Lucy Parsons Center

The Lucy Parsons Center, located in Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts, is an anarchist, nonprofit independent bookstore and community center. Formed out of the Red Word bookstore, it is collectively run by volunteers. The Center provides reading material, space for individuals to drop in, and a free space for meetings and events.

The Lucy Parsons Center's previous location, in 2007.

History

The Lucy Parsons Center was founded on July 1, 1992 at Jamaica Plain, Boston. In 1994 it moved to Central Square, Cambridge, then when it was evicted in 1998, it moved to Davis Square, Somerville.[1] Davis Square was a temporary location and with sales suffering, the center was flooded and had to make an appeal for support.[2] In 1999, the project moved to the South End of Boston and finally moved back to Jamaica Plain in 2011.[3]

The center's namesake, Lucy Parsons, was a radical labor organizer and anarchocommunist in Chicago from the 1880s onwards. She is remembered as a powerful orator.[4] It was a reformulation of the Red Book Store, which was set up in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1969.[1] One of the original founders was professor and activist George Katsiaficas.[5] Initially Maoist, the bookshop is now run by an anarchist collective.

By the mid 1990s, the center was part of an established network of North American infoshops which included Long Haul in Berkeley, A-Space in Philadelphia and Who's Emma in Toronto.[6]

Activities

When it was rebirthed in 1992, the center became a nonprofit organization with a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.[1] The volunteer-run bookshop sells books, pamphlets and zines. One of the most popular books is A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn.[3] Apart from the bookstore, the Lucy Parsons Center serves as a space for community organizers to use for meetings and special events. It also hosts a weekly movie night.[7]

Inside the Lucy Parsons Center's Previous Location in Back Bay

See also

References
  1. Bekken, Jon; Herod, James; Gynn, Betsy. "An Early History Of The Lucy Parsons Center". lucyparsons.org. Archived from the original on 23 March 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  2. "Lucy Parsons Center: Please help". Slingshot (62). Archived from the original on 27 July 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  3. Jobson, C. Shardae (7 August 2017). "The Lucy Parsons Center, Where Boston's Radicals Shop For Books". WBUR. Archived from the original on 1 October 2018. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  4. Carolyn, Ashbaugh (2011). Lucy Parsons: American Revolutionary. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
  5. Sims, Anna (22 February 2019). "The Rise of Socialism in Boston". Archived from the original on 23 February 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  6. Dodge, Chris (1998). "Street Libraries: Infoshops and Alternative Reading Rooms". Utne Reader. Archived from the original on 2009. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  7. "Lucy Parsons Center Radical Bookstore and Community Space". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
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