Is It Crazy to Open a Bookstore in Brooklyn Now?
What are some misconceptions people have about poetry?
We’re certain there are misconceptions people have, generally speaking, but our customers tend to be smart curious types and are pretty open. When most people see we’re a poetry shop, I think they’re interested because maybe they had an unforgettable teacher who was also a poet, or a college roommate, a friend from high school. People always surprise us by knowing about books we think of as obscure or just off the presses. Dan Boehl’s book Kings of the Fucking Sea was barely out on the local small press Birds LLC when a customer asked us for it based on a coworker’s rave recommendation. We heard later that his book title inspired a band to name themselves after it, and then they all went on tour together.
What are the best ways to win people over to poetry who might be predisposed against it?
We’ve found that most people don’t realize there are so many different kinds of poetry out there. So we usually try to find out things people like—music, movies, and other writers and books—and go from there. With poetry, there is always something that will appeal to everyone.
Some people who have a hard time with the frayed connections and seeming non sequiturs in a poem are already pretty comfortable with a weird or abstract work of art, or a music video, or a piece of performance art. Encouraging people to experience a poem like that can help.
Do you guys live in Brooklyn?
We do! We moved to Brooklyn before we knew each other; Farrah overlooked the Prospect Expressway in Kensington, and Jared slept in a tiny bedroom over the Waterfalls Café on Atlantic Avenue. Once, before we officially met, we both signed up for horseback riding lessons in the stables at Prospect Park and are pretty sure we passed each other without realizing.
We’ve now lived in DUMBO for 12 years. In the early days you had to walk across an abandoned lot to get to the A train. Everything has changed—except the cat living at Peas and Pickles. We love to be opening a bookstore in a neighborhood with four other very different but inviting places for book browsing, from the glossy hardcover photo spreads at powerHouse Arena to the dog-eared sci-fi at Singularity & Co. Brooklyn in general has such a phenomenal poetic/literary history, from Marianne Moore to George Oppen, Hart Crane, and of course Walt Whitman. We are so thrilled to be becoming a part of it.
Follow Henry Stewart on Twitter @henrycstewart