When Nyssa Frank, owner of the Living Gallery, noticed that Bushwick bookstores were cropping up like dandelions (Mellow Pages, Molasses, and Human Relations, to name a few) she began to wonder how best to bring these very different bookstores into conversation with one another. “There are a lot of new bookstores opening, and they all should communicate and celebrate each other!” wrote Nyssa. The Living Gallery is totally community oriented; they hold cooking classes, amateur philosophy nights, and who hasn’t spent a delightful drunken evening there drawing sketches of a stranger?

It made perfect sense to try to get a literary celebration started in her gallery. Thus, Bookwick was born: a series of traveling monthly readings which will (soon, hopefully) be held at numerous venues throughout Bushwick (imagine a pub crawl but with words in addition to beers). The event is also completely open to the public. Book writers, lyricists, screenwriters, essay writers, poets, fan fiction enthusiasts – all are welcome. If you want to get involved, email the Living Gallery and submit your work. Anything between five to ten minutes long and not racist/sexist/homophobic/offensive can be read.

The next Bookwick event is going to be held around the end of April. So gather up your best art-that-features-sentences and email it to Nyssa! In the mean time, you can check out the new location of The Living Gallery at 1094 Broadway at their grand opening BYO Art Event on April 6, 2013, 7 to 11PM. The new space will be exactly the same as the old one, except better. More freedom, more live music, yoga classes, dance lessons, etc. The Living Gallery is devoted to creating an open space where the community can chill and learn and have fun together, and Bookwick is just one more incarnation of a fabulous project.