843 Upshur Street NW
From Loyalty Books:
“Friends! Our time in the wonderful space at 843 Upshur St NW is coming to an end and it is time for the next chapter. Our lease is up this February and after talking through options with our landlord and partners, we came to the conclusion that we would need to make a change. Our move is motivated both due to operating costs in the current location and what kind of work we want and need to do in order to get to our next milestone anniversary with our community. So! Our last full day of operations at 843 Upshur St NW will be Sunday, February 2nd! We’ll be posting updates here as we release the new location. Rest assured we are not only staying in Petworth, we’re staying *quite* close by. We’re so honored to be part of this community of neighbors and our fellow small businesses. We’re building something very special on these blocks as a community and we’re not done yet! But let’s be real, the challenges of the past few years have been rough all of us and an small business focused on intersectionality is not a lot of folk’s favorite. We’ve been a major target for hate groups and lost a lot of business do to actually sticking to the belief’s that so many pledged to uphold in 2020 (le sigh). But what has kept us going is every single person finding the perfect gift, a read when they are sad, a place to walk to on a break from work, knowing they were safe in our space after the election, and every author event watching people’s dreams come true. We’re so proud of what we have made together and have realized that while expanding into 843 in 2021 made sense at the time, we have always thrived best when doing *exactly* what we want to do in our way. This next move will allow us to do that, stay agile for the coming trials of the Tr*mp admin, and continue to build up our community celebrating the full breadth and depth of our stories.
When are you moving?
We’re going to have a moving party and have the bookstore “cross the road” on February 5th! Stay tuned for details on how to join in! We’ll be having a good old time and, as always, there will be treats!
When will you reopen?
We hope to reopen quickly in February. We may operate at first with limited hours at first to get things rolling in the space and because the biggest bookselling conference that happens every year (yes it is as nerdy as you imagine) is happening in February! We hope to be fully operational in the new space and celebrating by the first weekend in March!
But will there be a party?
Obviously. Who do you think we are? Details TBD and the question is should there be Loyalty bingo?
You said things are rough… more details?
We spent the last two years in the defensive position as our store has been the target of multiple hate groups in person and online with threats of violence, doxing, and intimidation. Our continued support for ceasefire in Gaza, our vocal efforts to increase representation in the industry for our own Queer, Black, brown, Asian, disabled, or othered community, and our Drag Story Hours have made us continually and majorly suppressed on social media. We have lost many institutional orders which small bookshops use to help the razor thin margins we live on, sometimes outright due to those reasons and sometimes because “DEI is no longer a priority”. *coughbullshitcough*. And, of course, our Silver Spring location in partnership with Bump & Grind has had an almost year delay in it’s remodel due to permitting issues and new legislation in Montgomery County. It is finally happening this month! But even the long “worst case scenario” plans we made were truly not worst case enough, it seems. Oh yeah, and the crisis of the book industry never recalibrating after the pandemic and the continued delays and trials in getting steady inventory. So, yeah, a *rough* couple years. As we look to being once again invaded by the orange man’s administration and cronies, the threat to our hard won home rule in DC, and the fact that a significant portion of our inventory is already banned and challenged books, we know we have to make choices. We need to be prepared for these hits to come and remain focused on the good work of good books that is loved by our community.
Who is going to be in the space you are in now?
This is what is awesome. We’ve have a great time working collaboratively with the fellow small businesses on the block, and we’re not the only ones recalibrating. More announcements to come, but we’re so proud that Fia’s Fabulous Finds will be expanding into our current location this March! Fia’s details and announcements will be coming soon, but we’re so happy that Black woman owned retail will continue in this space.
What is the new space like?
Much like our original space in 2019 this is a small storefront with a lot of personality! We’ll be doing most of our events at the Walter Reed space which is fantastically set up for book clubs and author talks bars and event spaces on the block We will are also excited to continue in partnership with DC Public library branches, Jackie Lee’s, and Red Derby. “
This post was originally published on here
