Books | Arts & Culture | Whalley/Edgewood/Beaver Hills | COVID-19 | People Get Ready Books
People Get Ready Photo.
As New Haven celebrated a Democratic victory over the weekend, a Whalley Avenue bookstore joined in by looking to one of the women who made it happen and making sure she got her proper Elm City due.
That bookstore is People Get Ready, nestled beside St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and the former home of Music Haven on Whalley Avenue. As dancing, heavy-handed horn honking, and impromptu pot-banging rang from Goatville to Westville Saturday, bookstore co-owners Delores Williams and Lauren Anderson raffled off copies of Abrams’ 2019 Lead From The Outside. A copy now also sits beside a picture book on Shirley Chisholm in the front window, beaming out onto the parking lot.
“Delores and I wanted to do something to mark the moment,” said Anderson Saturday, standing outside of the space with her dog, Sugar. “Stacey Abrams is one of a slew of people to increase voter access and discourage voter suppression, and we want to show our gratitude. Today is really about celebrating that.”
Top: The bookshop window at People Get Ready over the weekend. The bookstore is also selling Abrams' Lead From The Outside (2019) and Our Time Is Now (2020). Lucy Gellman Photo. Bottom: Delores Williams and Lauren Anderson at People Get Ready in October 2019. Lucy Gellman File Photo.
While the indoor storefront remains closed due to COVID-19, praise for Abrams poured in online. Williams and Anderson watched comments come in as they fielded online orders, coordinated pick-up requests at the store and planned contact-less bike delivery for which the shop has become known since mid-March. While some came from neighbors and friends, other words came from educators and bibliophiles across the country.
“What a force,” wrote Linsey Kitchens, who is a teacher at Sedro Woolley High School in Washington state. “I told her story to my students yesterday, telling them that defeat is never the end of the story, it can be the beginning if we let it.”
“She is amazing, as are the other Black women who have worked so hard in Georgia over these last few years,” wrote Tasha Frazier. “Does anyone know where we can send her flowers?”
“My home state of GA has made me proud today,” wrote Stephanie Evans-Ariker, executive director of the Orchard House Medical Adult Day Center in Branford. “Stacey took back the votes that Kemp stole from her and gave them to Kamala. In one word, she’s a BAD@$$!”
Some commenters posted single words (“Boom!” was among the most frequent) and gushed over the discovery that Abrams also writes romance as Selena Montgomery. One responded with a glimmering gif of Rhianna. Winners, announced on Tuesday, included Teresa Grant-Johnson, Leslie Blatteau, Evans-Ariker, and Tomeka Frieson. Anderson and Williams chose them at random.
Darnell Battle: "I’m hoping that with President Biden and Vice President Harris, everything can kind of fall back into place." Lucy Gellman Photo.
On Whalley Avenue Saturday, there was also excitement outside the sun-soaked storefront. Around 2 p.m. Yale student Darnell Battle rolled in to pick up a copy of Elly Teman’s Birthing a Mother for his girlfriend, a student at the University of Connecticut. Born and raised in Torrington, Conn., Battle is now a senior studying political science at Yale.
Saturday morning, a friend texted him with the news that Pennsylvania had been called for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. He flipped on CNN and changed his shirt to an American flag design.
As a student of political science, he’s been watching the election closely for months. Tuesday, he voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris with Trump’s mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic and deep racial divisions close to his heart. He said he is looking forward to having the two in the White House come January.
“I’m excited about everybody having the opportunity to have an equal standing in the country,” he said. “I feel like socioeconomic, ethnic, racial divisions have been exacerbated in the past four years by a Trump presidency, and I’m hoping that with President Biden and Vice President Harris, everything can kind of fall back into place and we can move in the right direction.”