{"id":44,"date":"2026-05-22T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=44"},"modified":"2026-05-22T20:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T20:30:00","slug":"radical-booksellers-do-more-than-just-retail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=44","title":{"rendered":"Radical Booksellers Do More Than Just Retail"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CHICAGO \u2014A wooden ladder leans against a\u00a0wall of shelves before a\u00a0carpenter fits it onto a\u00a0metal track. Erik Wallenberg, one of the worker-owners of Pilsen Community Books (PCB), passes him tools. It\u2019s the day before the store will reopen in its new\u00a0space.<\/p>\n

Read more Turning the Page on Corporate Bookselling<\/a><\/p>\n

When I\u00a0arrive, floor-to-ceiling bookcases are filled and a\u00a0few titles are faced out on the lower displays. Others sit in loose stacks, waiting for a\u00a0home.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>We\u2019ll see if we\u2019re actually done setting up before the opening tomorrow,\u201d Mandy Medley, another worker-owner,\u00a0jokes.<\/p>\n

Last year, she tells me, PCB\u2019s landlord hit them with a\u00a050<\/span>% rent\u00a0increase.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>We tried to work with him, but he was like, \u200b\u2018<\/span>Welp, that\u2019s the rent,\u2019\u201d Medley says. \u200b\u201c<\/span>We were like, \u200b\u2018<\/span>We\u2019ve been here 10<\/span>\u00a0years, we\u2019re a\u00a0community institution.\u2019 He did not\u00a0care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Located on the South Side in a\u00a0predominantly Latino neighborhood, PCB is the only cooperatively owned bookstore in Chicago. It also happens to be an explicitly anti-capitalist, radical leftist institution, with sections on such topics as Marxism and anti-colonialism. The store also functions as an organizing hub, classroom and neighborhood meeting\u00a0spot.<\/p>\n

Wallenberg recalls wrestling with the possibility of closing: \u200b\u201c<\/span>We really did feel like, if we closed, it would [leave] a\u00a0bit of a\u00a0hole. Then where would people go? We would lose something\u00a0valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the five worker-owners began looking around the neighborhood. Much larger, the new store will allow them to scale up community programming, expand their book selection and host bigger events with higher-profile speakers. The new event space, in the back, will double as a\u00a0banner library, where people can take signs for\u00a0protests.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>It\u2019s really just a\u00a0glorified attached garage,\u201d Medley says, grinning, \u200b\u201c<\/span>But we\u2019re going to make it very\u00a0cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked how they curate their books, Medley says they follow current events and take requests\u2009\u2014\u2009rather than just tracking sales trends: \u200b\u201c<\/span>A lot of times people come in from the neighborhood, they\u2019re like, \u200b\u2018<\/span>I\u2019ve read this. Have you heard of this book? I\u00a0think you should have it.\u2019 And we\u2019re like, \u200b\u2018<\/span>Oh no, oh shit. We\u2019ll put it on order.\u2019 So it\u2019s a\u00a0community project in that\u00a0way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For its first event in the new space, PCB hosted a\u00a0book club in February for Open Veins of Latin America<\/em> by Eduardo Galeano, partnering with Pilsen Unidos por Nuestro Orgullo (PU\u00d1O), a\u00a0local rapid response and immigrant rights group. The discussion connected readers with those organizing against ICE raids in\u00a0Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>They\u2019ve offered their space to us for panels, for meetings, for trainings,\u201d says Diego Morales, a\u00a0lead for PU\u00d1O. \u200b\u201c<\/span>So it only just made sense to use the space to do a\u00a0book club.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more \u201cThese Are the Mistakes a Dying Empire Makes\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

For decades, radical bookstores have been places not just to browse, but to meet, debate and plan. In Baltimore, John Duda\u2009\u2014\u2009co-founder of the co-op bookstore Red Emma\u2019s\u2009\u2014\u2009has seen book clubs evolve into \u200b\u201c<\/span>a major organizing force in the city.\u201d He specifically cites one on prisons and policing that spawned an \u200b\u201c<\/span>anti-police, anti-prison, direct action formation that was active in the city for\u00a0years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red Emma\u2019s also has a\u00a0history of hosting jail support work and supporting imprisoned activists, such as Baltimore Black Panther Marshall \u200b\u201c<\/span>Eddie\u201d Conway, by hosting call-ins from jail and book events for Conway\u2019s writing in the early\u00a02000<\/span>s.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>We were one of the few places that was still talking about this guy who had been set up, framed and incarcerated for the rest of his life because of the organizing work he had been doing,\u201d Duda tells In These Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

While incarcerated, Conway continued organizing and set up prison libraries\u2009\u2014\u2009work Red Emma\u2019s supported. When Conway was released in 2014<\/span>, the store hosted an event with\u00a0him.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>A lot of people come in really, really hungry,\u201d says Megan Berkobien, another Red Emma\u2019s worker-owner. \u200b\u201c<\/span>Some people want to start something new. And part of our job is just to be like, \u200b\u2018<\/span>Here\u2019s all the work that\u2019s happening. Here\u2019s how you plug in.\u2019\u2009\u201d In her book The Radical Bookstore<\/em>, urban planning scholar Kimberley Kinder explains how radical bookstores function as \u200b\u201c<\/span>counterspaces\u201d for this type of community building. \u200b\u201c<\/span>Activist entrepreneurship is not about finding ethical ways to do business,\u201d Kinder writes. \u200b\u201c<\/span>Instead, it\u2019s about finding affordable ways to do\u00a0politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doing those politics also carries political risk. Booksellers have historically been targets of surveillance and political repression, in part because of their status as places for political ideas. In one sting operation against a\u00a0communist bookstore in Oklahoma City, officers purchased Marxist texts and then raided the store, charging organizers with \u200b\u201c<\/span>criminal\u00a0syndicalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was in 1940<\/span>, but political print culture still draws negative attention, decades after the first Red Scare and\u00a0McCarthyism.<\/p>\n

In the ongoing prosecution of Stop Cop City organizers, for example, prosecutors have cited zines and activist publications as evidence in sweeping indictments. After hosting a\u00a0talk by activists opposing Cop City, PCB was included in an FBI investigation into \u200b\u201c<\/span>anarchist\u00a0extremism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>When we found out that we were being surveilled by the FBI, it didn\u2019t change the kind of programming we have,\u201d Medley says. \u200b\u201c<\/span>If they want to surveil us, that\u2019s fine. We\u2019re selling\u00a0books.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Our job as a\u00a0radical bookstore is to just not care,\u201d Duda says. \u200b\u201c<\/span>Our job is to be the place that\u2019s unapologetically like, \u200b\u2018<\/span>No, this is wrong.\u2019 And we\u2019re going to read books that tell you why it\u2019s wrong, and we\u2019re going to invite people to talk about\u00a0them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Fortress Yellowstone<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bookstores fight for communities through activism, despite backlash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dispatch"],"yoast_head":"\nRadical Booksellers Do More Than Just Retail - Summit Relocation Timess<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=44\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Radical Booksellers Do More Than Just Retail - Summit Relocation Timess\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bookstores fight for communities through activism, despite backlash.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=44\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Summit Relocation Timess\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-22T20:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/9359c8aba33b8f4b4c4c03f4458a3f01.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=44#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=44\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/78261b7043eb436872da19e7c8eda597\"},\"headline\":\"Radical Booksellers Do More Than Just Retail\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-22T20:30:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=44\"},\"wordCount\":965,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=44#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/9359c8aba33b8f4b4c4c03f4458a3f01.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Dispatch\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=44#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=44\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=44\",\"name\":\"Radical Booksellers Do More Than Just Retail - 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