San Jose mourns loss of Sisterspirit Bookstore

“There were no places like this when we started,” said Margie Struble, of San Jose, who has been a volunteer and guiding force at Sisterspirit for 24 of the 26 years it’s been open. “Many people met their partners here.”

But now, after a quarter of a century, Sisterspirit will be closing its doors for good, another victim of online sales and mainstream bookstores.

Founded in 1984 as a collective by four women who dreamed of a more involved women’s community in the South Bay, Sisterspirit quickly developed a core group of supporters and at one time had 40 volunteers. For the first two years, the founding mothers arranged “coffee houses” in other locations. Then, the bookstore became a physical reality when it rented a large space in the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center. Just over a year ago, the center received a grant for a youth group and Sisterspirit was asked to move upstairs to a space barely 200 square feet, a move Struble saw as the beginning of the end.

via Story continues at San Jose Mercury News.