Bluestockings ImageNew York, N.Y. – On Saturday, June 17th, six independent bookstores on Manhattan’s Lower East Side will celebrate the diversity and resilience of the neighborhood’s indie bookshops by offering discounts, special giveaways, and curated selections of queer books. This is the fourth Lower East Side book crawl to take place (previously, Halloween 2021 & 2022 and Pride 2022).

After the success of last year, the crawl returns to the LES on Saturday, June 17th. This year it will feature many of the original shops, as well as new additions book lovers may not have explored yet. The Crawl was launched by Bluestockings Cooperative, a queer feminist bookstore that boasts 23 years on the Lower East Side. Joining Bluestockings will be neighborhood favorites: Book Club Bar, a cozy bookshop also offering wine and beer; Sweet Pickle Books, a wonderfully quirky shop that honors the neighborhood’s history of pickling by selling pickles in addition to used books; Yu and Me Books, the first female Asian-American owned bookstore in NYC located in Manhattan’s Chinatown; Printed Matter/St. Mark’s, a mainstay in the neighborhood offering a wide selection of art books; and P&T Knitwear, a bookstore and podcast studio that opened just last year.

Each bookstore will offer discounts and perks (such as free merchandise and free snacks) throughout the day. Visitors can go to the bookstores in any order between the hours of 12:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.; no reservations required. Visitors of all ages are welcome to join (although there are no specific activities planned for kids).

Bluestockings Cooperative is one of the oldest feminist bookstores in the country, and is proudly of multi hyphenate ownership (queer, trans, sex worker, disabled Black and women owned). Bluestockings curates books about intersectional feminism and collective liberation, as well as offers community space and mutual aid like harm reduction training and a free store.

You can find out more about Bluestockings and the LES Book Crawl by contacting 917-409-0440, Katie@bluestockings.com, or via instagram @bluestockingsnyc and twitter @bluestockings. The full list of participating stores and addresses are below.

The crawl officially starts at 12:00 p.m. and ends at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 17th.

Bluestockings Cooperative Bookstore: 116 Suffolk St. katie@bluestockings.com

Book Club Bar: 197 E 3rd St. nat@bookclubbar.com, erin@bookclubbar.com

Sweet Pickle Books: 47 Orchard St. halfsour@sweetpicklebooks.com

Yu & Me Books: 44 Mulberry St. info@yuandmebooks.com

Printed Matter/St. Marks: 38 Saint Marks Pl. emmett@printedmatter.org

P&T Knitwear: 180 Orchard St. joe@ptknitwear.com

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Contact:

Merlin Sabal

merlin@bluestockings.com