A Google Maps screenshot of the Brooklyn bookstore, Taylor and Co. Books, storefront in March 2023 when it opened.
The brand new native bookstore in Brooklyn, Taylor and Co. Books, owned by Andrew Colarusso, is celebrating its one-year anniversary this month.
As he was placing collectively the marketing strategy, he was involved that no person would come into the bookstore.
“I’m extraordinarily happy with the bookstore and the affect it’s had in its first yr. It’s been exceptional. Group help has been extra beneficiant and loving than I ever imagined,” he stated.
Colarusso grew up within the Brooklyn neighborhood of Ditmas Park. One thing stunning about him and his household is that aside from books, they love motion pictures.
“My dad has a close to encyclopedic data of actors, movies, and administrators — and it’s a ardour (and pleasure) all of us appear to share. We’re a really literary household (we love books) — however we’re not-so-secret movie nerds too,” stated Colarusso.
For Colarusso, the largest affect on him has been his mom, Nancy Sanchez-Taylor. She is among the many first group of younger girls to go to Stuyvesant Excessive Faculty (after they grew to become co-ed).
“She has inspired me each step of the best way. She is an effortlessly good girl who isn’t afraid to roll up her sleeves and do the arduous work, however she can also be a dreamer and a crafter. She has all the time beloved artwork and making issues and this particular present she handed alongside to her youngsters,” he added.
Colarusso’s mom is Puerto Rican and he grew up “the place the nuances of anglophone patois, Caribbean Spanish, and Haitian Kreyol weren’t misplaced on me,” he said.
Colarusso believes the bookstore’s largest success is each new day. “Each new day brings a brand new alternative to witness magnificence, to share and be variety, to behave on behalf of and in protection of others who’re in want.”
He loves all of the occasions hosted there, as a lot as these invited to learn or carry out at them. “I particularly take pleasure in our birdwalks. On our birdwalks, I get to observe alongside and benefit from the journey (as an novice birdwatcher),” he said.
On this first yr of operating the bookstore, a few of Colarusso’s favourite moments had been when folks met at occasions, discovering issues in frequent with one another.
“Some new friendships have developed right here. And a few previous connections have blossomed once more, not realizing they’d encounter the opposite in our small and serendipitous house,” he continued.
In keeping with Colarusso, the quick time period objective for the bookstore is to remain in enterprise and keep away from debt, whereas the long run objective is to provide again to the group that raised him.
He sees ebook bans, which have been taking place extra typically now, as terrifying, however not unprecedented. “Our neighborhood is fairly left-leaning. Our neighborhood can also be exceptionally literate and cares.”
He additionally emphasised: “However we’re not resistant to the concern these ebook bans appear to originate in — and if we’re not energetic in pushing again in opposition to them, we’ll be elevating (and coping with) a technology of younger individuals who haven’t been uncovered to vital texts, classes, concepts. That doesn’t bode effectively for a planet already in peril,” he added.
Colarusso stated concerning the bookstore, those that know, know, and people who don’t, don’t must. “All are welcome right here, and naturally I need folks to purchase all our books and are available to all of our readings and throw all of the {dollars} our manner. However that’s actually not what that is about. What we provide is a 3rd house, away from residence and work, the place folks can share, uncover (themselves and others), and stay in dialogue,” he said.
The bookstore has many extra readings and occasions. Colarusso needs to attach with extra colleges, academics, and native companies, comparable to Ms. Carmen Sinclair’s Creations Hair Salon at 370 E seventeenth St.
“When communication dies, so do the most effective components of humanity. So come to the shop, choose up a ebook (or not), and say hello. We’d love to fulfill you.”
As an proprietor, Colarusso “would really like the store to be a sustainable supply for books, group, and connection.”
“The great thing about residence, conceptually, isn’t essentially that you’ve a number of throughout the globe. Relatively, the idea of residence for me is one in all roots and rootedness. I’ve felt rootless for a really very long time and I’d like Taylor & Co. to be my root, my residence — and a house that the group additionally feels, palpably, is a house away from residence,” Colarusso added.
These keen on staying up to date can observe the bookstore on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taylorcobooks and for individuals who need to help the bookstore, they will buy books in particular person at 1021 Cortelyou Rd. Books may also be bought on-line by visiting: https://bookshop.org/shop/taylorcobooks.
These also can help Taylor and Co. Books by making a donation to its present fundraiser, in honor of its one-year anniversary, right here: https://fundly.com/taylor-co-here-to-stay#home
