Support Your Local .... (feminist) Bookstore

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Amazon Bookstore Cooperative in Minneapolis is one of the few women's bookstores to survive into the 21st century.

Some time about 1970 a couple of women decided to gather some books on women’s topics and offer them for sale on the front porch of their living collective. Thus began the saga of Amazon Bookstore Cooperative in Minneapolis, the oldest independent feminist bookstore in North America. Along with the rise of the women’s movement in the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s came the rise in women’s bookstores and presses.

During the early days stores like Amazon Bookstore Cooperative provided an outlet for publications by such presses as Naiad Press, Firebrand, Seal Press, Cleis Press, Spinsters Ink, and Papier Mache. The earliest books were poetry, how-to books on automechanics and carpentry for women, and politics.

Amazon Bookstore Cooperative became a mainstay of the Twin Cities bookstore movement. Named for the mythical tribe of woman warriors, Amazon went through many reincarnations. When it was taken over by a larger women’s cooperative it moved first to the Lesbian Resource Center, through several storefront locations to its current location on Chicago Ave.

Throughout the last thirty years, many of the bookstores that grew up during the early years of the feminist movement have gone out of business. Women’s presses flourished and are now out of business. As early as the ‘90’s major presses started publishing lesbian titles. And this acceptance by the mainstream presses of women’s titles also saw the decline in the small presses and the small independent bookstores, like Amazon.

Though it has survived the demise that has befallen many of the women’s bookstores throughout the country, Amazon has survived despite take overs of many small bookstores by large conglomerates and legal battles thanks to a supportive community and a close association with the Women’s Studies Department at the University of Minnesota. But the struggle for survival has not ceased. While the Sex-Kitten staff was in Minneapolis there was a fund-raiser to help support the Amazon Bookstore Cooperative.