The 2800-block south of East 12th, on the east side of Commercial Drive, is going through some changes. At the southern end of the block, a sudden hole where an automotive shop once stood, and a shop or two north of that, news of a new bookstore.
Once home I searched Cross & Crows and found its "bare-bones, temporary website," which opened with some books for sale, and under the "News" section, a Coast Salish land acknowledgement, then word from Nena, who has worked in indie bookstores since 1995 "and had the privilege of owning St. Johns Booksellers in Oregon for ten years."
Nena goes on to say that she is "queer, Lebanese-American, a parent, an editor, occasionally even a publisher," and has been living in Vancouver since 2016. Following that, mention of how her now adult children were always pointing out vacant storefronts as possible bookstore locations, and Nena's conditions: "I had promised myself and them that if there was ever a next time, it would be different."
It is now "next time," and this "different" store will soon be there for readers of books as well as those whose attention to language has them seeing the text in everything. For it is because of Nena's new store that we can begin to decorate her past stores with everything her new store might not be.
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