There’s just nothing else in town like the list of events at Whitty Books.
November brings Narrative in Motion, a workshop on movement and writing that’s also a fundraiser for NaNoWriMo. A pop-up bookstore at Esperance in Jenks. The band Space Horse's album release party (they played the day the shop opened, about a year ago). The Cherry Street Farmer’s Market is moving to Kendall Whittier for the winter, and Whitty will be open early those weekends. A writing workshop with graphic novel and comic author Natasha Alterici. Synth night. True Crime book club. Jabber and Long Knives, both touring bands from Oakland, CA. Fantasy/Sci-Fi, Truth and Reconciliation, and Native American lit book clubs.
“I may have slightly overbooked us,” laughed Victoria Moore, who runs the shop with her husband, Julian DesLesDernier.
With long low shelves topped with curious artwork, extending back from big front windows, Whitty Books is both cozy and open. When I walked in recently to talk with Moore, she had an old Caedmon record on the record player: Vincent Price reading Edgar Allan Poe. It’s a space that’s as intentional about books—with arguably the most unique and keen-witted selection in town—as it is about being welcoming.
The purpose of the space, for Moore, is for people to use it. “If somebody has a project and they need a space to put it on, we want to be that. We do a lot of book clubs, but it’s not our only focus,” she said. “My husband plays music and grew up helping his dad do sound for shows, so when we first opened we knew we also wanted to have music. Having that door open made us realize how many other kinds of things we could also do. So we’re not even just a bookstore that does music. There’s so much out there between and beyond those things that we’d like to do.”
Most of Whitty’s events are by donation or pay-what-you-can, which means maximum accessibility and a diverse demographic. “There’s definitely a sense of community. I feel like we meet totally different people at a show than we do when we have a workshop or a book club. People who find us by way of one thing end up finding out about all of it. So our demographic is kind of a hodge podge,” Moore continued.
“I think bookstores by nature are a little like that, since people read from the time they’re tiny until the time they die. You don’t age out of coming into bookstores.”