Black Bird Bookstore
“a community bookstore for all”
What is it: Black Bird Bookstore is exactly how an independent bookstore located a couple of blocks from the Pacific Ocean should look. It brings the outdoors very much in. Hinting at Cali Cabin chic, Black Bird is wooded out (in reclaimed oak and cypress) coziness — perfect for a neighborhood that in San Francisco is known for its non-warming fog blanket. There’s even an indoor treehouse reading nook complete with a twisting oak branch that our kids love to spend time in.
Why you’ll love it: Opened by Kathryn Grantham, formerly the owner of feminist bookstore Bluestockings in New York, this is a place driven by curiosity: all titles face out, are regularly changed, and tightly curated from an inclusive selection of writers. It’s all about discovery with thought out selections made from the 1000 titles across just 900 square feet of space.
What they offer (online and off): Even during shifting times, this sense of discovery is still there, only its also happening online: chose from a monthly box of curated picks such as the Bay Area Box, Poetry Box, or Cooking Box. You can also currently book a 30-minute appointment to shop alone (from 6 pm to 8 pm), which sounds like a book lover's fantasy date.
Why we think it's special: Opening an independent bookstore feels counter to all the claims that both storefronts and books don't work anymore. But Black Bird makes the case that as our lives are pushed to be experienced more and more online, physical spaces for books and people matter. It’s a bookstore driven by both curiosity and community. Leading book lovers through its titles while supporting those who share this community.
Black Bird is so much an expression of its neighborhood (there’s a high-end garden shed by local artist Jesse Schlesinger and the shelving and counter space have been designed by Luke Bartels). Even the name was inspired by one of Kathryn’s kids who noted the awe-inspiring presence of Black Birds in the neighborhood. Books connect us to worlds on the page; the bookstores that contain them to the wider world outside their doors.
In their own words: We’re borrowing the words from Ocean Vuong that Kathryn has quoted: “The way I see it, whenever someone walks into a bookstore, they are walking into the future of their cultural and intellectual life… Amazon, with its algorithms, can only show you where you’ve been, can only give you a calcified mirror of your past. In a bookstore, you get a human being who is also a mapmaker of possibility. As booksellers, you are practicing, to my mind, one of our species’ oldest arts, the art of fostering, sharing and shepherding our most vital stories into the future.”
Something to do: Be driven by curiosity about where you live. Now is the moment to spend time in one place – the place where you are. Books can take you there in ways that go beyond your local commute, your working days, the school drop off. We recently sought out guidebooks to our county, and though it's hard for us to visit the places we’re learning about, we’re layering on history that we probably wouldn’t have connected with if we didn’t need to live hyper-locally. Our block is holding our world: our social connections, our daily outings, new discoveries and narratives that haven’t involved us. What’s really around you? Who has shaped your community and how is it evolving. Where are you really? Even when doors close, lives are still open.
While there: Black Bird Bookstore sits in the middle of our favorite SF block: Stop by Trouble next door for toast and coffee, the General Store, Case for Making, and Outerlands. Then head to the sand dunes for fast runs down to the ocean.
