Revolution Books is closing but not going away

After 40 years of selling books and serving as a gathering place for readers and activists, Revolution Books is shutting its doors, said Carolyn Hadfield, manager of the Moiliili store. Its last day of business as a brick-and-mortar operation will be Oct. 21, but it might continue as a pop-up shop.

The bookstore opened in 1976 on North King Street near Tamashiro’s Fish Market. “We moved to the University area within two years and have been there since,” Hadfield said; the current location is upstairs at 2615 S. King St.

The reasons for the decision to close were economic and political, Hadfield said. The business has “always lost money,” but the decision to close, she said, was precipitated by a notice to vacate from the owner last month stating the building would be demolished in November.

As for politics, the mission of the bookstore is to promulgate a communist revolution. The all-volunteer, activist staff, all of whom but Hadfield, 73, work full-time jobs elsewhere to support themselves and the bookstore, were feeling strapped for time to pursue their goals of social change.

“The (University of Hawaii at Manoa) is our client base — we’ve been around them for 40 years, but we’re having a harder time doing outreach in other communities because of staffing requirements at the store,” said Hadfield, noting that since the start of 2016 the store has had to have two people on staff at all times because of crime and safety concerns.

“There’s just too much craziness going on … a lot of desperate people.”

A wide-ranging search for new digs proved discouraging. Going rents for comparable space were $6,000 to $8,000 a month — at least three times higher than what Revolution has been paying. As it is, the bookstore has been unable to meet monthly expenses without donations.

On top of this, the store was burglarized last week. “They stole our pennies, literally, our little contribution can,” Hadfield said.

A local institution beloved by students, lefties and literati, Revolution Books raised more than $10,000 in donations to clear its debts through an Indiegogo crowdsourcing campaign in 2015. Since then the store moved a few doors down to its current, more affordable space in Puck’s Alley.

As the fall school semester started, the store was doing such brisk business selling books for university classes that Hadfield was unable to speak by phone during business hours. “I’ve got a long line here,” she said.

“Business has been better here than at the other space, but it isn’t enough to sustain the kind of rent that people are asking now,” she said later.

Financial woes aside, staff members ultimately decided to close to spend more time putting their principles into practice.

“We want to participate more fully in movements against war, racism, police terror and misogyny,” they announced in a statement released Sunday.

All this doesn’t mean that Revolution Books will stop selling books, Hadfield was quick to add. Nor will it stop sponsoring free film screenings, author readings, political meetings and a book club. It simply plans to continue all this in pop-up mode.

“We’re trying to set things up with some coffeehouses and restaurants and other venues, you know, like poetry readings and, as always, the UH Campus Center, that we’ll have a book table at.”

Until the store closes Oct. 21, it will be selling off its large stock of political, environmental, literary and other titles at reduced prices. It will continue to host free events as it always has, including a reading of new books by local writers Christy Passion and Donald Carreira Ching on Oct. 2.

Hadfield sounded energized and upbeat about Revolution Books’ prospects for community engagement after the brick-and-mortar store shuts down. “The only thing that (will be) missing then is a reliable independent bookstore with stock and a go-to center for activists.”