The Community Bookstore of the Mission
The Latino community in the Mission is under threat from gentrification, but remains the dominant demographic group-and cultural heart-of the neighborhood. When Modern Times moved into the neighborhood, the local Spanish-language bookstores dealt primarily in fotonovelas, astrology and Bibles. We developed the city's first broad selection of Spanish-language literature and non-fiction, in effect a mini-bookstore within the bookstore.
We stay actively involved in the cultural life of the community. For six years, we ran a monthly poetry series, spotlighting local poets, until a plethora of other series emerged to take up the slack. We continue to offer a wide range of literary and community events, including our annual Fall Zine Expo and Book Arts Fair, which gives local self publishers and book artists a change to display, sell, and trade their goods. We also sponsor a "Live Cheap-Make Art" month in the Spring, which offers workshops and resources for thrifty, do-it-yourself creative types. And we're even starting to foster new performance, offering our front window and back room as sites for emerging, cross genre artists.
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In 1997, we began a series of reading groups devoted to James Joyce's Ulysses. Led by store co-owner Michael Rosenthal, these groups have been an instant and stunning success, the response (hundreds of calls every time a new group is announced) far exceeding anything we could have imagined. By approaching Ulysses not as an intimidating masterwork that requires bottomless erudition, but rather as a novel about compelling characters in their social environment that can be read for pure pleasure, we have broken the barrier that has kept people away from Joyce's sumptuous celebration of the ordinary. These groups also serve as a powerful indicator of how far we have come in re-imagining our mission.
