In a piece on Bluestockings bookstore, amNewYork began with a recollection: "In the spring of 2015, the bookstore Bluestockings hosted an event for the fourth edition of This Bridge Called My Back, a collection of writing by radical women of color originally published in 1981. Guests crowded into the space to see co-editor Cherrie Moraga and various contributors speak about the work. Eventually the shop's door was propped open and the microphone cranked up so that those on the street could hear the talk."
Corey Farach, who huddled behind the shop's counter to free up floor space, said, "It was so powerful. I just felt like, wow, this space is so important. The community elders were coming in to talk and everyone in the room was getting in touch with this radical feminist literary tradition in a very beautiful way."
A volunteer at the time, Farach soon became one of six collective members who now help run the bookstore, fair trade cafe and event space.
"We're a free event space that prioritizes the narratives and experience of people of color and gender-nonconforming people," Farach said. "We try to make space for people to speak to their experience.... There's no such thing as an online transaction that gives you what you get when you walk into a small bookstore."