[URBAN NOTE] "At a Gay-Specific Bookstore, Just Books on a Shelf Won’t Do"

[rfmcdonald]

The New York Times' Brian Sloan has a cheering article about New York City's GLBT-themed bookstore, The Bureau for General Services-Queer Division. The emphasis on zines is interesting.

An independent bookstore opened last month with a performance by Gio Black Peter, a downtown artist. Wearing only black boxers, he stood on a translucent plastic tarp and read a poem entitled, “The Morning Star,” flanked by two beer-drinking men.

The crowd, a mix of young bearded men in button-down shirts and their equally hirsute but graying elders, applauded heartily at the end of the reading, their introduction to the Bureau for General Services – Queer Division, a gay bookstore that relocated last month to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in Greenwich Village.

[. . .]

“That was a nice christening, wasn’t it?” said Greg Newton, who owns the store with his partner, Donnie Jochum. To succeed, they plan to do things differently. “The Bureau needs to be a very lively, active space where people come to hang out, kind of like a salon. We can’t just put books on a shelf and wait for people to buy them.”

Tucked into the back of the community center’s second floor, the bookstore’s airy, high-ceilinged home carries a diverse selection, including classic novels like James Baldwin’s “Giovanni’s Room” and contemporary nonfiction by Sarah Schulman. But what truly sets it apart from Barnes & Noble is its selection of zines.

L.G.B.T.-themed zines have experienced a resurgence in recent years, inspired by the defunct Butt Magazine and the ease of digital printing. The bookstore actually got its start as a booth at the 2012 NY Art Book Fair, selling a selection of zines with racy names like Spunk, Spank, Dirty and Headmaster.

“They’re generally cheaper, starting at $3 or $5,” Mr. Newton said. “So it’s something that most people can afford.”