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Welcome to this episode of Here's Something Good,

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a production of the Seneca Women Podcast

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Network and I Heart Radio. Each

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day we aspire to bring you the good news, the

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silver lining, the glass half

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full, because there is good happening

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in the world everywhere, every day,

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we just need to look for and share it. Here's

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something Good for today. It's

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Pride Month, and today we're going to get some great

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reading recommendations on the topic. We'll

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hear from the owner of Violet Valley Books,

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located in a small Mississippi town

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called Water Valley. Now,

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Violet Valley Books is Mississippi's

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only l g B t Q, feminist

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and trans inclusive bookstore. The

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store was founded by Jamie Harker, who is a

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professor at the University of Mississippi

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and director of the Sarahism Center for

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Women and Gender Studies there. Today,

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we're gonna learn from Jamie what inspired her

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to Violet Valley Books, the

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authors that she thinks deserve more attention,

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and her suggestions for books to read for Pride

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Month. Here's what Jamie had to say,

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Jamie, thanks so much for joining us my pleasure

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So Violent Valley is Mississippi's

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only l g B T Q feminist

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and trans inclusive bookstore. Can

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you tell us a little bit about why you founded it

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and the impact it's had. First thing I always say

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answer this question is, as someone who loves books,

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I've always dreamed of having a bookstore. So I don't think

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anyone. I think every english Manajor Harbor's

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this secret dream. UM.

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I was working on a book for about

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seven years about Southern lesbian

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feminists and the Women in Print Movement UM

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that came out in UM

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and it was a great project with

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writers like Alice Walker and Dorothy Ali Staman,

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Bruce Pratt, Map Secrets, all these great Southern

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writers, and as I was working on it, I

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got interested in their in their books, but

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almost all of them were involved in what's known as

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the Women in Print Movement, which was this attempt

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to create an autonomous ecosystem

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for women's voices to be published and distributed.

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So you had women starting presses, starting

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bookstores, distributing writing

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for these presses, kind of creating a space

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where they felt that there wasn't a space for those particular

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perspectives in mainstream media. And

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so as I was learning about all these women, I not

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only love their books, but they were always doing these

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other amazing things like oh yeah, on the side,

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I started to press, I'm working on

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this. I have a bookstore, but when's resource center.

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And they were all doing it, you know, when they were just out

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of college and they were living in like a third floor, cold

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flat walk up with three hundred dollars in their

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bank account. They had to buy use presses

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and figure out how to set tight, you know, all these really complicated

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things. And they created this network of

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over two hundred bookstores across the country and

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all these feminist presses that published for them.

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And I thought, you know, they did all these

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really amazing things with really nothing,

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you know, they had like hardly just had

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their own desire and friends

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who maybe would network. And so I thought, if they could

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do all of that, I could do something

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small like this, like I could open a bookstore. I already

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have a salary, so I'm ahead of

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them. UM. And

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it's so much easier to do a lot of things, And it

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was back in the day. You know, you can crowdsource,

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you can fundraise online, and all

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these things made it easier. So that really got

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me thinking about this. UM and

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then this kind of perfect opportunity

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came up. This little space right

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next to my wife's restaurant came open um

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and the timing was said that there's this great space.

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It was a really good location. And

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there was also a political element that HPREE,

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which was an anti gay quote unquote

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religious freedom bill, passed in the state of Mississippi.

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Um in and everyone

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felt so kind of disheartened. The queer community

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felt really under siege. And as someone

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who both identifies with a career community

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and teaches gain lesbian classes at the University

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of Mississippi, I've really wanted

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to do something to help for youth of

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Mississippi and kind of create an inclusive

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space. UM. And since I'm an English

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professor, it made sense to open a bookstore is

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a thing that I would do. So all this kind of pain together

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UM and I when I had the right space

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open up, I decided to take the plunge.

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Even though I didn't really know anything about running a bookstore,

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I had to learn all the fly and so I founded Rolly

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Bookstore in sev And you're

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dedicated to showcasing feminist, queer

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and multicultural literature. Can you

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share some writers with us that you think deserve

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greater recognition when you

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when you ask any professor that question, you I

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could talk your ear off about it, so it's gonna to

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limit it down. UM. I was thinking about

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this question and a few of the people I

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really love. UM. There's

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a Scottish writer named Alie Smith. Her

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Quartet series has gotten a lot of attention

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based on each of the seasons. But she's

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got a great book called Girl Meets Boy,

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which is a retelling of the myth of Iphis

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And it's this whole sort of story

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of gender not conformity and queer

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love and feminist kind of connection. It's

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a beautiful little book. I've taught at students and they love

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it. So that's one I would definitely mention.

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UM. The trans journalist Samatha

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Allen has written a terrific book

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called Real Queer America LGBT store

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is from the Red States. UM that is

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takes her through queer communities in Texas,

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Indiana, Georgia, Tennessee,

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in Mississippi and Utah UM

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and it's it's a really delightful study of

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of a community that a lot of folks don't know is they're

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right they think about queer life being on the coast

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in large cities, and she really takes us into

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these thriving and very

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supportive small queer communities in these

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states that are often over the hostile in terms

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of lats UM. And then for older

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stuff, I would say, Um,

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you know, Tales of the City came out as a Netflix

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series recently, but there is a whole series

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of novels at Armisent. Mopan wrote

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Um starting in the nineteen seventies. There are nine

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novels in the Tales and the City series, and

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they are a really delightful study of queer

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life in San Francisco, um in ways

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that are often funny and unexpected and bring

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all these different communities together. So I

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think he's gotten attention since that Netflix series

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came out, but I don't know that everyone knows what a long

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prehistory Tales of the the City has um,

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and it's worth going back to the beginning and reading through.

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I'll pause there because I could keep going for a long

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time. And lastly, in honor

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of Pride Month, do you have any books by l

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g B t Q authors or any literature

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that you recommend for allies who want

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to learn more. That's a really interesting

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question. Um. One of the books we always

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carry in the bookstore is The A. B. C's of

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lgbt Q, and it's

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a really good introduction to identities

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and it talked about all the identity flags

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and the way people think about gender and sexuality,

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and it's a good sort of primer for folks

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to come in UM. I always

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like to refer folks to history

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about especially about the regions that are in UM.

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One of the classics is a queer Mississippi

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history called Men Like That by John Howard, and

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it's a book I always have in this store. And he basically

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had to invent a whole new way of analyzing

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and seeing queer community in Mississippi because

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most of our models are based on urban urban

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patterns, so gay bars, gay

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bookstores, gay neighborhoods, um,

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gay businesses, gay activism, and

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when there are these explicit areas

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and explicit businesses, you think there's no queer

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community. But what John Howard does is

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find other ways to identify how

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queer folks have always created networks

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of support and connection. And so it's

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a book I read my first semester when

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I moved to Mississippi, and it just completely

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blew my mind. It maybe see the entire state

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in a different way. So history books

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like that could really help to to frame

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and let us see the blind spots we bring.

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Um. And the final thing I'd probably mentioned that that

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I think I'm going to teach next time I do interest in gender

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studies is Gabby Rivera is why

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novel Juliet takes a breath and it's

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a really great study of latinos.

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Uh. You know women in college who travels

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from New York to Portland, and you've got all

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these different kinds of queer communities, explorations

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of identity and terminology in ways that are really accessible,

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um and interesting. So those will

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be a few, I guess, little little gems to

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start with. And of course I'm always happy to talk

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queer books of it and wants to send me an email and

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talk more all lower case Violet

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Value Books at gmail dot com and

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we also have a website Violet Valley dot

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org Violet Valley Books.

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What a great store with an important mission

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and what a great reading list from Jamie Harker.

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So here's something good for today. First,

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Jamie was inspired to start Violet Valley

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Books by the women who came before her.

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She's following in the footsteps of the Women's

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Imprint movement, which aimed to make a space

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for women by starting women Don't presses, publishers

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and bookstores. The effort continues

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today through Jamie and Violet Valley Books

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in Mississippi. Second,

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whether you're celebrating Pride Month or any other

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time of the year, there's always an opportunity

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to learn more from l g b t Q, feminist

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and trans inclusive authors. Jamie

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gave us some great reading recommendations, including

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the A. B. C's of lgbt Q and

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Gabby Rivera's novel Juliet Takes

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a Breath. Finally, you

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can find more wonderful books at

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Violet Valley dot org. Thank

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you for listening, and please share Today's Something

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Good with others in your life. This is

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Kim Azzarelli, co author of Fast Forward

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and co founder of Seneca Women. To learn

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more about Seneca Women, go to Seneca Women

9:20

dot com or download the Seneca Women app

9:23

free in the app store. Care Something

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Good is a production of the Seneca Women podcast

9:27

network and I Heart Radio Have a

9:29

Great Day. For

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