Spartacus, a bookstore for learning new things

SPARTACUS, A BOOKSTORE FOR LEARNING NEW THINGS

Way better than a bookstore just for buying new things

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When you think of book­stores, you prob­ably don’t think about so­cial change. Buy­ing a book typ­ic­ally in­volves walk­ing past displays of Moleskine note­books and vampire romance best­sellers, avoid­ing over-zealous Cus­tom­er Ex­peri­ence Re­pre­sent­at­ives and flashy ad­vert­ise­ments for digital book readers. The store is a hub of know­ledge and aware­ness, col­lect­ively run and em­power­ment-centered. A re­vo­lu­tion is starting at Sparta­cus, and they want you to be a part of it.

  From the begin­ning in 1972 as a table held by SFU stu­dents, over the years the book­store has grown, ex­panded, burned down, moved twice and in­spired count­less in­di­vidu­als through unique and em­pow­er­ing liter­ature. Alex­ander Daughtry, Sparta­cus Books volun­teer since 1976, ex­plains that the store was spawned from the desire to “dis­trib­ute rad­ical books that aren’t avail­able else­where.” Almost 40 years later, the book­store is a com­pletely volun­teer-run col­lect­ive still in­tent on “put­ting tools in peoples’ hands to in­spire and create so­cial change.”

  In terms of titles, varied se­lec­tion is not some­thing that’s mis­sing from the shelves. Books range from history, fiction, poetry and graphic novels to gar­den­ing, DIY and psych­ology, as well as women’s, ab­orig­inal and queer liter­ature, among others. There are also count­less pub­lica­tions on anarch­ism, so­cial­ism and Marx­ism. All books are priced to be as af­ford­able as pos­sible. They also sell ’zines (in­de­pend­ently pub­lished liter­ature), t-shirts, news­papers, stick­ers and much more.

  In April of 2004, a fire burned down their pre­vi­ous loca­tion at Victory Square on West Hast­ings. Daughtry re­mem­bers the in­cred­ible com­mun­ity sup­port the store re­ceived, in­clud­ing fund-rais­ers, as well as hund­reds of book dona­tions to keep the place run­ning. Un­for­tun­ately, due to high rent in that area, Sparta­cus re­lo­cated two years later to where they cur­rently are at 684 East Hast­ings, in Strathcona.

  In their mission to pro­vide tools for so­cial change, Sparta­cus Books also serves as a venue for meet­ings and gather­ings. Events in the past have in­cluded poetry read­ings, movie nights and con­certs, in­clud­ing hosting the launch of Capi­lano Uni­vers­ity’s creat­ive writing ’zine, The Liar. With free com­puter and Inter­net access, Sparta­cus Books is more than just a book­store, it is a re­source for so­cial change and aware­ness.

  Sparta­cus Books is not af­fili­ated with any organ­iza­tions, though it sup­ports pro­gres­sive move­ments and al­lows them to put up post­ers and fliers around the store. In the past these have in­cluded Under the Vol­cano Festival and the pro­tests sur­round­ing the G8 and G20 meet­ings.

  The store pro­motes a com­fort­able envi­ron­ment where you can buy a book that de­bunks neo­clas­sical eco­nomics, pick up a t-shirt sup­port­ing inde­pend­ent media, and learn about a new envi­ron­mental move­ment all in one shop. If the idea of a sup­port­ive and em­power­ing book­store is ap­peal­ing to you, drop by the store and think about join­ing the col­lect­ive. The book­store is cur­rently in need of volun­teers, which are vital to keep­ing the store open.

  Daughtry ex­plains that without Sparta­cus Books, “people would have to rely on main­stream media, and they would know a lot less. The book­store helps people organ­ize and get things changed. People can get an al­terna­tive here.”

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// Adélie Houle-Lachance, Writer

// JJ Brewis