Crow & Co. and Bent Paddle Team Up For “Queer and Weird” Bookstore
DULUTH, Minn. — Duluth is home to many small businesses, and when they team up, it’s always something special.
‘Crow and Company To Go’ is teaming up with Bent Paddle to host a bi-weekly “queer and weird” bookstore. They hope that their selection of books will be able to share and uplift the stories of marginalized groups while supporting local businesses.
“We had been thinking about this idea of doing queer, weird, and wonderful books. Very focused, very curated selection,” said Sara Crow, co-owner of Crow & Co. To Go. “We kind of looked all over town, and I just felt like it would be better to work with a lot of these really amazing businesses in Duluth. I’ve been coming to Duluth since I was like three, and my wife and I have been coming again for the last 15 or so years. There’s just so much that we love about Duluth as a city, and all of the other great businesses in town. So we really wanted to capitalize on that, and cooperate with these amazing businesses that exist here and lift each other up.”
They emphasize how important it is to Crow & Company that people who may not always be represented are uplifted by their work, no matter the genre.
“My favorite genres, even in literary fiction are like magical realism type books, and then sci-fi and stuff like that. Bringing that to people, and giving them the chance to try something that’s a little outside of the norm. Giving people the opportunity to experience stories both for folks who are from marginalized groups, and queer groups, and things like that, seeing themselves expressed in story is really important to me. But also having an opportunity to have people who aren’t in those groups experience those stories, and build empathy and understanding to people that they might not necessarily know, is really really important to me too. I think story is very importantly transformative, it helps you to understand people a little bit better, and when those people don’t look or have the lives that you have, I think that’s super important too.” said Crow.
If you missed this week’s “boozy books” and would like to participate in the future, you can keep an eye on Crow and Co’s Facebook page for their next events.
