[URBAN NOTE] Two notes on Glad Day Bookshop's survival

[rfmcdonald]

Readers of this blog might be pleased to know that, earlier this week, news came out that Glad Day Bookshop has been saved, with a group of LGBT community investors purchasing the bookstore from its owners. First, from Xtra!'s Carolyn Yates.

A group of investors announced Feb 8 that they will unite to rescue the Yonge St bookstore from closure – a fate that seemed imminent after owner John Scythes said he was selling the shop earlier this year.

“I really didn’t want to see Glad Day close its doors – it has been, and continues to be, so important to so many people,” Scythes said in a press release. “I’m very happy. I’m trying to hand over the store in good condition, and I'm very busy,” he said in a brief phone call with Xtra.

The sale has not yet been finalized, but the new owners expect to take over in early March. Michael Erickson, a high school English and creative writing teacher, was instrumental in bringing the group together.

“We firmly believe that Glad Day provides a service and books that are not available anywhere else in the world. We hope that with a large group of people willing to put their energy and passion behind the business, we can keep it not only alive, but also growing,” Erickson says. “There’s an opportunity to make it something that it’s never been before.”

[. . .]

Kim Crosby, the co-director of the People Project, an organization that works with queer and trans young people, got involved after Erickson approached her.

“It was very easy to say yes and to figure out whatever I could do to be supportive,” Crosby says.

Crosby says the group intentionally created a shared model in which people in different income brackets could come together as equals. She also says the diversity of the group will be an asset.

“As a queer woman myself, and coming out in Toronto, it was really hard for me to believe it was possible to be queer because I didn’t see anybody that looked like me. There’s an incredible importance in changing what the face of the queer community looks like. Our investors are all very different. There are trans folks, there are queer folks, there are younger ones, there are elders. We very much want to see the population of people coming to the bookstore to really reflect the diversity of Toronto’s population and community, and as well as that of the people who are investing and creating the space,” Crosby says.

Next, from Torontoist's Carly Maga:

A group of local Torontonians faithful to the history of the iconic store have banded together to buy the business.

“As individuals, none of us are rich. But collectively, there will be over 20 of us in the end, and we can pull it off,” said Michael Erickson, who spearheaded the purchase, which has yet to be finalized. He wouldn’t disclose the value of the deal.

Erickson is by profession a high-school teacher at Harbord Collegiate, where he specializes in English and Creative Writing, but the rest of the buyers are an eclectic mix of lawyers, government workers, playwrights, musicians, community activists, even former Glad Day employees. Charles Smith, 23, is the group’s youngest investor.

“What unites us is that everyone cares about the preservation and growth of the LGBTQ community, and books and stories are important to us in doing that,” Erickson said, in an interview.

Erickson himself had been a Glad Day patron in the past, but fell out of touch with the store over the years. Like many of his fellow collaborators, just “didn’t get around to it,” but sees this as a second chance to show his loyalty.

“Our task as new owners is to give people a reason to come in and support the future of the bookstore,” he said. The group expects to make a series of announcements in early March. “We’ve got some exciting changes and expansions…that we hope will bring back the golden days of the bookstore as a hub of culture and creativity for the LGBTQ community.”

There's some controversy over at the Xtra! article about the investors' group, some commenters concerned about (so far as I can tell) entirely hypothetical connections with anti-porn feminists, others concerned about some of the investors' membership in the controversial Queers Against Israeli Apartheid group. These are minor points, as far as I am concerned: if this saves Glad Day from the fate of other indie Toronto bookstores of note, for the time being at least, that's the critical thing.