Through our new Into the Arts series, we aim to complicate and expand what we understand arts and humanities to be. Over the coming months, we will confer with those who make and study these concepts across campus, bringing you stories and recommendations that hopefully stretch our minds and bring us a little closer together.
What is Redbud Books?
Just a short walk down Kirkwood Avenue from the Sample Gates is a blossoming new community bookstore that will officially open in early 2024. Created not to generate profit but rather to bring people and books together, this endeavor aims to stimulate dialogue with contemporary debates and struggles over the future of Bloomington and the world.
Collectively operated as a non-profit by local book lovers — many of whom have ties with IU — Redbud Books promises its relatively small, rotating collection of fiction, theory, and poetry — among many other sections and genres — will be thoughtfully curated by collective members with subject area expertise.
“It’s an extremely rigorous intellectual endeavor. We have people who have curated each list — not just gone out to the presses and seen what’s out there. They are people who have selected from their own deep understanding of the field,” said collective member Micol Seigel, an IU professor of American studies and history. “When you come into Redbud Books and go to a section, you will see a really astonishing and just excellent selection of books on the shelves.”
Left: Collective members watch as curators and fellow collective members speak during a December 2023 fundraising event. Top right: Micol Seigel, a professor in the IU departments of History and American Studies, explains how Redbud has come to exist and how people can support the bookstore. Bottom right: Maggie McLaughlin, one of Redbud's curators, reads a poem. "I want to offer books that, together, can envision and possibly even engender worlds of care and community and joy,” McLaughlin said.
Maggie McLaughlin, a PhD candidate in comparative literature and graduate of IU’s library science program, has curated collections in poetry, myth, and autotheory, paying close attention to "books that yearn to be put in conversation with each other; books that made me think of or want to read other books; books that form an interconnected constellation of radical thought and storytelling."
As the IUB 2030 strategic plan emphasizes both experiential learning and community collaboration, this new bookstore will serve as a hub for IU students to engage with the larger Bloomington community.
“My students are excited to work with the bookstore as one of our community research partners this semester,” said collective member Renae Lesser, a PhD student and associate instructor in the School of Education. “We see Redbud as a welcoming ‘third place,’ a space of encounter where cross-pollination of ideas can happen between students, faculty, and local community members from all walks of life.”
Teresa Kovacs, an assistant professor in the IU Department of Germanic Studies and one of the collective members, is also looking forward to creating opportunities to bring her students into the community and this space. In her class “Literature and Climate Change,” she and her students will collaboratively organize events in the bookstore that highlight and bring projects and initiatives on sustainable living in Germany in dialogue with local members in Bloomington.
Creating engaging programming and positioning Redbud as a community space is at the heart of their mission. Redbud Books will host reading groups, film screenings, art exhibitions, community meetings, book talks, lecture series, and workshops of all kinds. Collective member and IU alumna Mia Beach plans to create a camera obscura within the bookstore and hold open hours in February, illustrating the broad potential of the space.
"It's really important that spaces like this exist off campus — welcoming spaces for critical dialogue and building a strong intellectual community,” said Cole Nelson, a collective member who is also a doctoral student in the IU Media School. “I'm especially excited to help develop our film series.”
A number of pre-opening events in the nearly-finished bookstore space (408 W Kirkwood Ave.) are planned this month, including a screening of the film Spaces of Exception (6 p.m. January 19), which highlights the experiences and communities of Palestinian refugees and Indigenous Americans, as well as a furniture fundraiser party (7-9 p.m. February 2).
Dedicated to the practice of environmental justice, and in partnership with the Neighborhood Planting Project, Redbud has also committed to planting a tree for every book sold.
Collective members say they recognize that thought itself can be a radical proposition and that books are entryways to manifesting other worlds. They understand Redbud as a portal between local and global, between the known and the unknowable, between the present and what could be.
What are a few books the Redbud Collective has been reading?
Detroit: I Do Mind Dying: A Study in Urban Revolution by Marvin Surkin and Dan Georgakas tracks the extraordinary development of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers as they became two of the landmark political organizations of the 1960s and 1970s. It is widely heralded as one the most important books on the black liberation movement.
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton. Before there was Kate Beaton, New York Times bestselling cartoonist of Hark! A Vagrant, there was Katie Beaton of the Cape Breton Beaton, specifically Mabou, a tight-knit seaside community where the lobster is as abundant as beaches, fiddles, and Gaelic folk songs. With the singular goal of paying off her student loans, Katie heads out west to take advantage of Alberta's oil rush--part of the long tradition of East Coasters who seek gainful employment elsewhere when they can't find it in the homeland they love so much. Katie encounters the harsh reality of life in the oil sands, where trauma is an everyday occurrence yet is never discussed.Part anti-work polemic, part sex worker's confession, the luminous essays in The Tricking Hour by Irene Silt envision a world organized around collective autonomy, survival, and care, instead of the compulsory exploitation of the body. Silt's dispatches-largely composed between June 2018 and October 2019 and first published as a monthly column in New Orleans' ANTIGRAVITY magazine-are already a cult classic in the movement for sex workers against work. Now collected in book form for the first time, with an additional essay written in 2022, The Tricking Hour is a vital account of sex, labor, and criminality in the twenty-first century.Scattered All Over the Earth by Yoko Tawada and translated by Margaret Mitsutani takes place in the not-too-distant future: Japan, having vanished from the face of the earth, is now remembered as "the land of sushi." Hiruko, its former citizen and a climate refugee herself, has a job teaching immigrant children in Denmark with her invented language Panska (Pan-Scandinavian): "homemade language. no country to stay in. three countries I experienced. insufficient space in brain. so made new language. homemade language."Minor Detail by Adania Shibli and translated by Elisabeth Jaquette begins during the summer of 1949, one year after the war that the Palestinians mourn as the Nakba—the catastrophe that led to the displacement and exile of some 700,000 people—and the Israelis celebrate as the War of Independence. Israeli soldiers murder an encampment of Bedouin in the Negev desert, and among their victims they capture a Palestinian teenager and they rape her, kill her, and bury her in the sand.
Many years later, in the near-present day, a young woman in Ramallah tries to uncover some of the details surrounding this particular rape and murder, and becomes fascinated to the point of obsession, not only because of the nature of the crime, but because it was committed exactly twenty-five years to the day before she was born. Adania Shibli masterfully overlays these two translucent narratives of exactly the same length to evoke a present forever haunted by the past.
You can find Redbud’s growing collection of curated book lists on their Bookshop page.
How did this project come together?
When a generous member of Bloomington Cooperative Living purchased the Kirkwood Avenue building which now houses Redbud, a question arose. What could be done with the nonresidential space? After much imagination and deliberation, the answer was clear: a bookstore and community gathering place.
“Redbud relies on and is emerging thanks to its relationships with a series of other community organizations,” Seigel said.
Those involved in the earliest conversations reached out to others in their networks — those they’d met through working at past bookstores and IU, through involvement with Midwest Pages to Prisoners, and through a host of other local initiatives. Together, they established Redbud as a project of the Center for Sustainable Living, which also supports the Bloomington Community Bike Project, BloomingVeg, The Overlook, and others.
The Redbud Books space, at 408 W Kirkwood Ave. in Bloomington, has undergone a transformation since June 2023, when this photo was taken.
“One thing that makes Redbud unique is our model of collective management,” said Nelson, who has also stepped into the role of store manager. “We plan to be entirely community and volunteer run, which means that anyone who wants to get involved can have a hand in shaping this project.”
Volunteer curators have selected books, and the collections team has begun ordering stock to fill the space’s recently installed shelves. Jeshurun Construction, which is led by Max Smith and employs formerly incarcerated individuals, has completed the bulk of renovations.
“There were many bookstores, not just across the country but across the world that have been very inspiring to us,” said collective member Hannah Airiess, an IU assistant professor who specializes in Japanese film and literature. “I know Eva, one of our collective members, was traveling around during the summer, going to various bookstores. And indeed, we’ve been thinking about the models that we want to be in community with.”
Attendees of Redbud's December fundraising event chat between readings from curators.
Collective members Cole Nelson and nicholae cline table for Redbud outside the Bloomington Community Bike Project.
Throughout the fall, Redbud tabled at events like a community trick or treat and the Bloomington Handmade Market. In early December, collective members hosted an open house in their partially finished space, featuring readings from curators, information about how the bookstore will operate, and a call for support.
“We’ve already felt a resounding response from the community, which tells us this project seems to be meeting a deep need,” nicholae cline, an IU associate librarian and coordinator of collections for Redbud, shared. “In a moment of book banning and social discord, people are longing for spaces like these. Our goal is to connect people and facilitate access to resources that encourage care, critical thinking, and community. This means thoughtfully developing collections as well as cultivating a space in which we can think, struggle, build relationships, and be in solidarity together.”
While Redbud Books hosts pre-opening events, collective members are waiting to set an official open date as they complete their current stage of fundraising. They hope to raise an additional $15,000 through direct donations, small grants, and fundraising events. These funds will help with the purchase of inventory and furniture to complete the space.
Left: The in-progress Redbud space includes a cozy children's corner and freshly painted bookshelves. Top right: Abundia Alvarado, a Nahuatl and Apache trans femme migrant and longtime community organizer, discusses food justice, queerness, indigineity, and relationship with land. This January 13 talk, supported by the Bloomington chapter of the Weelaunee Defense Society, was among Redbud's pre-opening events. Bottom right: Early in Redbud planning, collective members brainstorm sections they want to see in the bookstore.
How can you support Redbud?
Want to help Redbud Books get off the ground? Redbud Collective members are currently crowdfunding through Gofundme. You can also donate directly through the Center for Sustainable Living PayPal. All donations are tax deductible.
Are you a faculty member who receives book purchasing credits for reviewing manuscripts for scholarly presses? You can become a faculty Red-Buddy by donating your book credits to Redbud’s ordering team. Those interested in joining the Faculty Red-Buddy Program can use this form.
Want to be part of the Redbud team? In the coming months, there will be abundant opportunities to volunteer time and expertise to the bookstore.
Interested in patronizing the bookstore or attending an event? To learn more about Redbud, including more details about upcoming events and opening dates, you can check out their pages on Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter).
Hannah Airriess and Andrés Guzmán, professors in the IU departments of East Asian Languages and Cultures and Spanish and Portuguese respectively, chat before a Redbud fundraising event. During the event, Guzmán shared some of the works he has curated for the bookstore.
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