Akimbo Bookshop in Rochester, N.Y., which launched during the Covid-19 pandemic and later survived a fire in 2023, closed last weekend, WROC reported. Owner Rachel Crawford opened Akimbo Bookshop in 2020 as an online and pop-up store before moving into a storefront on East Avenue in 2022. Less than a year later, the store was severely damaged by a fire that started in a neighboring business. Crawford launched a fundraising campaign to help rebuild and reopen.
"I would say 90% of that ability was community support," she recalled. "That doesn't just look like the Rochester community. It looks like the bookseller community nationwide, and even a little bit further out."
Since opening, Akimbo Bookshop "has had a home on University Avenue. More than a bookstore, it was a community space to welcome local artists and host discussions about current events," WROC noted.
Crawford, however, said it is time to turn the page: "In terms of running a bookstore in a city of this size, you need to make sure there's a readership and a need for what you're offering. Each one of those events takes a lot of work. Then, you put in inventory and running the back end. I'm the one running the counter most days, and there just weren't enough Rachels to go around."
As she looks to find work in the nonprofit sector, Crawford said she hopes Akimbo's mission will be remembered: "I was a single mom with very little to my name and I believe in books. I believe in access to literature. I believe small presses do really great work and they need to be on shelves. And, I wanted to be the one to put them out there. More than a retail space, that's what this was. This was a place for community to be emboldened, to agitate against oppressors. It's very important work and we can't let it fall to the wayside."