The literary city of Paris might get another bookstore. COVEN, a future English-language bookshop and café dedicated to intersectional feminism in English and French, has launched a Kickstarter. The launch party for the fundraising period will take place on Saturday, December 7 at Belleville Brûlerie in Paris, from 7:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.
There are presently two feminist bookstores in Paris, La Librairie Des Femmes and Violette & Co, both of which offer a limited selection of English-language books, and the English-language literary scene is made up of eight bookstores. COVEN hopes to meet the needs of both of those communities. The crossover of bookshop and café is important: the bookshop will provide the inspiration and literary food for thought and the café the venue for discussion and the actual food.
COVEN is a bicultural endeavor by Lucie Camara, a Parisian, and Louise Binns, a U.K. native residing in Paris since 2009. Camara, the founder of COVEN book club (the initiative’s earliest form), has worked in the specialty coffee industry in Paris and abroad. Binns, who writes for Frenchly, had primarily worked in marketing, copywriting and community managing until founding The FBC Paris, a feminist bilingual book club.
The celebration of the launch of the Kickstarter, which has a goal of €25,000 before January 10, 2020, is being held at a coffee shop in the neighborhood where COVEN hopes to open, the northeast of Paris. The event is BYOB, and Camara and Binns will both be there to talk about their vision for the project, answer questions, and meet the community. There will be book giveaways (eligibility based on donation) and some gorgeous illustrated bookmarks given away. No RSVP necessary to attend.
