You may know Bluestockings–New York City’s beloved radical bookstore–as a Lower East Side icon of 21 years. You may frequent it as a cafe or community resource center. Or you may remember it as the site of launches for books like Antifa,  The Nike Effect, and Kathy Acker: The Last Interview.

Either way, what you need to know now is that Bluestockings will be relocating, but not disappearing.

The news comes in the form of an announcement on the bookstore’s website that begins:

Friends, comrades, fierce lovers of radical spaces to reimagine our world,

We did not expect to ever be writing a statement like this. Due to so many unforeseen circumstances both pandemic-related and otherwise, we must leave our current location at 172 Allen St. in search of a new, more sustainable, accessible and safer home.

This is not goodbye. This is “wait for our new location announcement,” hopefully soon. The facts are: we have outgrown our space and we want features that better accommodate and center our disabled collective and community. We want ramps and bathrooms and ventilation and chair lifts! We are committed to realizing this for our future home!

Mark Bray discusses his book Antifa to a packed Bluestockings crowd in September 2017

The store is clear about the fact that they will indeed reincarnate into another physical form–an admirable and near-impossible thing for a collectively owned venture to do in New York City 2020.

While we anxiously await the next communique from our comrades at Bluestockings, you can do your part by checking out their online store and attending some of their virtual events.