Help Save Avantpop Bookstore

Avantpop Bookstore was created from the hearts of Sugar and Shwa Laytart, and cultivated with the love of the community. We really don’t like to share how much of a struggle it has been, but since we are near the end, we truly need to ask for your help to save Avantpop Bookstore.

Since opening Avantpop Bookstore in June 2022, we have struggled to keep our doors open. One week before we opened, the owner of the building passed away. It was his dream to have a cool bookstore in New Orleans Square (NOS) and did a lot to support the local arts and local businesses. We were honored to fulfill one of his last wishes. However, for the last two and a half years, we have been begging the new landlords to fill the empty units around us and bring in more retail businesses to increase customer traffic, but instead of moving new shops in, stores have constantly been moving out. Now, Avantpop Bookstore is one of the few remaining shops, and by the end of the year, a handful of our neighbors are also closing down. For over a year now, NOS has been a retail graveyard.

We invested everything into keeping Avantpop Bookstore alive, from our own money and time, to not taking a salary, investing in local artists and writers, and hosting SO MANY events to bring people out to the store and cultivate community—even with this, it has left us in complete debt.

In early 2024, Clark County purchased the building and told us there would be relocation money and “no evictions for non-payment of rent” because of a recent report stating the building is uninhabitable, and because of the struggle the tenants have been through since the owner’s death in 2022.

We have been using that money to pay down our debt that we accrued from opening our bookstore in what we were told would be the 'New Arts District'. This, however, never manifested.

Our plan is to stay open until the end of the year, but we need all the help we can get... This has been a huge financial loss for us.

HELP SAVE AVANTPOP BOOKSTORE

Our goal is to raise $35,000 to help with:

For us, the best part has been the community that we have built, the artists we have published, and all the amazing friends we have made since opening our brick-and-mortar shop.

We would love nothing more than to reopen in a new location.

With the help of our community and reading freaks everywhere, we might be able to do that. If you have possible opportunities to support the future of Avantpop Bookstore, please reach out. All ideas and connections are welcome. Thank you to those who have reached out so far. It gives us hope for the next evolution of Avantpop.

We will continue to publish, host events, attend expos, and do book restoration. So please stay connected! We appreciate you. Thanks again for showing love for what we do and for being a part of the Avantpop community.

Here's to the next chapter!

Sugar and Shwa

avantpopbooks.com

Avantpop Bookstore by the numbers

In the past 2.5 years...

2022 Events

The Royal Hawaiian Meet & Greet

Book Signing: Dani King “The Last Nurse”

Avantpop Early Access VIP Book Buying Event

Pre-launch Preorder: Party Myisha T Hill “Heal Your Way Forward”

A Gathering of Earthseed Discussion

Avantpop Publishing Book Release Party: "Eggwalking" by No Body Panic, and "Reflections From The Haze" by Garrett James Dylan & Seth Singer

Avantpop Early Access VIP Book Night

Indigenous Peoples Day Event with Fifth Sun Project

Avantpop Early Access VIP Book Night

Avantpop Early Access VIP Book Night

Avantpop Early Access VIP Book Night

Six Month Anniversary Party!

Book Signing: “Anything But Nirvana” by Eric Gladstone

2023 Events

Intimate Evening of Poetry Season 1 (3 nights)

Book Signing: “Rocktails” by Staci Layne Wilson

Zine Release Party: Antholozine and Just Landed!

The Church of John Waters Book Club (3 events)

Poetry Arcade Season 1

Book Signing: “Stretch Marks” by Jean Munson

Doomed Poetry (7 events)

One year anniversary Celebration

Fck Columbus Zine Release Party with Fifth Sun Project

Bibliomancy Black out Poetry Workshop (2 events)

Book Signing: “Under My Skin” by Elise Krentzel

Book Signing: “The Green Wizard” by Joel Riojas

Book Signing: “The Wild Kindness” by Bett Williams

Flatlay Workshops with Jessica Oreck (2 events)

After-hours event at Avantpop Bookstore

Book Signing: “Weed Rules” by Jay Wexler

Witness Magazine Issue Launch Party

Cosmic Q Compendium Vol 1 Release Party

Intimate Evening of Poetry Season 2 (5 nights)

Book Signing: “Hammer of the Dogs” by Jarret Keene

Zine Release Party: "Pick Your Poison" by Garrett James Dylan

Typewriter Club

Tiny Zine Workshop

Avantpop Tarot Deck Release Party

The Pigeon Hat Collective’s Halloween Special Viewing Party

Waif Magazine hounds tour

Book Signing: “The Void Walker” by Elizabeth Allen Berry

Poetry Arcade Season Two (2 days)

2024 Events

Book Signing: “Souls Aligned” by Najee Jamerson

Doomed Poetry (10 events)

Cosmic Q Compendium Vol. 2 Release Party

Bibliomancy Black out Poetry Workshop

Spring Swap (2 days)

Intimate Evening of Poetry Season 3 (3 nights)

Zine Release Party: "Pick Your Passion" by Margaret The Dreamer

Oh, the A**holes You’ll Meet! Book Release Party

Book Release "Melancholy" by Stephi Blue

Zine Release Party Tina the Secret Poet

Cartooning Club (2 events)

Punks with Books Book Signing and Readings with Billy Bragg, Jason Lamb, Michelle Cruz-Gonzales, James Tracy, Juanita E. Mantz and Mike Dunn

Book Signing: "Toured To Death" by John Wayne Comunale

Book Signing: “Polly Sex Culture Revolutionary: by Polly ‘Superstar’ Whittaker

Book Signing: “Be the Revolution” by Jay Ponti with Val Thomason

Book Signing and Conversation with Artist Joe Coleman

Book Signing "Become Ungovernable” and Panel Discussion by HLT Quan “ with Erika G. Abad and Tyler D. Parry

Death Cafe (2 events)

"Who’s The Man" Cosmic Q Zine Release Party

Jason’s Friends Improv Show Fundraiser

Hot Collage Nights (8 nights)

"Worth" Film Screening

Intimate Evening of Poetry (4 nights)

Book Signing: “Haunted House” by B. Allen

Seth Singer’s Tarot Party (2nd Edition)

Poetry Arcade Season 3 (2 days)

Avantpop Publishing Poetry Book Release Party

STTAR Tarot Writing Workshop and Event

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REQUIEM FOR A BOOKSHOP

A Poem by Mike Falconer (wordoutlet.net)

Free books

Books by the pound

Great books for $2.00

Books by local authors

Books by those who don’t get into books shops

Art and tarot

UFOs and weed

Hunter and Burroughs

Bill Bragg and H.L.T. Quan

Zines and chaps

Stickers and postcards

Signed and rare

The weird, the silenced, the banned, and the marginal

And poetry

So much poetry

Enough for a heart-full

A cultural nexus

A haven and open to all

Events, outreach, and selfless

In a town that always has to fight for artistic recognition

A town with an inexhaustible capacity to shoot itself in the foot

In a country where the National Endowment for the arts is 0.003% of the federal budget

A country that needs far more art and far less weapons

How to define a great bookshop?

By how much it will be missed.