A queer indie bookstore in Brooklyn has launched a crowdfunding campaign to keep another queer bookstore across the East River open for business.
Hive Mind Books in Bushwick is seeking support to acquire the West Village's Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, one of the last LGBTQ+ bookstores in Manhattan, to prevent it from shuttering. Bureau owners Donnie Jochum and Greg Newton, who founded the store in 2012 and in 2014 moved it inside the LGBTQ Community Center, are moving out of state and will close the store by April 30 if they cannot transfer ownership.
Hive Mind owner Jules Wernersbach today announced the launch of a GoFundMe fundraiser through June 1 to raise $50,000 to begin the acquisition process.
The $50,000 will go towards the initial payment for Hive Mind, which opened in 2024, to acquire the Bureau, expand paid staff across both bookstores, launch an e-commerce website for the Bureau, and upgrade its POS equipment. Hive Mind also plans to purchase purchase cafe equipment in order to re-open a café on the first floor of the LGBTQ Community Center, which shut down four months ago. Hive Mind already operates a coffee shop in its Bushwick space.
“It’s vital that we preserve this space of queer community and culture in New York City,” Wernersbach stated in a release. “We’re in a moment when queer literature is under extreme censorship nationwide and trans people are being targeted by legislation that threatens their human rights. Just this month, HR 7661, a bill that would censor books in schools nationwide, was sent to the House. We must keep this invaluable resource of trans and queer literature open in our city. We need it.”
The Bureau, which has been staffed by volunteers under Jochum and Newton’s supervision, is known for hosting special events, exhibitions, and workshops featuring queer authors, poets, scholars, artists, activists, and performers, including Sarah Schulman, Michelle Tea, Edmund White, Jacqueline Woodson, and many others. Hive Mind intends to hire a full time events manager to coordinate programming across both bookstores.
“As we prepare for a new chapter in our lives,” Jochum and Newton wrote, “we are thrilled that Hive Mind Books will not only keep the Bureau open, but also build on the Bureau’s rich history by linking it to the café in the Center’s lobby as well as to its bookstore community in Bushwick. Given that our missions align perfectly, this really is a dream come true for us. We hope that everyone who values what the Bureau has done over the past 13 years will chip in to enable the Bureau to continue serving local and visiting queers for years to come!”
