One high point came early on, realising, pretty soon after we opened, that the shop was so much more than just a shop. It's a public space for magazine lovers to meet like-minded people: other readers, publishers, wannabe publishers. One example was fashion designer Junya Watanabe, who liked our black totes so much he bought several hundred and incorporated them into a shirt in his next season.
I've bought and flipped through a couple of memoirs lately from popular recording artists. Tens of millions of people stream their music on Spotify every month. It's not surprising that traditional publishers would offer them book deals. What's surprising, at least to me, is how boring they are. One artist seemed to put little effort into the book; a ghostwriter did the heavy lifting. When the artist does interviews, he seems to be talking about nothing. The book feels the same way.
The Lebanese-American designer, writer and advocate's entire oeuvre - from her research to her art - is rooted in the belief that everything is political. Having been displaced from Lebanon to Canada as a child, a survivor of war and a refugee, this is something she experienced first hand at a young age. An enormous truism whittled down to three words, 'Everything is Political'; at once a tagline - and the title of Semaan's digital and print publication ( EIP ).
Independent presses are crucial champions of diverse literature, often overlooked by major retailers yet producing remarkable works that challenge conventional narratives and celebrate unique voices.