When Linda Bryant opened Charis Books & More in 1974, she dreamed of creating a place where people could not only buy books, but literally come together to change themselves and the world.

Buoyed by feminist publishing companies that thrived in the 1970s and ‘80s, the store — whose name means “gift” in Greek — evolved into a community center of sorts, a self-consciously feminist space for a hungry audience of women, and some men, eager to organize and learn.

But after three decades as a beacon for lesbians across the region, the South’s oldest feminist bookstore needs a significant increase in sales if it is to survive to reach its 32nd birthday next November, according to Bryant and Charis co-owner Sara Look.

In a widely disseminated Dec. 11 email, the bookstore’s staff asked the “Charis Community” if they still “want and need Charis to be here.”

“We hear shoppers and volunteers and community members say yes, Charis is needed and wanted, but the numbers are singing a different song,” the email said. “If business doesn’t pick up rapidly, we will be forced to close.”

Look said in an interview that she and Bryant, both lesbians, have been “carrying” the business financially, and cannot continue indefinitely.

“I’m not asking people to save us,” Look said. “What I want to know is, in this culture, do people still value and want there to be feminist bookstores? … If people really want us, they need to support us.”

Changing times
In the ‘70s and early ‘80s, Charis was the anchor of a thriving lesbian-feminist community, much of it centered in the Little Five Points neighborhood where the store is located, according to Saralyn Chesnut, an adjunct assistant professor of American Studies and Women’s Studies at Emory University. Chesnut has published an oral history of the store and the community that surrounded it.

“Stores like Charis made lesbian-feminist cultural products, and thus lesbian-feminist ideas, easily available,” said Chesnut, also director of Emory’s Office of LGBT Life. “The movement literally could not have happened without the feminist bookstores that began to spring up during the early 1970s.”

But later years brought increasing challenges to Charis’ bottom line. Atlanta’s lesbian scene dispersed throughout the city, the economy faced a general downturn, and large chain bookstores proliferated — including a Barnes & Noble that opened this year just south of Little Five Points on Moreland Avenue.

“When I moved to Atlanta in 1973 I was told, ‘All the lesbians live in Little Five Points,’” Chesnut said. “That’s why I moved into the neighborhood. Now, I think Decatur is perceived as a lesbian area more than Little Five Points is.”

Considering whether to move Charis to Decatur prompted the financial soul-searching that led to the email about possible closure.

“The process of investigating moving made us look harder … and admit things were not going well,” Bryant said.

Declining sales
On the verge of signing a lease in Decatur, Look said Charis owners realized their monetary position was too precarious to take on a move, raising questions over whether they would have to shut down sometime in 2006.

“We haven’t actually set a deadline, but we’re talking about months,” Look said.

Sales at Charis are down 10 percent from this time last year, and down 35 percent over the last five years, Look said.

“Realistically, it’s been going down every year,” she said.

To survive, Look said Charis needs to raise sales by approximately 20 percent, as well as raising capital — as much as $50,000, though she says the figure is approximate — through donations or investors.

Combined with increased sales, an infusion of capital, from a donor or other source, could enable “transformations” at Charis ranging from a coffeehouse to ideas not even on the table yet, Bryant said.

“Charis was a dream of mine 31 years ago, and I would like to experience the dream of the next generation,” Bryant said, explaining that she will trust the vision of Charis’ younger staff and supporters for how the store might change.

Fate of feminist bookstores
Bookstores across the board report declining sales, with independent shops like Charis also facing competition from chain bookstores and online booksellers.

Figures from the U.S. Bureau of the Census’ Current Retail Trade Branch, reported Dec. 12 by Bookselling this Week, show year-to-date sales at bookstores nationwide down 2.5 percent from 2004, although overall retail sales were up 5.8 percent. Bookstore sales for October 2005 were down 5.8 percent from October 2004, according to the report.

Exact counts of remaining feminist ...

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