Charis Books Expanding and Perhaps Moving to Decatur
Decatur Metro | March 11, 2011
The for-profit, feminist bookstore Charis Books in Little Five Points has been teasing a big announcement for about a week now. Daren Wang forwards this note from the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance …
Charis Books & More, the for-profit feminist bookstore, and Charis Circle, the store’s nonprofit arm, Atlanta, Ga., are planning to move into a larger location within a year, the Georgia Voice reported. The new location will be called the Charis Feminist Center and may be in Decatur, “where many of Charis’ customers live.” The new center will have a coffee shop, share space with other nonprofits and offer more programming.
To make the move, Charis is putting its current store up for sale and has begun a $1 million capital campaign, whose co-chair is the same woman who “gave Linda Bryant the seed money to open Charis 37 years ago.”
“We’re excited for change and to be in a space that is more accessible to more people,” Charis Books & More co-owner Angela Gabriel told the Voice. “We’ve been discussing and dreaming about this for 10 to 15 years and finally we have the right people on board to make that happen.”
The full article in the GA Voice states that Charis hopes to open its new location to the public about a year from now.
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I didn’t know that there were any feminists anymore. Or is it a code word for lesbian/bisexual/transsexual? It saddened me to see the concept of feminism become archaic or uncool. On the one hand, women now dominate fields in which they used to be scarce–e.g. academia, school administration, medicine, public health–so work opportunities have opened up a lot. And women seemed to be laid off less than men during this recession. On the other hand, during the boom years, many women took the economic opportunity to drop out of the workforce or work part-time . Now they are finding what their mothers once found–that the complex multi-tasking necessary to balance child rearing, PTA/PTO leadership, sherpa-ing the children to activities, managing home repairs and maintenance, working from home, consulting–doesn’t always get the respect or credit it should. No question that men chip in at home so much more than previous generations but who “owns” the burden of ensuring that all the home and childcare activities get assigned, monitored, and accomplished–often still the women. Even if they earn in the same range or more than the husbands.
Am hoping that this is a Center for all women interested in whatever feminism is today.
Proud feminist since circa 1980.
I’m just beyond happy that an institution like Charis continues to exist! So many independent bookstores and feminist bookstores around the country have closed over the years because they couldn’t compete with large bookstore retailers (ironic isn’t it that now some of those large retailers are closing branches/declaring bankruptcy). Through it all Charis has managed to survive and thrive with diverse products, programming, funding and excellent customer service. It truly is a community/neighborhood institution that all of Atlanta should be proud of. It has been (and continues to be) a wonderful haven for women of all diverse backgrounds.
I’m so excited that they are expanding! And will now be even closer to me.
I’d be happy to see Charis in Decatur. I hope this works out. I enjoyed working with the Charis women participating in the book festival. Pleasant, hard-working, can-do people. But it is hard to think of them as leaving Little Five. They are an institution there.
And I, as well, wonder what exactly feminism is today. It seemed more clear back when a personnel director could look you in the eye and say unapologetically, “We don’t hire women for that kind of work.”
A third thought, maybe this is the new model of what an independent bookstore can be. A carefully curated, subject-specific selection of books and a gathering place for like minded people. With coffee, of course.
They have coffee? I’m there whether or not I fit their target customer profile!
It will be a loss for L5P but I can understand why they would want to leave–their location can be hard to access –parking on the street is limited. They will be a good fit for Decatur.
Mrs. Token doesn’t need a feminist bookstore…she knows that, after 17 years of marriage, I worship her more every year. As karass says above, I do a lot of the housework, cooking, maintenance, etc., but this household would come to a complete stop without her. So here’s to Mrs. Token; beautiful, feminine, strong, brilliant, funny, and the best mother and wife I could ever hope for.
Damn, I’m a lucky guy.
I’d like that validated directly by Mrs. Token, sir.
Mr. Token is all that he claims to be… And he has smoking hot calves, too!
Oh man, I don’t even know what to do with that!
This is going to influence how I read all future posts by DTR.
LOL! I now have a mental image of a man with smoke trails coming from his legs…
All right, another bookstore! Maybe now we can attract another beer bar/Irish pub… (Seriously, I love that we probably have one of the highest per capita book store ratios around).
Charis is partnering with College Heights ECLC for next week’s book fair so that might be a hint about growing ties to Decatur.
Charis has been doing a book fair with College Heights for years. One of the owners of Charis is a teacher of Pre-k there – Ms. Gabriel.
There’s a few perfect spaces on W. Ponce near and across from Garlic/Snoball/Decatur Screenprint/Lampe-Farley.
Decatur is a great fit for Charis and what a wonderful healthy business for Decatur to have.
This is so exciting! I love Charis, and I’m so happy that they’re able to expand at a time that other places are closing. So many women’s bookstores have disappeared in recent years. And adding the coffee shop and expanded programming…woohoo! I know they’ll be missed in L5P, but this move can’t happen soon enough for me, for purely selfish reasons.