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Help Save Avantpop Bookstore

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Avantpop Bookstore was created from the hearts of Sugar and Shwa Laytart, and cultivated with the love of the community. We really don’t like to share how much of a struggle it has been, but since we are near the end, we truly need to ask for your help to save Avantpop Bookstore.


Since opening Avantpop Bookstore in June 2022, we have struggled to keep our doors open. One week before we opened, the owner of the building passed away. It was his dream to have a cool bookstore in New Orleans Square (NOS) and did a lot to support the local arts and local businesses. We were honored to fulfill one of his last wishes. However, for the last two and a half years, we have been begging the new landlords to fill the empty units around us and bring in more retail businesses to increase customer traffic, but instead of moving new shops in, stores have constantly been moving out. Now, Avantpop Bookstore is one of the few remaining shops, and by the end of the year, a handful of our neighbors are also closing down. For over a year now, NOS has been a retail graveyard.

We invested everything into keeping Avantpop Bookstore alive, from our own money and time, to not taking a salary, investing in local artists and writers, and hosting SO MANY events to bring people out to the store and cultivate community—even with this, it has left us in complete debt.

In early 2024, Clark County purchased the building and told us there would be relocation money and “no evictions for non-payment of rent” because of a recent report stating the building is uninhabitable, and because of the struggle the tenants have been through since the owner’s death in 2022.

We have been using that money to pay down our debt that we accrued from opening our bookstore in what we were told would be the 'New Arts District'. This, however, never manifested.

Our plan is to stay open until the end of the year, but we need all the help we can get... This has been a huge financial loss for us.

HELP SAVE AVANTPOP BOOKSTORE
Our goal is to raise $35,000 to help with:

  • Rental costs for the remainder of the year, and past due rent, the County may enforce us to pay
  • Reducing our debt accrued since opening the store
  • Relocation funds to open a new space

For us, the best part has been the community that we have built, the artists we have published, and all the amazing friends we have made since opening our brick-and-mortar shop.

We would love nothing more than to reopen in a new location.

With the help of our community and reading freaks everywhere, we might be able to do that. If you have possible opportunities to support the future of Avantpop Bookstore, please reach out. All ideas and connections are welcome. Thank you to those who have reached out so far. It gives us hope for the next evolution of Avantpop.

We will continue to publish, host events, attend expos, and do book restoration. So please stay connected! We appreciate you. Thanks again for showing love for what we do and for being a part of the Avantpop community.

Here's to the next chapter!
Sugar and Shwa
avantpopbooks.com

Avantpop Bookstore by the numbers
In the past 2.5 years...
  • 110 Total Events
  • 34 Poetry Events
  • 32 Book Signings and Release Parties
  • 6 Workshops
  • Published 29 Local Authors and Artists
  • 19 Podcast Episodes
  • 3 Music Videos and 1 Film Shot in the store
  • Worked with local businesses, organizations, and non-profits including Poetry Promise, Fifth Sun Project, Indigenous Student Association of UNLV, Pluto Press, Core Contemporary, Office of Collecting, Black Mountain Institute, and more

2022 Events
The Royal Hawaiian Meet & Greet
Book Signing: Dani King “The Last Nurse”
Avantpop Early Access VIP Book Buying Event
Pre-launch Preorder: Party Myisha T Hill “Heal Your Way Forward”
A Gathering of Earthseed Discussion
Avantpop Publishing Book Release Party: "Eggwalking" by No Body Panic, and "Reflections From The Haze" by Garrett James Dylan & Seth Singer
Avantpop Early Access VIP Book Night
Indigenous Peoples Day Event with Fifth Sun Project
Avantpop Early Access VIP Book Night
Avantpop Early Access VIP Book Night
Avantpop Early Access VIP Book Night
Six Month Anniversary Party!
Book Signing: “Anything But Nirvana” by Eric Gladstone

2023 Events
Intimate Evening of Poetry Season 1 (3 nights)
Book Signing: “Rocktails” by Staci Layne Wilson
Zine Release Party: Antholozine and Just Landed!
The Church of John Waters Book Club (3 events)
Poetry Arcade Season 1
Book Signing: “Stretch Marks” by Jean Munson
Doomed Poetry (7 events)
One year anniversary Celebration
Fck Columbus Zine Release Party with Fifth Sun Project
Bibliomancy Black out Poetry Workshop (2 events)
Book Signing: “Under My Skin” by Elise Krentzel
Book Signing: “The Green Wizard” by Joel Riojas
Book Signing: “The Wild Kindness” by Bett Williams
Flatlay Workshops with Jessica Oreck (2 events)
After-hours event at Avantpop Bookstore
Book Signing: “Weed Rules” by Jay Wexler
Witness Magazine Issue Launch Party
Cosmic Q Compendium Vol 1 Release Party
Intimate Evening of Poetry Season 2 (5 nights)
Book Signing: “Hammer of the Dogs” by Jarret Keene
Zine Release Party: "Pick Your Poison" by Garrett James Dylan
Typewriter Club
Tiny Zine Workshop
Avantpop Tarot Deck Release Party
The Pigeon Hat Collective’s Halloween Special Viewing Party
Waif Magazine hounds tour
Book Signing: “The Void Walker” by Elizabeth Allen Berry
Poetry Arcade Season Two (2 days)

2024 Events
Book Signing: “Souls Aligned” by Najee Jamerson
Doomed Poetry (10 events)
Cosmic Q Compendium Vol. 2 Release Party
Bibliomancy Black out Poetry Workshop
Spring Swap (2 days)
Intimate Evening of Poetry Season 3 (3 nights)
Zine Release Party: "Pick Your Passion" by Margaret The Dreamer
Oh, the A**holes You’ll Meet! Book Release Party
Book Release "Melancholy" by Stephi Blue
Zine Release Party Tina the Secret Poet
Cartooning Club (2 events)
Punks with Books Book Signing and Readings with Billy Bragg, Jason Lamb, Michelle Cruz-Gonzales, James Tracy, Juanita E. Mantz and Mike Dunn
Book Signing: "Toured To Death" by John Wayne Comunale
Book Signing: “Polly Sex Culture Revolutionary: by Polly ‘Superstar’ Whittaker
Book Signing: “Be the Revolution” by Jay Ponti with Val Thomason
Book Signing and Conversation with Artist Joe Coleman
Book Signing "Become Ungovernable” and Panel Discussion by HLT Quan “ with Erika G. Abad and Tyler D. Parry
Death Cafe (2 events)
"Who’s The Man" Cosmic Q Zine Release Party
Jason’s Friends Improv Show Fundraiser
Hot Collage Nights (8 nights)
"Worth" Film Screening
Intimate Evening of Poetry (4 nights)
Book Signing: “Haunted House” by B. Allen
Seth Singer’s Tarot Party (2nd Edition)
Poetry Arcade Season 3 (2 days)
Avantpop Publishing Poetry Book Release Party
STTAR Tarot Writing Workshop and Event
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REQUIEM FOR A BOOKSHOP
A Poem by Mike Falconer (wordoutlet.net)

Free books
Books by the pound
Great books for $2.00
Books by local authors
Books by those who don’t get into books shops

Art and tarot
UFOs and weed
Hunter and Burroughs
Bill Bragg and H.L.T. Quan
Zines and chaps
Stickers and postcards
Signed and rare
The weird, the silenced, the banned, and the marginal

And poetry
So much poetry
Enough for a heart-full

A cultural nexus
A haven and open to all
Events, outreach, and selfless
In a town that always has to fight for artistic recognition
A town with an inexhaustible capacity to shoot itself in the foot
In a country where the National Endowment for the arts is 0.003% of the federal budget
A country that needs far more art and far less weapons

How to define a great bookshop?
By how much it will be missed.
Donate

Donations 

  • David Weinstein
    • $75
    • 3 hrs
  • Laura Gluhanich
    • $50
    • 4 d
  • James Smith
    • $10
    • 10 d
  • Jeremy Bruner
    • $25
    • 11 d
  • Anonymous
    • $20
    • 11 d
Donate

Organizer

Shwa and Sugar Laytart
Organizer
Las Vegas, NV

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