Wednesday, January 11 at 7 p.m.
Launch of
ACTIVISM: A Social Justice Series
Thursday, January 12
at 7 p.m.
Addiction Workshop
Facilitated by Lisa Smith, author of
Wednesday, January 18 at 7:30 p.m.
Kathleen Rooney
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
Book Launch Party
Thursday, January 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Tom Tresser
Chicago Is Not Broke
Conversation, Reading, and Signing
Friday, January 20 at 7:30 p.m.
Beyza Ozer, Joshua Young, and Alexis Pope with Special Guest
Jenny Boully
Fail Better and I Am Heavy w/ Feeling
Book Launch Party
Wednesday, January 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Bettye Kronstad
Perfect Day: An Intimate Portrait of Life with
Lou Reed
Reading, Q&A, and Signing
Friday, January 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Marie Hicks
Book Launch Party
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Sunday, December 11
at 5 p.m.
Between Shades of Gray
by Ruta Sepetys
Sunday, December 11 at 6:30 p.m.
A Queer and Pleasant Danger by Kate Bornstein
Sunday, December 18
at 4 p.m.
The Fight for Fifteen
by David Rolf
Tuesday, December 20
at 7 p.m.
Book Selection Meeting
Discussion & Potluck
Sunday, January 215
11:30 a.m. to 1:20 p.m.
Suggested Reading: Chapters 13-19 of
The Gift of Years
by Joan Chittister
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Dear Friends of Women & Children First,
Many of you have stopped by the bookstore recently to seek solace and community in the wake of the presidential election. We share your anxieties about what the results mean for all of us, especially the communities that our bookstore was founded to serve--people of color, women, LGBTQ individuals, people with disabilities, and immigrants. Harnessing our sadness and anger into activism, we are putting together an event series that will launch in January and will showcase a different Chicago-area social justice organization each month, and explain how you can help. In the meantime, check out our
Community Resources page to find links to organizations that we admire and that need your help now more than ever.
While we are prepared to continue our fight with renewed vigor, we are taking some time now to grieve and comfort one another. Please take a look at two newly added events--a Sappho's open mic and a self-care workshop--that we've put together this month aimed toward healing.
As always, you can keep up to date with everything happening at W&CF on
Facebook,
Twitter, and
Instagram.
Thank you for your continued support of your local feminist bookstore!
With love,
W & CF
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A Heartfelt Thank you
This week reminded us of how grateful we are for our neighborhood and larger community.
Thank you to all of you who came into the bookstore because it was "the first place" or the "only place" you wanted to be in the days after the election.
Thank you to those who stopped by to comfort
us, offering hugs and bringing us food. Thank you to the young man who brought us these two bags of candy and shyly said that he passes by our store often and so deeply appreciates that we exist.
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MyChicagoIndie
Brought To You by ChIBA
You might remember that back in August, Women & Children First banded together with more than twenty other independent bookstores to decry the brick-and-mortar Amazon bookstore that will be openi ng in Chicago in the spring of 2017. Our goal was to celebrate indie bookstore culture and to educate shoppers about the hidden costs of shopping at Amazon. Since then, we have continued meeting with our indie bookstore comrades and have formed an organization named Chicagoland Independent Bookstore Association, or ChIBA. One cool thing that's already come out of ChIBA is MyChicagoIndie. MyChicagoIndie is your one-stop destination for discovering all the amazing author events that take place in independent bookstores across Chicagoland. We also encourage you to tag us on Twitter and Facebook with #mychicagoindie every time you feel inspired to give a shout-out to your favorite indie bookstore. ChIBA is in the midst of crafting a manifesto and a lot of programming in concert with Indie Bookstore Day in April, so stay tuned!
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LoLo Update
As of Tuesday, N
 ovember 15th, we will no longer be participating in the LoLo program. Customers can no longer accrue LoLo credit or redeem LoDough at our store. Please click
HERE for a list of other Andersonville businesses that are still participating. We apologize for any inconvenience this change may cause you.
Did you know Women & Children First has its own membership program? For just $25, you get 10% off all store purchases for a full 12 months after you join. The discount applies to everything in the store--books, magazines, cards, jewelry, and gift items. Plus, we have an annual week-long Member Appreciation Sale, where we offer double the discount on all purchases. Store memberships also make great gifts!
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Small Business Saturday/Indies First:
20 Books in 20 Minutes: Kids' Edition
Saturday, November 26 - ALL DAY
Neighborhood Event
Supporting the independent businesses that you love in your community is more important than ever! Shopping local on Small Business Saturday/Indies First is a great way to show your love. We'll have coffee provided by The Coffee Studio all morning. The first shoppers of the day will get a free bookish tote bag when they spend $25 or more!
Then, at Noon, we'll be hosting 20 BOOKS IN 20 MINUTES: KIDS' EDITION. Jamie and Linda will have ten minutes each to pitch their favorite 10 kids' books of the season! But, that's not all! We, along with more than a dozen Andersonville shops and restaurants, are participating in the Small Business Saturday (SBS) Passport program along Get your passport stamped at all participating businesses and you'll be entered into a raffle to win gift certificates and other prizes donated by those businesses.
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"Everything Hurts" Open Mic
Sappho's Salon
Tuesday, November 29
Sign-up at 7 p.m., show at 7:30 p.m.
Open Mic & Potluck
Co-hosted by Eileen Tull and Liz Baudler
So many Americans are feeling lost or scared or hurt or angry. We will be holding a Sappho's-style open mic to give space to artistic expression in this  frustrating and dangerous time. There will be tea and snacks and people full of love. The list will go out at 7 p.m. and is open to all identities, including cisgender men. If you require any music, audio, projection, etc., please contact us beforehand at sapphoswcf@gmail.com to arrange tech needs. We will try to get everyone up onstage, but please keep in mind that the 5-minute spots are limited. All art is welcome: monologues, stories, performance art, poetry, song, dance, film, visual art, burlesque, etc. This event is free, BYOB, and a potluck. Please consider bringing your favorite comfort food to share.
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Self-Care & Meditation Workshop
with Mara Zimmerman
Wednesday, November 29 at 7 p.m.
In the aftermath of the election, many of our community members have come to the bookstore to  vent sadness, anxiety, and anger. In an effort to provide all of you with a space for solace, hope, and stress release, we have invited friend of the store, Mara Zimmerman, to offer an evening meditation workshop focusing on strategies for self-care. Building upon a degree in psychology and counseling, Mara Zimmerman continued her education with certifications in homeopathy, yoga, meditation, intuitive guidance, and the healing arts. With a focus on a healthy lifestyle and a realistic approach to healing and wellness, Mara teaches to all stages, ages, and abilities. This event is free and open to everyone.
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KOKUMO
Reacquainted with Life
Thursday, December 1 at 7:30 p.m.
Poetry Reading
A READ LOCAL
EVENT
KOKUMO is a musician, performance artist, poet, trans activist, and organizer. Her work can be found all over the Internet, and her words have been spo
ken
even further. Her first play, The Faggot Who Could Fly, headlined the Gwendolyn Brooks Conference when she was only 23. Her first book of poems, Reacquainted With Life, is a testament to the resilience that she represents.
KOKUMO is currently based in Chicago.
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Late Night Andersonville
Friday, December 2 from 6 to 10 p.m.
Andersonville
makes it easy to support local businesses while shopping for friends and family (or yourself!) at the 14th annual Late Night Andersonville. For four hours only, mo
re than 40 beloved Andersonville stores and restaurants will be open late, offering great savings on gifts and meals, plus free refreshments and entertainment. Stay tuned to our website and Facebook page to learn more about the special deals we'll be offering!
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Michelle Falkoff in conversation with
Nami Mun
Pushing Perfect
Friday, December 2 at 7:30 p.m.
Book Launch Party
A
READ LOCAL EVENT
A girl's quest for perfection results in d
angerous consequences in this smart, suspenseful YA novel by the author of Playlist for the Dead. Kara gets perfect grades. She never messes up. But she finally gets so tired of living with all that pressure, she does something she never thought she'd do. Something risky and illegal. And then before she knows it, Kara's life veers wildly off its perfect course, and she's forced to decide if she wants to go back to the quest of perfection or n
ot. Michelle Falkoff's fiction and review
s
hav
e been
published
in ZYZZYVA, DoubleTake, and
the Harvard Review, among others. She is
a grad
uate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and c
urrently ser
ves as director of communication and legal
reasoning at Northwestern University School of Law. Nami Mun's first book, Miles from Nowhe
re, received a Whiting Award, a Pushcart Prize, and the Chicago Public Library's 21st Century Award and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for
New Writers and the Asian American Literary Award. Her s
tories have been published in the
New York Times, Granta, Tin House
, and the
Pushcart Prize Anthology
, among many others. She is currently an assistant professor of creative writing in Chicago.
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Laura Jane Grace
Friday, December 2 at 7 p.m.
Doors open at 6:15 p.m.
Reading, Q&A,
and Book-Signing
Please Note: This is a ticketed, off-site event, which will be held at Wilson Abbey (935 W. Wilson). Purchase of a ticket to this event
includes one copy of Laura Jane Grace's book.
BUY TICKETS HERE.
Billboard just named Tranny by
Laura Jane Grace one of the 100
Greatest Mus
ic Books of
All
Ti
me! In this
memoir, the
provocative transgende
r advo
c
a
te
and lead singer of the
punk rock band
Agai
nst Me provides a searing account of her search fo
r identity and her true self.
Tranny is the intimate story of Against Me's enigmatic founder, weaving the narrative of the band's history, as well as Grace's, with dozens of never-before-seen entries from the piles of journals Grace kept. More than a typical music memoir about sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, Tranny is an inside look at one of the most remarkable stories in the history of rock. Since coming out as transgender in 2012, Laura Jane Grace has been an outspoken advocate for transgender awareness. She has a daughter and lives in Chicago.
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J. B. Blankenship and SitStayRead
The Christmas Truck and Cozy Fan Tooty
Saturday December
3 at 3 p.m.
Story Time with SitStayRead
(Yes, there will be doggies!)
The Christmas Truck
, SitStayRead, and Women & Children First will be once again hosting a very special wishing tree this year, beginning
November 26th through the end of December, to put diverse books in the hands of area elementary school kids. Everyone is welcome to donate a new book to a child in need whose name is decorating a star on the book tree, which will be on display in our front window. To promote the wishing tree and introduce folks to the literacy program SitStayRead, we'll be hosting this kid-friendly event with a story time and coloring! There will be dog teams for kids to visit with, a reading of both
The Christmas Truck and Chicago adventure book
Cozy Fan Tooty, written for middle-grade readers by author (and SitStayRead board member)
J. B. Blankenship.
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Brooke Allen
Pride and Prejudice meets
Lord of the Flies in this reading of Brooke Allen's new comedy,
Let's Eat Mary. Directed by Breahan Pautsch with music by Allison Hendrix,
Let's Eat Mary features a fiercely talented female cast of
Chicago actors who are most definitely all "Obstinate, Headstrong Girls." In an effort to escape the constraints of the Regency era patriarchy (and their obnoxious mother), Elizabeth Bennet has convinced her sisters to escape with her in a rowboat to a desert island. However, she soon learns that being the leader of a feminist revolution is not something one can easily do once one has inadvertently exiled oneself. Jane must decide if her beauty has value when there is no one around to appreciate her fine features. Lydia and Kitty take many strolls but keep ending up back where they started, and Mary...ugh, Mary is just the worst.
Breahan Pautsch is a company member with Akvavit Theatre where she serves as Literary Manager, and is also a company member with Indie Boots Theatre.
Allison Hendrix is the Producing Artistic Director of Kokandy Productions, was recently seen as Amy in Writers' Theatre's Company.
Brooke Allen is a Chicago playwright and storyteller. Her plays
The Deer, Ruby Wilder, and
The Life and Death of Madam Barker have been produced in Chicago, New York, London and Osaka. She has performed as a storyteller with You're Being Ridiculous, Mortified, The Paper Machete, Guts and Glory, and many more.
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Ronna Wineberg
Wednesday, December 7 at 7:30 p.m.
Reading, Conversation, & Signing
Please join us for a free, in-store author event with Ronna Wineberg and Donna Baier Stein. The two authors will read from their new books and discuss the process of writing, publishing, and editing literary journals. Of
Nine Facts That Can Change Your Life,
novelist Margot Livesey says,
"
in story after story,
Ronna Wineberg shows her characters making surprising swerves and connections, reaching from the past into the present. I marvel at how much she can accomplish in a relatively small number of pages, and at how these stories stay
with me. Wineberg is a writer of lovely generosity."
Ronna Wineberg
is the author of
On Bittersweet Place
and an aw
ard-winning debut collection,
Second Language
. Her stori
es have appeared in
American Way, Michigan Quarterly Review,
and elsewhere and also been br
oadcast
on N
ational Public Radio. She is the recipient of a scholarship in fiction to the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and has been awarded a fellowship in fiction from the Ne
w York Foundation for the Arts. She is the founding fiction editor of the
Bellevue Literary Review
and lives in New York.
 Also based in New York,
Donna Baier Stein
is the author of
The Silver Baron's Wife,
which traces the rags-to-riches-to-rags life of Colorado's Baby Doe Tabor. This fascinating heroine worked in the silver mines and had two scandalous marriages. Hers is a tale of a fiercely independent woman who bucked all social expectations, becoming a key figure in the American West. Baier Stein is also the author of
Sympathetic People
(Iowa Fiction Award Finalist) and
Sometimes You Sense the Difference
. She founded and publishes
Tiferet Journal
. She has received three Pushcart nominations, a scholarship from Bread Loaf, and a fellowship from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, among other prizes. Her writing has appeared in
Ascent, Prairie Schooner, Virginia Quarterly Review,
and many other journals.
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Lucy Jane Bledsoe in conversation with Carol Anshaw
Thursday, December 8 at 7:30 p.m.
Conversation, Reading, & Signing
Join us for a conversation between acclaimed lesbian fiction authors Lucy Jane Bledsoe and Carol Anshaw. At the height of the Cold War, Lucybelle Bledsoe worked as an editor for the government, making scientific papers accessible to a general readership. Her colleagues touted her diligence and persistence and were devastated when, at the age of 43, she died in a house fire. Her niece Lucy Jane Bledsoe, then 9, had many questions about her beloved aunt; but all she was told was that she was intelligent-and unmarried. As Lucy Jane came of age, she uncovered references to her aunt's "companion" named Vera. Still, Lucy Jane wanted more. The resultant novel merges fact and fiction to create a historically accurate picture of the struggles faced by LGBT people in the 1950s and '60s and the closeting that was required for professional advancement.
A Thin Bright Line
is a love story set amid Cold War intrigue, the origins of climate research, and the nascent civil rights movement.
Lucy Jane Bledsoe is an award-
win
ning science writer and novelist for adults and children. Her many books include
The Big Bang Symphony: A Novel of Antarctica
,
Biting the Apple
, and
Working Parts
, among others. A native of Portland, Oregon, she currently lives in Berkeley, California.
Carol Anshaw is the author of the novels
Carry the One,
Lucky in the Corner,
Seven Moves, and
Aquamari
ne. She has won the Carl Sandburg, Society of Midland Authors, and Ferro-Grumley awards for fiction. Her short fiction has been anthologized and published in various periodicals, including
VLS,
Tin House, and
Best American S
hort Stories
. Anshaw is a past fellow of the Illinois Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. She teaches in the MFA in Writing program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Also a painter, Carol lives in Chicago and Amsterdam with her partner, the filmmaker Jessie Ewing.
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Saturday, December 10 at 3:00 p.m.
We'll be welcoming Chicago's greatest queens Coco Sho-Nell, Ashley Morgan, and Muffy Fishbasket--as they take a short break from performing at The Call Bar just down the street to read us their favorite holiday-themed picture books, such as How the Grinch Stole Christmas. To learn more about why Story Time with Drag Queens is popping up at libraries and bookstores across the nation and why it's so important, check out
this article.
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Tikva Wolf
Wednesday, December 14 at 7:30 p.m.
If your relationships or your gender are unconventional, you'll find useful advice and plenty of laughs in this compilation of the wildly popular webcomic Kimchi Cuddles. Quirky, endearing, and charmingly (and sometimes painfully) realistic characters, many based on real people, explore polya
mory and queer and genderqueer issues. Covering practical matters
lik
e time management and serious topics like discrimination, this book unites the best of two years of Kimchi Cuddles comics, organized into a practical and entertaining guide to the real world of alternative relationships. Dealing with both lighthearted and serious subject matter, it avoids clichés and easy answers, choosing instead to give examples from different schools of thought and show the humanity behind each one. Wolf's honesty and gift for clear
explanation have made Kimchi Cuddles a hit with th
e most dedicated polyamorists as well as curious newcomers.
Tikva Wolf comes from a long line of love activists and has been drawing ever since she could hold a
crayon. What she primarily cares about in art (and life) is
connecting to people, creating dialogue, and spreading
awareness. She lives in North Carolina.
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Holiday Coloring Book Extravaganza!
Thursday, December 15 from 7 to 8:45 p.m.
The holidays can be stressful! Come color your anxieties away with o
ur final Adult Coloring Book Night of 2016! This event is BYOB & BYOCB! All of our coloring books and colored pencils will be on sale during the event.
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Friday, December 16 from 6 to 10 p.m.
For those procrastinators among us, here is your last chance to support local businesses while shopping for friends a
 nd family...or yourself! More than 40 beloved Andersonville stores and restaurants will be once again open late, offering great savings on gifts a
nd meals, plus free refreshments and entertainment
. From 6 to 10 p.m., we'll be helping you get your last-minute holiday shopping done by taking
advantage of deals on holiday merchandise. We'll also be hosting a Reco
mmended Reading Night with local authors and other Chicago literati from 7 to 8 p.m. Details coming soon!
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