Metro Weekly

Editor’s Pick: East City Bookshop’s LGBTQ-Related Readings

The independent, women-owned bookstore is launching "Queering the Narrative," a new monthly gathering to explore queer themes in literature

Kate Kelly -- Photo: Xavi Dussaq/El Pais
Kate Kelly – Photo: Xavi Dussaq/El Pais

Six years after opening a block from Eastern Market, East City Bookshop has lived up to its goals of becoming a gathering place for the growing greater Capitol Hill community and also for book lovers of all ages.

All identities and orientations, too.

Case in point: On Monday, June 20, the independent, women-owned bookstore launches “Queering the Narrative,” a new monthly gathering to discuss and explore queer experiences, themes, and authors in literature.

Each month’s gathering will focus on a specific genre, kicking off with a look at LGBTQ themes in romance novels. The goal of the club is to offer a safe space to discuss queer issues and to help engender a local community of queer adults.

There are at least two other events at East City Bookshop in June of particular note to LGBTQ readers.

On Thursday, June 9, the store offers a hybrid event, with limited in-person seating as well as a virtual broadcast via Zoom, featuring a discussion between out feminist activist Kate Kelly and Virginia Delegate Danica Roem, the first out-and-seated transgender state legislator in American history.

The focus is on Kelly’s new book Ordinary Equality: The Fearless Women and Queer People Who Shaped the U.S. Constitution and the Equal Rights Amendment.

Two weeks later, on Friday, June 17, the bookstore offers another hybrid event, this time featuring gay Washingtonian and bestselling historical fiction writer Louis Bayard.

The event is focused on his latest novel, Jackie & Me, said to offer a fresh perspective on the romance between John and Jackie Kennedy.

All events start at 7 p.m.

East City Bookshop is at 645 Pennsylvania Ave. SE.

Call 202-290-1636 or visit www.eastcitybookshop.com.