Thursday, June 6, 2019

GIOVANNI'S ROOM


With down town swelling already with hustle and bustle with out of towners in for gay Pride, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my favorite place to hang out and get my literature. If your in from out of town, one must stop by Giovanni's Room. Friends will tell you, I am by no means a big box, or on line shopper, and like to support local shops first.  Giovanni's Room is located on the corner of 12th and Pine Street in Philadelphia's gayborhood. The main building was built in 1820.  The longest owner Ed Hermance who retired, scared everyone here as to what may happen to it when he announced a couple years back he was retiring, but the Philly Aids Thrift bought it thankfully.



 The history of the place started with Tom Weinberg, Dan Sherbo and Bern Boylethe who opened Giovanni's Room in 1973 on South Street. The store was closed shortly afterward due to a homophobic landlord. Ed  Hermance and Arleen Oshan then stepped in and paid $500 for the business in 1976. The store then moved to 12th and Pine,  but was again eventually forced by the landlord to close. It was able to gather support from the gay and lesbian community and eventually reopened and stayed opened.  The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission unveiled a marker on October 15, 2011, to commemorate the location of Giovanni’s Room, as it is the country's first, and oldest LGBT bookstore. 
This gave me a chuckle

Owner Ed Hermance closed the doors on the historic bookstore back in 2015 due to the financial burden. Hermance  said he had lost between $10,000-$15,000 in order to keep the bookstore open, competeing with online and big book sellers. Giovanni's Room, named after James Baldwin's novel, served as a refuge and cultural center at the onset of the modern lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights movement, and gave us a safe place to read and view LGBTmaterial and a place to relax in peace. The store provided resources to those working to gain legal rights for LGBT people, and sells everything from records and cd, coffee table books, fiction, non fiction, cards and gifts, mostly all by LGBT artist and authors.  Philly AIDS Thrift bought it from a retiring Ed  and is entering its fourth year, and contributes $20,000 a month to the AIDS Fund.  They have done a great job bussiness wise, and always said they wanted to preserve the historic role of Giovanni's Room as the nation's oldest LGBT bookstore, and they agreed with Ed to maintain $15,000 in new inventory, at all times, of the most important back-stock books and new LGBT titles as they are released.

Some of my last purhases....

Less has been a very entertain g read thus far...
A safe space in the city for over 40 plus years! It's awesome Philly Aids Thrift is preserving and continuing to grow a valuable site for the LGBT community. An institution really. I still get lost in there every time I down in the city. Plus one can still run into some hot literary nerds. I like hot literary nerds. I and one got into a conversation over a book, which lead to other conversations, and after an hour and half, we went to futher talk over drinks, which then lead to sex in his apartment where to date, I think I had one of the best ever blow jobs of my life. But you don't what to hear that story.

31 comments:

  1. Love this post, Mistress! LGBTQ+ and feminist bookstores were an important part of my coming out process and they proliferated in those days. Every time I went to a city, the first thing I'd check out would be their local queer and/or women's bookstore. Now they are virtually all gone, alas. So glad to see that Giovanni's Room is being preserved and actually still selling books! I'd love to go there and browse around.

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    1. Thanks Debs for your comment, it means a lot. Like you, I was the same. When in Philly I would always check out Giovanni's Room, or in Baltimore, the Lambada. And the same in Nyc. It's where I got most of my gay history and learned to navigate my gay travel. It was safe, and one could see and meet like minded people. They were and still are invaluable to many in my opinion. And their feminists section is quite huge.

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  2. Loves, loves, loves bookstores!

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  3. I can remember when they closed and we thought for maybe good. I went the last day, bought I don't know how many books and left thinking it would be my last time. Once out the door, across the street from the bookstore, two men kissed. It was one of those moments. I for one only buy books there and so glad they are always busy. Great post.

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  4. Love this place. When my gay peeps and I go, we never left Giovanni's Room without something new and exciting in our hands.

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    1. apparently, neither has the mistress!!!!!!

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  5. I just purchased 2 books! "carsick" by john waters, and "legendary locals of center city philadelphia" by thom nickels. I own a couple other thom nickels books; I even met him once at a book signing!

    my fave yarn shop is "loop" at 19th & south; gay owned and so many fab yarns from which to choose! it's like being in a candy store!

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  6. Love, love, love!
    We should visit more lgbtq bookstores! Amazon and Etsy have all but killed them.
    I wanna read The Ethical Slit, btw.

    Xo

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    1. It is an interesting book Sixpense. IT was the first I read when I bought this bunch. The book explores how to live an active life with multiple concurrent sexual relationships in a fair and honest way. Discussion topics include how to deal with the practical difficulties and opportunities in finding and keeping partners, maintaining relationships with others, and wyas for personal growth.
      It contains chapters discussing how consensual non-monogamy is handled in different subcultures such as the gay and lesbian communities, jealousy, communication, conflict in relationships, and etiquette for group sexual encounters.

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  7. There are times when I feel like such a rube, and this is one of them.

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    1. We can start you off with the beaver book dear.

      They have everything here Duchess, not just the books I bought. I'm sure their are many books that would peek your interests.

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    2. It shocked me to see the Lazy Beaver here. How on earth did you find my unauthorized biography? I thought I shut those folks down! Anyway, I get most of my books online now. You'd need Sherlock Holmes to find any kind of bookstore around these parts now. For the volumes that I read, I'd have to live in a library to keep them all. My popcorn reading are e-books. My biographies are hard cover. I used to visit bookstores quite regularly and I miss it.

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  8. I'm delighted that a way has been found to keep this place open, and that the profits are going to such a good cause. A win win!

    Now who says we don't want to hear the other story????

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  9. Nice that it's open later in the day for those working folks. You walk in and it just feels so welcoming. It's like hanging out in a friend's house! Prices were reasonable. A friend of mine is a big vinyl collector, so I'm bringing her here to check out the selection of records when she comes this weekend.

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  10. "I think I had one of the best ever blow jobs of my life." No wonder you have such fond memories of this place.

    I was there once. Glad to hear it's still there.

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  11. I miss book stores. When we moved here from Baltimore we missed the only LBGT book store in the city when it closed, then we move here and find this little gem. Cute and Cozy and the staff could not be nicer. We definitely made this our little book nook away from home. It's just nice to see, touch and smell books.

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    1. and btw, the story is sexy and hot at the end.

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  12. I love a bookstore, and an LGBTQ bookstore is a best pick always. I supported them in every place, from Sacramento to San Francisco to Miami, and even here in Smallville, where our local bookstore has a nice LGBTQ section., I have ever lived and will continue as long as they do.

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  13. When I heard Giovanni's Room would stay open I was happy Why, you may ask - well, losing an LGBTQ bookstore loses physical spaces for the world of introverts to meet, discover, and come across new things. It's an important space for meetings, for communication, and for life. I was there once years ago on a visit to philly.

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  14. A heart warming end. There is more to this then just preserving some of your community. It's like cell phones and computers. When shopping online, it's just one more way to not leave the house, and have inter action. When places like this close, it's takes one more place to be social and get good service.

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  15. When it was rumored to have been closing last year, I really felt sad. that place has been a comforting destination for me over the years since coming out in 1995. I would visit and hang out and feel safe and happy to be around other people that were just like me. They always had a great selection of books, but now with Philly AIDS Thrift, you have books and a whole lot more.

    And even though your one memory is racy...it's a fond memory I'm sure!!!

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  16. Great place, and a great ending to the post!

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  17. I am just pontificating as to how to recreate that light fitting...
    Sx

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    1. I love that lighting fixture, and always have.

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  18. I miss real local bookstores. Stay ethical!

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  19. You're a reader. I should've known. Bravo! for supporting local, too. You know books are a "thing" for me. Though I do spend in big box and on-line - books are like the Siren Song for me. I have shelves and shelves and shelves of them, and many more on ebook. (I am also a closet writer - but, I'll bet YOU knew THAT about me. :-D ) Have a marvelous weekend. Extra hugs!

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  20. I would love to go there. More to the point, I would love to have something of mine SOLD there.

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  21. Everyone should have a safe place to go to if they need it.
    I wish with all my heart that people would just live and let live. Xx

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  22. Anonymous6/08/2019

    Am I going to have to go to buy your book there to hear the details of the blow job? :-)

    What a wonderful legacy. Glad the store continues to thrive.

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  23. Oh how I love that kind of bookstore! So, things are "swelling" in Philly?

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Go ahead darling, tell me something fabulous!