View source for Spartacus Books

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 | title      = Spartacus Books
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 | override_author = Charmaine Li
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 | notes      = ''{{w|Discorder Magazine|CITR-FM}}'', March 2016, pp. 10&ndash;12.
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<font size="5"><div style="text-align:center">{{p|10}}'''SPARTACUS BOOKS'''<br>VENEWS</div></font>


''words by Charmaine Li<br>illustrations by Gillian Cole<br>photos by Han-Yu Lee''<br>&bull; &bull; &bull; &bull; &bull; &bull; &bull; &bull; &bull; &bull; &bull; &bull; &bull; &bull; &bull;


<div style="text-align:justify;">{{tab}}Duck under the {{w|Sky&shy;train|SkyTrain_(Vancouver)}} over&shy;pass in the un&shy;as&shy;sum&shy;ing {{w|Kensing&shy;ton Cedar Cottage|Kensington–Cedar_Cottage}} neigh&shy;bour&shy;hood of {{w|East Van&shy;couver|East_Vancouver}} and you{{ll}} find {{w|Sparta&shy;cus Books|Spartacus_Books}}, a non-<wbr>profit run by a dedi&shy;ca&shy;ted volun&shy;teer col&shy;lect&shy;ive. Here lies every&shy;thing from $2 copies of ''{{w|Harry Potter|Harry_Potter}}'' books, local {{w|zines|Zine}} and so&shy;cial just&shy;ice pub&shy;lica&shy;tions. The store is also a venue for events as ec&shy;lec&shy;tic as ac&shy;cord&shy;ion and fiddle nights. It{{s}} a curi&shy;ous cross between used book&shy;store and com&shy;mun&shy;ity chill-<wbr>out centre, with a very {{w|D.I.Y.|Do_it_yourself}} store sign that reads more like a doodle on a ban&shy;ner in black paint. Curi&shy;ous about {{w|queer lit&shy;era&shy;ture|Gay_literature}}, begin&shy;ner{{s}} guides to {{w|Marxism}}, {{w|en&shy;viron&shy;mental just&shy;ice|Environmental_justice}}, or the latest issue of ''{{w|Jacobin|Jacobin_(magazine)}}''? You{{ve}} come to the right place. Grab some&shy;thing off the shelf, help your&shy;self to a cup of coffee, and slide into a couch for as long as you like. There{{s}} even a gui&shy;tar to play with, and a row of com&shy;put&shy;ers with free {{w|Wi-Fi}}.

{{tab}}Spartacus began as a book table at {{w|Simon Fraser Uni&shy;vers&shy;ity|Simon_Fraser_University}} in 1972, of&shy;fer&shy;ing al&shy;tern&shy;at&shy;ive titles that couldn{{t}} be found in the main&shy;stream. The cur&shy;rent loca&shy;tion {{p|11}} on Findlay Street is only a year and a half old. The col&shy;lect&shy;ive was {{qq|{{w|gentri&shy;fied|Gentrification_of_Vancouver}} out}} of its previ&shy;ous loca&shy;tion in a his&shy;toric build&shy;ing on East Hastings Street, ac&shy;cord&shy;ing to event co&shy;ord&shy;in&shy;ator (and self-<wbr>labelled {{qq|shift nag}}) Alan Zisman. Spartacus won some press as a result, bring&shy;ing at&shy;ten&shy;tion to the im&shy;port&shy;ance of main&shy;tain&shy;ing a non-<wbr>profit, col&shy;lect&shy;ive-<wbr>run, liter&shy;acy-<wbr>driven com&shy;mun&shy;ity space in the {{w|Downtown Eastside|Downtown_Eastside}}. The col&shy;lect&shy;ive{{s}} de&shy;term&shy;ina&shy;tion and pas&shy;sion for their cause is clear{{dash}}Sparta&shy;cus has lived through a lot in four previ&shy;ous loca&shy;tions, in&shy;clud&shy;ing a fire that de&shy;stroyed a mem&shy;ber-<wbr>written log of the com&shy;mun&shy;ity{{s}} history. This log&shy;book con&shy;cept has been re&shy;vived, for&shy;tun&shy;ately, along with a guest&shy;book you can con&shy;trib&shy;ute to loca&shy;ted in the wash&shy;room.

{{tab}}Books in Sparta&shy;cus come from all sorts of nooks and cran&shy;nies. Many titles are used and don&shy;ated, others are given by local pub&shy;lish&shy;ers and authors. Find&shy;ing some&shy;thing to read is af&shy;ford&shy;able{{dash}}the aver&shy;age price of a book is $5, and few things cost more than $30. {{qq|Our niche is books about so&shy;cial change,}} Zisman ex&shy;plains. Pop&shy;ular titles and authors aren{{t}} over&shy;looked either, and I found two new and shiny copies of ''{{w|Hyper&shy;bole and a Half|Hyperbole_and_a_Half#Book_version}}''. He also claims, you can find {{qq|the cheap&shy;est left&shy;ist pocket organ&shy;iz&shy;ers in North Amer&shy;ica.}} There are also a wild pleth&shy;ora of records, CDs, and local band merch. Art&shy;ists are wel&shy;come to drop by and put up their art, if there{{s}} space for it.

{{tab}}The Sparta&shy;cus calen&shy;dar is chock-<wbr>full of events, from {{w|First Nations|First_Nations}} talk&shy;ing cir&shy;cles, to movie nights, to group meet&shy;ings like Social Just&shy;ice {{w|Stitch {{q|n|l}} Bitch|Stitch_'n_Bitch}}. Most events are liter&shy;acy-<wbr>rela&shy;ted, like book clubs and poetry work&shy;shops, but on some nights the volun&shy;teers push aside the book shelves and build a make&shy;shift stage area with milk crates and plywood. {{qq|Some&shy;how we{{ve}} gotten on some lists as a {{q|Van&shy;cou&shy;ver venue,}}}} says Zisman, who is also an ac&shy;cord&shy;ion player in The Gram Part&shy;isans.<!-- comma in original --> {{qq|I hope we have more music stuff hap&shy;pen,<!-- period in original -->}} volun&shy;teer<!-- 'Volunteer' in original --> co&shy;ordin&shy;ator Meika Johnson adds, {{qq|the [shows] are small scale, but still super fun.}}

{{tab}}Because intim&shy;acy and com&shy;mun&shy;ity is key. Sparta&shy;cus is run by a col&shy;lect&shy;ive of vol&shy;un&shy;teers; every&shy;one does a little bit of every&shy;thing, and all sales pro&shy;ceeds go towards the main&shy;ten&shy;ance of a com&shy;mun&shy;ity area. It is prim&shy;arily a book&shy;store, but also a space of inter&shy;sec&shy;tion. As col&shy;lect&shy;ive mem&shy;ber Ethan Reyes de&shy;scribes it, {{qq|[There are] lots of {{p|12}}books, lots of like-<wbr>minded people to hang out with, and meet and col&shy;labor&shy;ate with.}}

{{tab}}The col&shy;lect&shy;ive itself is a small but pas&shy;sion&shy;ate group of in&shy;div&shy;idu&shy;als, many of whom were simply new to the city and look&shy;ing for a place to get in&shy;volved, and en&shy;cour&shy;age so&shy;cial change. There{{s}} no boss-<wbr>man, no hier&shy;archy. Some&shy;times great ideas get lost when there{{s}} no one to spear&shy;head them.

{{tab}}{{qq|People join with great in&shy;ten&shy;tions, and partly they want to change the world,}} Zisman con&shy;tinues, {{qq|Some&shy;times the con&shy;nec&shy;tion between [work&shy;ing in a non-<wbr>profit book&shy;store] and changing the world can get a little un&shy;clear.}}

{{tab}}But that{{s}} okay; Sparta&shy;cu{{s|r}} em&shy;pha&shy;sis since the {{q|70s|l}} has been on com&shy;mun&shy;ity, and this one has kept the store open almost every day of the year, through sev&shy;eral loca&shy;tion changes. Walk in, and who&shy;ever{{s}} on shift will prob&shy;ably say hello, wel&shy;come you, and maybe even in&shy;vite you to play music here if you{{re}} a new band in town.


<div style="text-align:center">'''X'''</div>


{{tab}}''Sparta&shy;cus Books is loca&shy;ted at 3378 Findlay Street in East Van&shy;couver. Visit their web&shy;site at {{l|spartacusbooks<wbr>.net|http://www.spartacusbooks.net/}}, or follow their activ&shy;ity on {{l|Facebook|https://www.facebook.com/spartacusbooks/}} for event up&shy;dates and new titles.''</div>

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