We have a dream!

Our Story

Over the last 36 years, Charis has been much more than a “place;” we’ve heard so many of our constituents say, “Charis saved my life.”  Many others quite simply describe Charis as a feeling, much like that of “coming home.”  We believe that, with the economy, the political climate, and the current and future financial landscape of the world being tenuous, our community needs us more than ever.  We also believe that there is no better time than now to expand the haven that has been a lighthouse for so many—so, WE HAVE A DREAM!  And the dream is to build Atlanta’s Premier Feminist Community Center.  And we believe that our constituents believe in us and in what we stand for enough to help make this dream a reality.

To be sure, CHARIS will continue to be a safe place to land; a place of books and a place where diverse, marginalized and feminist voices will be heard.  The mission of Charis Circle will remain the same.  The difference is that we will also offer a larger community space where individuals and organizations can come together to share their social, intellectual, activist, cultural, and spiritual lives.

Our Vision

The biggest change will occur when we acquire and move to a new location, projected to occur at the end of 2011. We’re looking for a building to house the Center that is in a central, retail location with a lot of foot traffic and adequate parking.  Our dream is that the building is large enough, at least 3,000 to 4,000 square feet, to include the following offerings:

• Bookstore
• Reading space
• Coffee/Snack Shop
• Charis Circle Office Space
• Large Conference Room
• Large Space for Programs (seating 250)
• Bathrooms
• Kitchen
• Library
• Archive/Museum Room
• Business Room
• Meeting Rooms
• Offices to Rent
• And more

Bitch is the new Black

On December 10th 2009, The Washington Post published a front-page profile of Helena Andrews that was hugely popular and prompted responses from The Huffington Post, Jezebel, and Racialicious. In the article, “Single Minded Success,” Helena explained her work, life and love: “What I am trying to say about single black women is, you don’t know them as well as you think you do. They may not know themselves as well as they think they do.”

Her first book, a memoir told in parts titled Bitch Is the New Black, chronicles Helena’s journey from the kidnapped daughter of the town lesbian to the Washington reporter who can’t remember a single senator’s name, to the girl who runs her love life on G-chat. Don’t miss your chance to meet this hilarious and provocative author.

Come to Charis Books and More on Wednesday July 14th to hear more!

Shakin’ The Mess Outta Misery – Shay Youngblood – Horizon Theatre

Charis Circle is thrilled to announce a special benefit performance
of Shay Youngblood’s “Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery”
at Horizon Theatre on June 29, 2010

TICKETS
Individual tickets to the performance – $25

One ticket to the play, open seating
Circle Supporter
$60 for one or $100 for two

Join us for an intimate reception with playwright
Shay Youngblood over wine and light snacks before the
performance. You will receive preferred seating for the
performance while showing your support for Charis Circle.
Proceeds will benefit Charis Circle.

Shay Youngblood is the Georgia-born and award-winning author of the novels “Black Girl in Paris” and “Soul Kiss”, the short fiction collection “The Big Mama Stories”, and the plays “Amazing Grace”, “Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery” and “Talking Bones”, among others. Winner of the Pushcart Prize for fiction, the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, numerous NAACP Theater Awards, and many other honors, Ms. Youngblood’s work has been published in “O” magazine, “Good Housekeeping”, “Black Book”, “Essence”, and beyond. A native of Columbus, Georgia, Ms. Youngblood graduated from Clark-Atlanta University and received her MFA in Creative Writing from Brown University. She is currently Writer in Residence at Texas A&M University.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said of “Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery”: “Extraordinary… [The] stage throbs with humor and drums with sadness.” The play is a joyous, exuberant celebration of the coming of age of a young girl and the eight loving Big Mamas who raised her. As this circle of diverse Southern women prepare their daughter to go to the river – her rite of passage into womanhood – they share stories that are at once funny, sad, magical, and touching tales of survival and healing.
Shay Youngblood is one of many accomplished authors who got her start working behind the counter at Charis Books and More. Charis is pleased to welcome back Shay Youngblood, who has been giving readings and performances at the bookstore for more than two decades. Join us to celebrate the reunion of Charis and Shay – two of Atlanta’s unique treasures.

Nurturing Art, Loving Ourselves – The Nalo Movement

Nalo -A West African name meaning “beloved daughter”.

The inspiration for the collective began when co-directors B. Sokari Brown & Katina Grays traveled to Ghana together in 2007. It was during this excursion, that the mission to use art as a catalyst for healing was born. Founded in 2009, The NALO Movement is an Atlanta-based collective of womanist performing artists dedicated to telling the told and untold stories of black women through theater, song, poetry, and dance. These stories provide a lens and a context for contemporary black women’s experience. The NALO Movement uses original performance art to explore the dynamic life experience of black women in its many facets, while providing transformation, healing, and education through artistic mediums.

The Cast (from L to R): Chanel Jaali Marshall, Laura Cornelius, Kizzy Louis, Charla Johnson, Benita Sokari Brown, Mshairi ‘Tiedra’ Siyanda, Katina Grays

For more information, contact nalomovement@gmail.com or (678) 561-NALO

Inside Access- Fun Stuff to do In Atlanta – Jamie Gumbrecht

“New stories about the death book stores (and books, for that matter) pop up all the time, but rare is the long-lasting success story. We’re lucky to have one in our city, at Charis Books and More the little lavender mainstay off Moreland Avenue in Little Five Points.

The feminist book store and Charis Circle, a non-profit programming arm, will celebrate the store’s 35th year in business next month with readings, discussions and sales. The story has regular workshops and events, too, but I tend to spend my hours there browsing the bookshelves.”

Read the Article

Atlanta’s Charis Books and More: Histories of a Feminist Space

“During the 1970s, members of a lesbian-feminist community centered in Little Five Points/Candler Park patronized Charis because, as one respondent put it, “it was in the neighborhood, and women ran it.”2 The “woman-identified” philosophy that this statement describes, along with the importance of written texts to the lesbian-feminist movement, led Atlanta’s lesbian feminists to visit Charis often to shop and to talk to the store’s owners, and eventually to work there as volunteers.3 Charis’s owners, as we will see, welcomed this type of involvement. Over time the store itself, founded as a community bookstore with an emphasis on theology, women’s fiction, and a large selection of nonsexist and nonracist children’s books, was absorbed into the local lesbian-feminist community and developed into a feminist bookstore featuring lesbian-feminist books and run predominantly by lesbians. The store-community relationship was reciprocal and dialectical, with each entity both supporting and being supported by the other.”

Read more at Southern Spaces.

UTNE Reader: 50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World

Alexis Pauline Gumbs has been named by UTNE Reader as one of 50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World

Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a queer black feminist, and a PhD candidate in English, Africana Studies and Women’s Studies at Duke University. Alexis is the founder of BrokenBeautiful Press and the instigator of the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind multi-media educational movement.

Along with Queer Renaissance founder Julia Wallace, Alexis is embarking on a national multi-media, interactive documentation project lifting up the social organizing herstories of black same gender loving women called the MobileHomeComing Project.

You can see Alexis on Thursday November 5th moderating Founding the Future: A Conversation with Beverly Guy Sheftall & Gloria Steinem

SOVO: A Safe Space: Charis Books & More celebrates 35 years

“THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, Pearl Cleage took her infant daughter to Charis, a brand new bookstore that provided a safe space as well as resources for feminists seeking knowledge and empowerment.”

Read the rest of the article.

Charis announces a Twitter contest!

To celebrate our 35th Birthday, Charis is having a Twitter contest where you have a chance to win a pair of tickets to either our Founding the Future or Artists & Revolutionaries event! We will be giving away a pair of tickets to two lucky winners!

To enter, just tweet, “RT to win tickets! @chariscircle celebrates 35 years with Steinem, Walker, the Indigo Girls and others! For tickets: www.chariscircle.org.”

You can retweet once everyday up until 11/2/09 for another chance to win. Winners will be announced 11/2/09.

If you aren’t already on Twitter, sign up now and start following @chariscircle to keep up with us online!

A note from Charis: Why 35 is a big deal

Charis Circle is bringing incredible feminist voices together to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of Charis Books & More. These events will benefit Charis Circle, the nonprofit sister organization of Charis Books, which brings all of Charis’ feminist programming to our community. Charis Circle became a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in 1996 to take over all Charis programming, community education and outreach.

You may not know that only 14, yes 14, feminist bookstores remain in the United States – down from over 120 feminist bookstores in 1994. In the current economy, Charis Circle needs your support more than ever. This celebration is an opportunity to build sustainability for this critical community resource that we all love. You are Charis and your participation in these Charis Circle fundraising events is a statement of feminist activism. Join Gloria Steinem, Alice Walker, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Pearl Cleage, and the Indigo Girls to continue building sustainable feminist community in Atlanta for another 35 years. Thank you in advance for your generosity.

To find out about host committee and sponsorship opportunities, please contact Kelley Alexander at
kelley@chariscircle.org

To learn more about ongoing ways to give to Charis Circle, please see donation options.