The Modern Times Colletive

Modern Times Bookstore is a worker-run organization and has been ever since we opened our doors in 1971. We sincerely believe that Modern Times' collective management structure is what has allowed us to survive for so long. It is a structure that allows our staff to pour their creativity into a store that truly reflects the personalities of everybody who works here. We're also proud to be a part of NoBAWC (Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives). NoBAWC is a network of independent businesses just like ours striving to create dynamic, worker friendly, conscientious, alternative models of business.

Annie Danger - Annie has been with Modern Times Bookstore for two years and a few months. She started as a sub and in August of 2006 was hired as the new Financial Manager. She takes care of our finances, our window displays, our signs and our general aesthetic functioning.

Annie was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is a desert rat at heart and a transsexual rights and water activist in her daily life. She spends her non-book time performing at clubs, shows, and cabarets; designing costumes; working with the Greywater Guerrillas to spread the word about DIY water activism and home plumbing; doing freelance illustration work, and doing her best to keep things messy (in the good way).

Ruth Mahaney - Ruth is our children's book buyer and bill payer. She has been involved with the LGBT community for many years and has taught women's and queer studies at San Francisco State University, City College of San Francisco and New College of California. She is currently our oldest collective member, having joined the store in 1973.

D.Scott "Nugs" Miller - Nugs is our used books coordinator and the newest member of the collective. He's a Bay Area writer, visual artist, teacher, and curator. A founder of The BlackBard Writing Collective, and on the board of directors to noctunes review, a regular contributor to The East Bay Express, SF Weekly, YRB NYC, Popmatters, Showcase Magazine, and has published the afro-surreal Knot Frum Hear (an excerpt is in Bronx Biannual Two, ISBN: 1-933354-09-7), and Slicker, a book of poems.

Brenda O'Sullivan - Brenda originally joined the collective in 1996 as the events coordinator. She curated author events for five years then disappeared for a while admist the clamor and chaos of Mexico City. She returned to the store in 2004 and now wears various hats, including Webmistress and Spanish-language book buyer. When not at the store she works at her other job, hikes, boogie boards and cross country skies. She also watches oodles of documentary films as a panelist for the San Francisco International Film Festival and the United Nations Association Film Festival. Occassionally, she finds time to read a book.

Nick Ott - Nick likes to read and play the drums and the piano. He loves his cats but not the way they wake him up at 5 a.m. He is fairly tall. His eyesight is getting worse. He has lived in the Bay Area for most of his life.

Peta Pottinger - Peta is currently on a leave of absence learning how to commune with nature and live sustainably (and pass these skills on to others).

Rebecca Tumposky - Becca first fell in love with Modern Times after realizing that the two-shelf urban studies section carries nearly every Marxist urban theorist that has written a book. After an extended stint in subbing, she has recently joined the collective as the Institutional Sales Coordinator, through which she is developing her skills in the art of the sales hustle. Her other interests include left movement strategy, fashion, and swimming. She can often be found "shelving" children’s books.

Dia Vergados - An east coast transplant, Dia was raised in a mill city north of Boston by a family of diehard Yankees fans. Really. Dia relocated to the Bay fresh from the soybean oceans of rural Ohio. Four years of Comparative American Studies gave Dia a deep sense of appreciation for indy presses, and this appreciation ultimately brought Dia to coordinate events for San Francisco’s oldest collectively owned and operated bookstore. [Credit must also be made to, the ironically named, Bay Area Rapid Transit.]

Dia came to Modern Times with the intention of centering events on community and coalition building. Dia’s next project will be formalizing a Modern Times tea hour.

When not coordinating events, Dia is probably still thinking about coordinating events.