The Lucy Parsons Center, located in
Jamaica Plain
Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of the former Town of Roxbury, now also a part of the City of Boston. The commun ...
,
Boston, Massachusetts, is an radical, nonprofit
independent bookstore
An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned. Usually, independent stores consist of only a single actual store (although there are some multi-store independents). They may be structured as sole proprietorships, cl ...
and community center. Formed out of the Red Word bookstore, it is collectively run by volunteers. The Center provides reading material, space for individuals to drop in, and a free space for meetings and events.
History
The Red Book Store (now the Lucy Parsons Center) began in 1969 in a small one-room basement shop in
Central Square, Cambridge
Central Square is an area in Cambridge, Massachusetts centered on the junction of Massachusetts Avenue (Cambridge), Massachusetts Avenue, Prospect Street and Western Avenue. , formed by the junction of Massachusetts Avenue, Columbia Street, Sidne ...
. It moved two or three times in the first couple of years, before settling into what would be its home until 1983 in a large space on the corner of River and Pleasant streets in Cambridge. In 1983 the project moved to
Jamaica Plain, Boston
Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of the former Town of Roxbury, now also a part of the City of Boston. The commu ...
. It stayed there until May 1994, returning to Central Square, where it stayed four years until it was evicted so the building could be demolished. In May 1998 it moved into a temporary space in
Davis Square, Somerville.
Davis Square was a temporary location and with sales suffering, the center was flooded and had to make an appeal for support.
In 1999, the project moved to the
South End of Boston and finally moved back to Jamaica Plain in 2011.
The center's namesake,
Lucy Parsons
Lucy Eldine Gonzalez Parsons (born Lucia Carter; 1851 – March 7, 1942) was an American labor organizer, radical socialist and anarcho-communist. She is remembered as a powerful orator. Parsons entered the radical movement following her marriag ...
, was a radical labor organizer and
anarchocommunist in Chicago from the 1880s onwards. She is remembered as a powerful orator.
It was a reformulation of the Red Book Store, which was set up in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
in 1969.
One of the original founders was professor and activist George Katsiaficas.
Initially
Maoist
Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...
, the bookshop was run by an
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
collective until the late 2010s and is currently operated by a multi-tendency revolutionary collective.
By the mid 1990s, the center was part of an established network of North American
infoshop
Infoshops are places in which people can access anarchist or autonomist ideas. They are often stand-alone projects, or can form part of a larger radical bookshop, archive, self-managed social centre or community centre. Typically, infoshops offer ...
s which included Long Haul in Berkeley, A-Space in Philadelphia and Who's Emma in Toronto.
Activities
When it was rebirthed in 1992, the center became a nonprofit organization with a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.
The volunteer-run bookshop sells books, pamphlets and zines. One of the most popular books is ''
A People's History of the United States
'' A People's History of the United States'' is a 1980 nonfiction book by American historian and political scientist Howard Zinn. In the book, Zinn presented what he considered to be a different side of history from the more traditional "funda ...
'' by
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922January 27, 2010) was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist thinker and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a political scien ...
.
Apart from the bookstore, the Lucy Parsons Center serves as a space for community organizers to use for meetings and special events. It also hosts a weekly movie night.
See also
*
Bluestockings
''Bluestocking'' is a term for an educated, intellectual woman, originally a member of the 18th-century Blue Stockings Society from England led by the hostess and critic Elizabeth Montagu (1718–1800), the "Queen of the Blues", including Eli ...
*
Firestorm Cafe & Books
Firestorm Books & Coffee is a worker-owned and self-managed " anti-capitalist business" in Asheville, North Carolina. Named after the firestorm, this infoshop operates with an eye on creating a sustainable, radical community event space. Firest ...
*
Red Emma's
Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse is a radical infoshop located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States and run by a worker-owner collective. Named for anarchist Emma Goldman, Red Emma's opened in November 2004 and sells fair trade coffee, vegetari ...
References
External links
*
{{Infoshops
Buildings and structures in Boston
Infoshops
Anarchist bookstores
Independent bookstores of the United States