Photo: Paul Singer/GBH News.
Ellie Paris-Miranda inside her new bookshop in downtown Brockton, Massachusetts. This shop aims to build social networks as well as sell books.
I am thinking of a friend in Manhattan, a writer who loves books. Currently in her 90s, she passed through a difficult year with her husband’s illness. After he died, she didn’t feel like doing anything. She stayed home. She turned down overtures from friends.
Then one day, she tells me, she decided to go outside and walk a few blocks on Broadway. She had heard that there was a new independent bookstore. When she walked in and felt the literary atmosphere there, she began to cry. “These are my people,” she said.
That’s just one example of what a bookstore can mean to someone.
Paul Singer reports at GBH radio about other kinds of meaning a new bookstore intends to provide: “On a chilly Sunday afternoon in Brockton, Mayor Robert Sullivan sat in a cozy corner of a new bookstore on Main Street and read a bilingual children’s book to a couple dozen patrons and staff.
“The mayor had arrived to celebrate the opening of the Dr. Ellie Paris Social Bookstore and Ice Cream Cafe, a new storefront shop intended to encourage literacy and social networking particularly among Brockton’s large immigrant population.
“The book he read, Tiagu and Vovo, is written in English and Cape Verdean Creole and tells the story of an immigrant family learning the new language.
“Ellie Paris-Miranda, the owner of the shop and an immigrant from Cape Verde herself, said having the mayor reading this book symbolizes why she wanted to open a bookstore.
“ ‘I really want to foster literacy, education, and upward economic mobility through giving communities access to not only books, but also a network,’ she said. …
“In her other job, Paris-Miranda is a tenure-track assistant professor of entrepreneurship at Wheaton College in Norton.
” ‘There’s this positive correlation between building successful business with the quality of the network, the relationships that you have that can be used as a financial resource,’ she said. ‘Especially for low income people, starting businesses and women who often don’t have all the resources needed.’
“The shop is just a few blocks from city hall and the courthouse, so she hopes her neighborhood customers will rub elbows and get to know city leaders over a sandwich or an ice cream cone.
“True to her own roots, Paris-Miranda’s shop shelves prominently feature books about financial planning and business strategy, as well as books in a variety of languages. She also refers to her customers as clients. …
“ ‘My “clients” are like long-term relationships I am building,’ she said.
“Eventually, Paris-Miranda said, she plans to teach English classes at the shop, as well as other programming on entrepreneurship and personal finance.
“The new bookstore is riding a wave of new interest in local bookshops, said Beth Ineson, executive director of the New England Independent Booksellers Association.
“ ‘We’ve had such a boom in eastern New England since basically 2020 for bookstores opening,’ Ineson said. … ‘We’ve had as many new stores join my organization in the past four years as the previous ten combined.’ …
“Part of the reason for this boom, Ineson said, is that the pandemic left many storefronts vacant, making commercial real estate more affordable. But another part of it is the need for community.
“ ‘It is really on everybody’s mind now how these stores can become places for community and for intellectual engagement,’ she said. …
“In Brockton, the Ellie Paris Social Bookstore replaces an empty storefront with the sound of chatter and a smoothie blender.
“Matt Stanton, a lifelong Brockton resident and member of the city’s Beautification Committee, said he hopes the new bookstore can be an engine for downtown revitalization.
“ ‘To me, this could be a catalyst to just, you know, really bring the downtown back,’ he said. ‘There’s a couple shops right up the street. If somebody comes in here, they walk up to the store in the next block. And it’s just great.’ ”
More at GBH radio, here.
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