Bluestockings

One has to look harder these days to find places like this. The edges of the city have found the few remaining nooks and crannies in areas with quasi-affordable rents. This strip of Allen Street on the lower east side has a handful of countercultural and vegan establishments including Bluestockings, which was opened in 1999 by Kathryn Welsh as a bookstore by and for women. Their website and my visit there does appear to indicate that the original concept has been expanded with a broader range of subjects and activities (including readings): "Bluestockings is a radical bookstore, fair trade cafe, and activist center in the Lower East Side of Manhattan." Click here for their mission statement and website. The term bluestocking itself is fascinating, hearkening back to the 18th century British bluestockings, a women's literary movement which found its origins in the French literary salon movement. The term became used in a pejorative way to describe a literary or intellectual woman ...