BOOKSTORES WE LOVE :: Help Keep WORD UP Alive in Washington Heights
Support WORD UP on Indiegogo today!
Word Up
4157 Broadway @ 176 Street, Washington Heights, NYC
Open Daily, 12-9pm
The WORD UP story is an inspiring one. Opened originally in June, 2011 as a 1-month pop-up literature and community space in Washington Heights, it was received with such widespread adoration in the neighborhood that they were offered an extended lease. Now seeking a permanent home, the bookstore has raised a staggering $20,000 in crowdfunded support, but they still need all the help they can get.
We wanted to introduce you to this incredible project, absolutely a model AWESOME CREATOR: Word Up combines literature, literacy, business, education, arts, community activism and social media in ever new and inspiring ways. Their story is all of our story as we work together to shift into new paradigms for cooperative economics. We can learn so much by getting to know organizations like WORD UP, and we all benefit when we come together to help them thrive.
Here’s a little more about their story, below.
WHO IS WORD UP?
Word Up is a shared program of two 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations:Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, whose mission is to cultivate, support and promote the works of artists and arts organizations in Northern Manhattan; and Seven Stories Institute, whose mission is to provide necessary books to communities that do not otherwise have access to them, to stimulate discussion of important policy issues within those communities who have the most to lose in the current political and economic crises but have the least access to the terms of the debate.
The Word Up staff is 100% volunteer-powered, and they rely heavily on community support, such as donated skills and supplies. The 80+ volunteers who have been active since the grand opening—with 20–40 who are still active on a weekly basis, and many who are active on a more-than-weekly basis—hail from the US, the Dominican Republic, Israel, Russia, and Canada. If you aren’t able to give today, there are so many ways that you can help!
Subscribe to the Word Up newsletter to be updated on upcoming events and opportunities!
And by the way — we’re late to this party. Word Up’s work has been widely lauded, on HuffPo, on Channel 13, in the Daily News, and many more. It’s not hard to see why: if Word Up can survive, there is great hope for what’s to come, what we can build, and what we’re capable of.
Exit Strata thinks it’s A LOT.
Thank you for your help for this and all the projects we bring your way.
