To survive, the feminist bookstore A Book and a Cup of Tea needs you

Behind its teal storefront and large glass windows, Un Livre et une Tasse de Thé is a unique bookstore. Opened in autumn 2020 on rue Boulanger, a stone’s throw from the Place de la République, it has acquired, in less than three years, the reputation of small feminist and welcoming enclaveA safe space where you can sip a homemade golden latte before pampering yourself Old girl by Marie Kock or the late Pierre Lemaître.

Designed as a neighborhood bookshop, socially-minded bookshop and café, this lively place was designed by Juliette Debrix and Annabelle Chauvet. Longtime friends, the two young women imagined this project together. “We thought of it as a place that brings together what drives us in life, Annabelle explains: La literature, but also the political commitment. And because we are greedy! We wanted to create a living space, a space for meeting and exchanging ideas. We wondered how to make the bookshop not just a place of passage, a meeting place. »

But today this unique bookstore in Paris is under threat. Hence the launch, this Monday 5 June, of a crowdfunding campaign to guarantee the future of the bookstore.

A welcoming and busy place

Because A Book and a Cup of Tea was not born in an easy context. The bookstore opened in November 2020. “Exactly on the day of the second birth”, specifies Juliette Debrix. While feminist works occupy an important place on the shelves, the two booksellers have also given pride of place to non-militant works. An alleged bias, for attracting both assertive feminists and a neighborhood clienteleperhaps more used to buying a thriller than an essay on ecofeminism. “There are people who only come to the tea room, who only look at the covers or come to buy the latest Virginie Grimaldi, and that’s okay too”assures Annabelle Chauvet.

However, there is no doubt that the two co-managers deviate from their editorial line. Whether it’s novels, essays, children’s books or comics, books pass the filter “feminist, leftist” two young women, very attentive to the books they have on the shelves. “We are identified as feminists by our clientele. People also come for our selection. »

And what a selection! Since its opening, A Book and a Cup of Tea has been welcoming dozens of meetings with the authorsorganize writing workshopsfrom the pop culture nights monthly with author Jennifer Padjemi and PhD in film studies Célia Sauvage, a feminist book club… “Our goal is to create emulation of ideas, to create space between movements of thought, between different audiences”develops Annabelle Chauvet, who also underlines the key role of bookshops in the “support for committed literature”, “to independent authors and publishers who have the audacity to propose new texts”.

“The third axis that we are developing more and more is marital work, complete Juliette Debrix. We see feminist thoughts, and more generally of the counterculture, disappearing faster. So we want to keep them, so they don’t disappear. » After having paid homage to the Italian feminist Carla Lonzi in March, the bookshop is organized in early July an evening with the American essayist Gloria Steinem.

A future in danger

That’s the whole paradox. While A Book is a Cup of Tea has managed, in two and a half years of existence, to unite a loyal clientele, the library is threatened. “We are achieving financial equilibrium for this fiscal year, which is quite encouraging. We have doubled the turnover of the former owners., welcome the two founders. But the Covid period, during which the restaurant opened, jeopardizes its future. “We started with very little money at the beginning. We figured we’d be able to bring the library to life pretty quickly. It turns out that with the subsequent lockdowns, the tearoom was unable to open for nearly a year. Our entire economy has been somewhat shaken by it. We have accumulated debts during this time. »

These debts are not due so much to the absence of customers, but rather to certain suppliers, reluctant to be kind to a small bookstore. “The one asking us for the most money is the Hachette group, owned by Bolloré, observes Juliette Debrix. We have no room for manoeuvre, no room for negotiation, and it is with them that we have the smallest discounts, the least flexibility, the least risk-taking… We get crushed. »

A joyful and militant fundraising campaign

To survive and offer a selection that is both feminist and mainstream, A Book and a Cup of Tea now needs its readers. Goal of the two co-managers: raise at least 80,000 euros to pay off the bookshop’s debts and raise salaries to adjust for inflation – in addition to the two of them, they employ a full-time bookseller and an apprentice bookseller and a part-time communications officer. Raising such a sum would also allow them to continue to develop. “We have many ideas, like redesigning our failing site, inviting foreign authors to the bookstore, producing a festival, implementing an archiving of feminist struggles…”write the two co-managers of A Book and a Cup of Tea on their KissKissBankBank page.

In exchange for their financial boost, readers will receive prizesand can also hope to win at auction precious and exclusive “donations” of 18 activist personalities. “Nice surprises”promises Annabelle Chauvet, such as the illustrations of Pénélope Bagieu, podcast workshops, writing workshops… “There is this urgency and this seriousness to save the bookstore which is a political place, but we would like it to be joyful. For this there will also be an evening organized at the end of June, with musical artists who will offer us their time and their talent. »

To help A Book and a Cup of Tea, and thereby support an engaged, independent, feminist bookstore, their KissKissBankBank campaign is here.

You can also order many books from them (feminist and otherwise) and thus ensure the sustainability of their business. It is less and less given to Amazon…

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