Oakland's Wolfman Books Comes to a Close
Oakland's beloved event space, small press, and bookstore Wolfman Books—friend to many poets and their readings—is closing up shop, says founder Justin Carder in a recent mailing. An integral collective of store staff, known as Wolfemme & Them, is moving on and has released a closing manifesto, designed by Samantha Espinoza.
The manifesto speaks volumes about the necessity of community spaces. From that:
To Jeff and Gabe and Unity and a safe place for queer and trans bodies. To countless free t-shirts, queer sk8 days, LA road trips, tabling at EBABZ and LA Art Book Fair and beyond.
To seeing Samantha’s newsletter art in windows, on fridges, and walls across Oakland.
To spotting Lukaza and Samantha and Jeff and Soleil’s totebags on BART, at openings, at shows, on the street, across the country.
To stopping the person who still has Soleil’s totebag on the street to say that they own a rare Wolfman artifact.
To the three year anniversary postcards that we are still selling because we printed sooooo many of them.
To the time we all crowded in the back of the store to watch Daughters of the Dust and left with so many new friends. Was that the first The Black Aesthetic screening?
Carder says: "…I have worked with a lot of others, particularly BIPOC and queer people to make a really beautiful, radical space together … at the same time I want to acknowledge that we have not been able to create a structure for BIPOC members of staff to deeper organizational decision making and project building, and current BIPOC members of our staff have felt left out of financial, publishing, and space decisions. Though we have talked about collective organization a lot at meetings and imagined ways to make it real—I was not able to truly make it real …. As Wolfemme + Them wrote in their recent email about stepping away: 'it is imperative that we not only have a seat at the table, but that the table was created by us.'"
Keep your eyes on the projects to come from the people at Wolfman Books.