Bridge Books turns 10
Ten years ago today, Bridge Books opened its doors to a freezing and otherwise empty banking hall. We had a little corner on a mezzanine – about 60 square metres. One man was waiting at the door when I arrived, an hour before opening time. Lots of friends and loved ones showed up. And a barefoot sangoma. And after that, a steady stream of smart, kind, creative people – many of whom become friends.
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In retrospect, there’s more than a whiff of midlife crisis when I think about why I decided to open the store. What do you do when you leave a career in journalism where you’ve been on call more or less nonstop for 13 years? There are definitely easier financial decisions than opening a bookstore, and probably easier places to choose to put it.
But Joburg has always been kind to me. I realise it’s not a word we associate with Johannesburg very much, but in 2002, when I got kicked out of Zimbabwe during my journalism days, Joburg is where I landed, made friends, and got myself back together. When I was in Bangkok and it was time to move – and my ex Tommy and I had decided we were going to stay together and I’d already adopted my first son Alex – not many countries would take us, including the United States. South Africa welcomed us. Joburg gave me a new stage of my career and a new community, and eventually my second son Kuna, and now my new partner Kevin. The city can sometimes – OK, many times – demand an awful lot of us to get through the day. But it also gives back in ways that are hard to quantify.
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Little kids who used to wander into the shop to read storybooks with their friends after school have now finished their matric and started university. Debut authors became stars. I feel safer with my kids walking around the CBD than I do in the suburbs, because pretty much everyone in the neighbourhood knows who they belong to.
There was a lot of learning to pivot during Covid, and growing our nonprofit work really dramatically, and starting to publish, and taking on different kinds of editorial projects. Through the Joburg Literary District, we now run three libraries in communities around the city. We worked so hard, with so many devoted people, to get the City Library back open. Now, less than a year later, it’s again a vibrant part of the neighbourhood where we do amazing programming together. Library Gardens is coming together. It’s not filled with barbed wire and poop anymore. It’s a place where kids play after school, make friends, find books, and know that there’s somebody keeping an eye out for them, even if they may not always want that. And I get to work with a bunch of really cool, smart, inspiring people every day.
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My childhood was a sort of Louisiana storybook, surrounded by extended family literally on a bayou. Sesame Street was still fairly new when I was little, and that was in my imagination what city life was. You’d walk outside and know all of these people and have friends at every turn. When I actually moved away and started living in lots of big cities around the world, that never really happened… until I got here.
I realise some days I’m more Oscar the Grouch, even though I aspire to Big Bird. But I do love it. I love the people, in a city that reads, that’s willing to imagine how books can remake our daily lives.
So thank you, to far too many people to name individually, for making all of these things possible and giving me the most amazing community I could ask for.
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We’ll be doing normal sorts of retail and sale things to celebrate Bridge Books and showing off some of our work this week. Saturday, I’ll be around the shop all day, so stop by – especially if you haven’t seen the beautiful new space yet. If you’d like to get involved, we’re actively recruiting board members and advisors for the LitDistrict.
Thanks again. I’m very grateful to all of you, and to this entire city. The city that reads.
How we’re celebrating
Daily flash sales
Every day for the next ten days we will be significantly marking down a different book that is special to the Bridge Books journey.
Today is The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey. This was the first book published by Bridge Books and is a collection of the influential words of Marcus Garvey compiled by his wife Amy Jacques-Garvey, covering his thoughts on power, poverty, radicalism and more.
This book is part of our project to bring back into circulation works that were destroyed, lost, or suppressed under colonial rule and Apartheid in South Africa.
We are committed to honouring the past, present, and future of South African literature. A Bridge Books logo on a book is a sign of celebration – celebration of literature, of South Africa, and of the dynamic ways in which the two meet.
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Today you can get The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey at 50% off. Use the code Garvey10 at checkout to apply the discount.