Nonbinarian Book Bike's First Store Will Open Next Month in Crown Heights

The Nonbinarian Bookstore, possibly the first in Brooklyn to carry exclusively queer books, is setting up shop at 1130 President Street in Crown Heights. The store will be open to the public from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily starting Friday, November 8.

The Nonbinarian Bookstore is an expansion of the Nonbinarian Book Bike, a mutual aid effort that’s been delivering free queer books around Brooklyn for about two years via a bright pink cargo bike. K. Kerimian, a veteran bookseller, started the bike as a way to get books by LGBTQ+ authors into people’s hands in book deserts (geographic areas where it might be hard for people to access books) across Brooklyn.

Kerimian sees opening the store as a way to do that year-round. The store will sell new and used books, but Kerimian plans to offer some free stock as well.

“It’s going to be new and used inventory, but we’re also going to have a gay-what-you-can sponsored wall for folks. If they can’t afford books, we’re still going to be doing free,” Kerimian said.

Last Friday, Kerimian set up the bike on the sidewalk in front of their new corner location, whose front entrance faces Rogers Avenue. They introduced themselves to neighbors who walked by and joyfully shouted, “Free queer books! Actually free!”

Person after person stopped to browse.

One neighbor picked up a copy of “Greedy” by Jen Winston and a sticker of a cartoon bird with the bisexual flag incorporated into its wings. “I feel so seen,” they said, holding up the sticker.

Soon after, a grandmother asked if Kerimian might have books for her 3-year-old granddaughter in French. They told her that while they didn’t have any on hand, they would do their best to try to find some for the store.

Connecting to the community around them like this is important to Kerimian and the devoted group of volunteers involved with the bike. It’s why they had been searching for a location in and around Crown Heights for the store and jumped on the ground floor space on the corner of President and Rogers next to Polly’s Cafe. (The storefront was previously home to women’s clothing boutique Cloth.) Not only does the group store the bike nearby, they’ve also frequented Brower Park to do book giveaways and partnered with the Community Pride Center two blocks away.

“We didn’t want to just show up as if we didn’t have a connection at all,” Kerimian said. Instead, they wanted a location in a neighborhood where people might know the bike and the work they’ve been doing. In Crown Heights, Kerimian said, they’ll often get people calling out to them in recognition as they ride by.

When they first started the Nonbinarian Book Bike two years ago, Kerimian never imagined that it would turn into a brick-and-mortar store. They had thought about trying to find some kind of permanent home, but didn’t picture a retail shop. However, after the bike grew – they gave away around 1,500 books last year – other volunteers kept bringing it up. Kerimian said that it almost felt like they were the last to know.

“It’s a real show of faith from the people who have been foundational in building the Nonbinarian Book Bike that we’ve grown to be ready to even consider a future beyond the bike as it is, that the people around me saw something that I wasn’t ready to see,” Kerimian said.

After talking it through, the idea of a retail store that could also be that extension of the bike, a gathering space, and an access point for queer-centered books for all ages started to take shape.

In addition to providing books and community space, part of what Kerimian wants to do with the Nonbinarian Bookstore is champion LGBTQ+ authors. Alyssa Lo, who’s been volunteering with the Nonbinarian since July of 2023 and works in the publishing industry, is excited at the prospect of a fully queer inventory. Beyond the focus on queer authors, the Nonbinarian will not be bound in any way by genre and will stock books that range from nonfiction to vacation reads to poetry.

“I think it’s really lovely that we are finally at a place where there is enough queer literature being published that we can stock a whole store,” Lo said.

Lo also pointed out how meaningful titles by and about queer people can be for readers. At one point while they were volunteering with the bike at Herbert Von King Park in Bed Stuy, Lo said, an older man walked up, pointed at a pamphlet about asexuality, and said simply, “that’s me.” He took the pamphlet with him.

“Everyone deserves to see themselves on the shelves, and I want the bookstore to be a place where we can hold all those stories and more,” Lo said.

Kerimian, who previously worked at Greenlight Bookstore, among other places, is currently the store’s only employee, but they plan to formalize a worker-owned cooperative structure come spring, when the store is ready to sustain a bigger staff. Some of the store’s first worker-owners will be the same volunteers who were integral to making the bike a success. The store will operate in tandem with the mutual aid bicycle, which will continue to make stops during the warmer months. Kerimian also has plans to use the space for community events, and of course, keep giving away free books when they can. Actually free.

[Photos by Briana Brady]

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