Paperbacks Plus, Lone Bookstore in the Bx

When Barnes and Noble decided to open up shop in the Bronx ten years ago, there were two independent general bookstores in the borough. Now, there’s only one.

Life in general is getting more and more difficult for books – and those who sell them – with the ease of browsing and buying books online growing more and more popular. If you can read the first few pages of a novel on Amazon.com, or get inexpensive texts on Half.com, what’s the point of walking into a store? Ok, of course there’s a point. I am one of those people who will walk into a bookstore, collect as many books as I can, and find a corner to sit down in. I have no shame when it comes to this. But do I ever buy one of those books I pulled off the shelf? Well, sometimes. That happens even less often now that I discovered that interlibrary loans make practically any book available in the same amount of time it takes for shipping and handling to get it to me. And it’s free.

I’m basically killing the industry right here.

Offering lower prices and the perks of internet sales is the dilemma for independent bookstores. For these smaller stores who cater to a regular crowd, going online means less personal interaction, and a large portion of these stores’ business comes from strong community relationships.

For that one independent bookstore left in the Bronx, Paperbacks Plus at 3718 Riverdale Avenue, these relationships are what the store thrives on. Joe Pilla, store manager, describes the shop as a storefront that “can fit in one corner of the biggest Barnes and Noble” (where I would be sitting with my stack). However, Pilla is concerned that the store has not started selling books online. He thinks it would be a smart step to move online for the sake of keeping up with the changes of the times, but the store is very community oriented and the majority of its patrons are long-time regulars who couldn’t imagine the neighborhood without it. In thinking ahead, though, Pilla would like to draw more teens and young people to the store who will grow up and bring their kids in.

This problem is common for non-specialty, independent bookstores in general, but the Bronx has another obstacle in attracting more bookstores, and that is its rough and tumble reputation. There is no doubt that improvements have been made since the time Paperbacks Plus opened in the 1970s, but progress is slow, especially when it comes to people’s mentalities and corporate retailers need to view the Bronx as desirable in order to dig their roots here.

Former assemblyman Stephen Kauffman who advocated for Barnes and Noble to move north ten years ago, said that the presence of bookstores shows that people have the economic stability to buy books. That’s true, but perhaps other developments need to occur before Bronx communities will see bookstores sprouting up, though that doesn’t mean community members and local politicians shouldn’t keep trying.

Book Review

Bronx Noir, a collection of stories edited by S.J. Rozan

Akashic Books, 2007

“I could have found it in my sleep, I could have made my way by touch, or even sense, through the turnstiles, to the trains, to the seat, my seat, the one at the middle, the one that let me out closest to the Fordham Road exit,” begins Robert J. Hughes’s short story, “A Visit to St. Nick’s.” This piece is one of 19 in the anthology Bronx Noir, a collection of narratives published last year. Each story takes place in a different neighborhood or location of the Bronx, including areas worn by the passing of Fordham students. There’s a story of mafia activity on Arthur Avenue with an unexpected ending, a piece about a hunter tracking his prey in the Bronx Zoo and a one-night stand tale in Riverdale.

The book is part of the Akashic Noir Series, which includes Wall Street Noir, Dublin Noir and Delhi Noir, all edited by different people. You can find the Bronx version, at Paperbacks Plus, which is about a half hour bus ride away depending on traffic. Just take the Bx9 to 231st and Broadway and transfer to the Bx7 and get off at W 236th.

Bronx Museum of the Arts

(To see photo captions, scroll over "notes" at bottom right corner of slideshow)

Standing inside the Bronx Museum of the Arts Sunday, guest-curator Carey Lovelace was asked to describe the overall feel of the exhibit titled Making It Together: Women's Collaborative Art and Community. She had just kicked off the opening of the exhibit, part of the museum's spring exhibitions, with a chat to museum-goers and an interview with a brightly lit News 12 camera. Without pausing for a second, she answered the question with a single word: "Pink!"

It was true; the walls that held the artwork were painted a soft, creamy shade of pink, and a chair or two scattered around the room were upholstered or painted the same color. The hue helped to set a mood that Lovelace described in more detail as "very lively, humorous - satire to make a point." Looking around the room, the photographs, writings, film and other media all contributed to the sense of theatrics Lovelace was talking about.

"It's not just ho hum, we're here on the wall," she said. "This branch of activism, humorism, is what people like the Guerilla Girls were going for." She points to a picture of a woman wearing fishnet stockings, leaning against a stool and wearing a guerilla mask. The engaging and bold nature of the exhibit is appropriate, given it took its inspiration from the1970s feminist movement.

The theme of theatrics making a political point pervades the whole exhibit, though not always as playfully as the Guerilla Girls have interpreted it. The first thing viewers see when they walk through the museum's doors is a mural covering an entire wall. The colors are not as soft as the pale pink; instead blood red, black, neon green and white make up the color scheme. The mural depicts the faces and names of various women, from a young girl standing with her hands on her hips, to Elvira, whose name is grouped with the words "single mother," "cleaning lady" and "Mexican immigrant." Phrases like "Abuse of Power," and "We pay with our Bodies" are graffitied across the mural.

In addition to the still art, there was a panel during the opening day that discussed how feminist thought and gender-based critique has shaped artists' collaboration over the past 30 years. There will also be a Day of Collaborative Performance on May 17 from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. with The Brainstormers, in collaboration with the Guerilla Girls, Christal Brown and Ridykeulous, among others. The cost of cocktails at the event will reflect the disparity between men and women's wages.

"Making It Together" is one of two featured exhibits currently at the BMA, and a thread that ties them together is community. One explores the community of a collaborative feminist movement and the other of people in New York City who represent and inspire social activism. The latter is expressed in photographs taken by Jamel Shabazz in the 1970s and 1980s.

Shabazz's photos are of all kinds of people: a Vietnam veteran with his fist raised high in the air, kids posing on a motorcycle, the homeless amidst wealth, a break-dancer in the middle of a head spin, a member of the Blood gang on a park bench. Shabazz says he always had his camera with him, loaded with film.

"I understood history was being made every day," he said, adding that every photo was "spontaneous."

The exhibit was curated by a group of teenagers from local high schools as a part of the Teen Council Internship Program. Out of 30 applicants for the internship, only about eight new members are chosen each year. They arranged the artwork, included items from Shabazz's life, a documentary made by last year's students, and made a zine, MuseZine to accompany the art.

"One main reason we're so excited is that we got to curate the exhibit," said Teen Council Assistant Manuel Gonzalez, 19. The BMA has hosted teen art curated by teens before, "but here we got to curate renowned, professional artists," he added.

The images are meant not only to document street culture, but to inspire young people through portrayals of their peers and neighborhoods. The introduction printed on a buttery yellow museum wall describes the images as "the unseen, the unnoticed, the mundane beauty and the simple detritus that we walk past on our way to school every day." The photos aren't particularly dramatic or sensational but depict scenes you would see as you were walking around on any given day.

Although both exhibits discuss important social issues that impact our society, each of them does so with a sense of levity, "Making It Together" with its humorism and sensationalism, and "Jamel Shabazz," with the liveliness of his photography and the energy of the teen curators. The Bronx Museum of the Arts, which is located at 1040 Grand Concourse, will run these exhibits until Aug 4. For more information, visit BronxMuseum.org.