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retail.books
Bookstores have long been street-level meeting places for artists and writers; in the 70's, Rumour was a zine-store and hangout. Who's Emma, a new volunteer-run book, music and zine store in Kensington market, was initiated by Alan O'Connor, a Toronto queercore activist who participated in the early eighties in Nicaragua solidarity actions. At Who's Emma, classic anarchist and activist texts are stocked on shelves alongside Profane Existence and HeartattaCk (Hard Core), magazines that draw anarchopunk communities to the store. Hard to get activist materials, music recordings and zines are available in a coffee bar-type space. Roots are in Chomsky, Goldman, Galeano, with an emphasis on do it yourself strategies - for example, Food Not Guns, a manual for setting up ad-hoc vegan street theatre food kitchens; Bomb the Suburbs - a graffiti crew testimonial/manual from Chicago; and Beneath the Underground, abrasive, formative zine critique and history by Bob Black.
The salient feature of the store is its refusal to stock any corporate product. Collective members stress the importance of living the "life" not the "lifestyle". Bands and writers who have 'crossed the line' are not sold at Who's Emma. The store is run by volunteers; orders are taken in person or by fax from a wide array of producers, listeners and readers. The same core of people who operate Who's Emma have set up a music/performance venue - the Laundry Mat - in the basement of a nearby functioning laundromat. Who's Emma operates like a renegade community resource facility - a "safe" space to research, talk and form associations. The fact that the space is volunteer-run and operates outside of grant-based or commercial financial imperatives mirrors the condition of most of the marginal producers whose work circulates there.
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