PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The country’s oldest LGBTQ book store in Philadelphia is now hosting a queer book club series, intending to raise money for HIV/Aids research, and people living with HIV.
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The Philly AIDS Thrift at Giovanni’s Room in the Gayborhood introduces titles focusing on LGBTQ literature, supporting Queer rights, love, and good storytelling. Danny Malone will host Philly’s Queer Club at the bookstore once a month.
Chris Cirillo, a manager at Giovanni’s Room, says the book selections are in alignment with the organization’s mission.
“We are the oldest longest running queer bookstore in the country,” he said. “There was a time where they thought Giovanni’s Room wasn’t going to exist anymore, then Philly Aids Thrift came in and bought the store in 2014 and we’ve been slowly building ourselves up since then.”
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Giovanni’s Room was founded in 1973, starting at a building on South Street. Since then, they expanded their book collection, with the store holding well over 7,000 titles.
Interest in the club book selections brings in new people every day, and after a hard couple of years, the business is welcome. Cirillo says he believes the book club is a way to begin leaving the pandemic behind & reconnecting with the communities.
“It just seemed [like] a really good way for people to re-engage with the store, with each other, and have interesting conversation,” he said.
The next book meeting will be held on December 1 at 6 p.m., where the featured book will be The Days of Afrekete.
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