it is much smaller and not as fancy as Harlem's Hue-man, will be a place folks will always feel welcome.
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Yukio
Regular Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 48
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2004 - 03:00 pm: |
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Good point....and the opening in Harlem could also be emblematic of gentrification.... |
Troy
Regular Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 26
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2004 - 03:45 pm: |
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Yukio I have to admit that thought crossed my mind at the time.
Thoough I was born and raised in Harlem I've only been living there for the last two years. Technically, I could be categorized as a gentrifier as well. So I might be a little sensitive about how that word is used and the connotation behind it
That said; the Hue-man book store is not your typical book store in terms of ownership, operation, financing, and most importantly hype. As a result, it gets away with things that would bury any other bookstore.
And yes Yukio all of this may be a convoluted manifestation of gentrificiation. Time will tell.
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Yukio
Regular Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 49
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2004 - 04:00 pm: |
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well, you could be a gentrifier, but you are aware, and i assume, care about the cultural integrity of the community. While change occurs, as we know and even as exemplified in Barbershop 2, there is something to maintaining and cultivating a particular idea of community, as your post indicates, that brings the people together, black, asian, and white. |
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