Grolier Poetry Bookshop

ART without Borders is proud to collaborate with Nigerian poet Ifeanyi Menkiti, owner of Grolier Poetry Bookshop.

The Grolier Poetry Bookshop ("Grolier's") is an independent bookstore on Plympton Street near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Although founded as a "fine-arts" bookstore, its focus today is solely poetry. A small (404 sq ft.), one-room store with towering bookcases, it lays claim to being the "oldest continuous bookshop" devoted solely to the sale of poetry and poetry criticism.

Over the years, Grolier's became a focus of poetic activity in the Cambridge area, which itself had, because of the influence of Harvard University, become a magnet for American poets. Grolier's became a point of call for visiting poets as well as a nexus of gossip, rumor and networking in the poetry community. Poets such as Donald Hall, Robert Creeley, Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, and Robert Bly were regulars at the store during their time as undergraduates at Harvard; the poet Conrad Aiken lived upstairs from the store in its early days. Numerous other poets, including T. S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, E. E. Cummings and, later, David Ferry and Adrienne Rich, have also been noted as store regulars.

It was founded in 1927 by Adrian Gambet and Gordon Cairnie; the subsequent owner, Louisa Solano, a 1966 graduate of Boston University, took over operation of the store in 1974 after Cairnie's death. The original owners were independently wealthy and were able to run the business at a loss, giving away books to favoured customers without charge, falling behind with bills and turning a blind eye to theft. Much of the activity at Grolier's under Cairnie's management was of the social kind: visitors lounged on a red couch while sharing drinks with the owners.


In March 2006, the store was officially sold, to Nigerian poet Ifeanyi Menkiti, a professor at Wellesley College; the official reason for the sale given by Publishers Weekly was Solano's ill-health. Menkiti plans to maintain the store's poetry-only focus while broadening its coverage of overseas poets.

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The ART Without Borders members believe that art, through its commitment and interrogation, is one of the most direct avenues for people to use to better understand each other, respect each other's values, and promote peace. Art makes the community and the world a better place in which to live. Behind the pure esthetic, the ART Without Borders members believe that artists help individuals to have the freedom and ability to make meaning, formulate ideas, ask hard questions and imagine promising alternatives for the world and ourselves.

This is why artists are such an important part of any society, but also why they are among the first ones to be the victims of human rights violation or deprivation.

ART Without Borders (ARTwb) wants to participate in the building of a much better world through its programs, and advocate for the artist's human rights in the world. ART Without Borders is a non-profit organization 501(c) (3), incorporated in April 2006, which supports the cause of artists' human rights in America and in the world.