Before there was an LGBTQ community center, Pride parades, or what is now known as the “Gayborhood” in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, there was Giovanni’s Room—a gay and lesbian, feminist bookstore.

“When the store was founded in 1973 there might have been a dozen gay and lesbian books on the market… not written by gay people,” said former co-owner, Arleen Olshan.

In many ways, the story of Giovanni’s Room is also the history of a community coming into awareness and power. The store and its clientele has weathered Anita Bryant, homophobic attacks and the HIV AIDS crisis. It wrestled with separatist movements, anti-porn movements and collective structures. It witnessed and spearheaded the explosion of independent publishing.

After forty years in operation, Giovanni’s Room faces a change in ownership and may close within months. On December 22, 2013, the Social Movements Oral History Tour—a network of oral historians, independent producers and activists—interviewed former volunteers, longtime lovers, patrons and admirers of the bookstore.

W. Stephen Breedlove

Jim Littrell

Jim Corey

Jeff Wilkinson and Bill Rogers

Fred Kogan

Ed Hermance

Carmen Pirrollo

Karen Kohn and Joyce Homan

Barry James

Arleen Olshan

Annette Foor And Pat Bane

A project by Cara Page and Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective. Interviews conducted by Cara Page. Music by Sweet Honey in the Rock. Mixed by Puck Lo. More info on Kindred can be found at http://kindredhealingjustice.org/

Good medicine: A soundscape featuring interviews with Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective

Puck Lo's stories and oral history interviews by the Social Movements Oral History Tour 

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