Housing Works (New York City).
Clark, David Draper
HOUSING WORKS USED BOOK CAFE was established in 1996 but in the
past few years has become, according to the New York Times, "one of
the most important literary hubs in New York." The bookstore
operates with an all-volunteer staff, and its entire stock of forty-five
thousand books and hundreds of records and CDS is donated. All proceeds
from the store go to Housing Works, the nation's largest
minority-controlled AIDS service organization. A community-based,
not-for-profit corporation, Housing Works provides health care,
advocacy, job training, housing, and other vital support services to
many of the thirty thousand homeless people with HIV and AIDS living in
New York City.
A site for readings, book-signings, publishing and private parties,
charity events, and musical performances, the bookstore--with its high
ceilings, worn Oriental rugs, mahogany-paneled interior, and spiral
staircases--offers a comfortable atmosphere that includes a short-order
cafe with homemade menu items as well as a variety of coffees, teas,
wines, and desserts. In addition to good used reading copies of
everything from poetry to fiction to foreign-language texts, the store
boasts a selection of unusual, hard-to-find, first- and limited-edition
books. On my initial visit to the store, I purchased a first edition of
John Berryman's acclaimed book in verse, Homage to Mistress
Bradstreet, for about one third the price of what the book lists for in
most antiquarian dealers' catalogs.
Among the diverse writers to grace the store in recent months for
readings, book-signings, and discussion were John Ashbery, Mary Karr,
and Column McCann. In conjunction with the New York Festival of
International Literature, World Literature Today was pleased to join PEN
USA and Housing Works in presenting authors Achmat Dangor (South
Africa), Cees Nooteboom (Holland), Jordi Punti (Catalonia/Spain), and
Laura Restrepo (Colombia) at the store last April.
The cafe is located at 226 Crosby Street (SoHo/Little Italy--five
blocks east of Broadway between Prince and Houston Streets) in
Manhattan. For more information about the bookstore and to access their
events calendar, browse their website at www.housingworksubc.com.
