(SPOT.ph) It doesn't take much to start a ripple. Gantala Press—a volunteer-run independent publisher of Filipino feminist works—is working on finally opening their own brick-and-mortar shop in Cubao Expo, Quezon City. The Gantala Press bookshop will be launched on March 21. And if you want to be part of this initiative, you can help create the country's first Filipina feminist bookstore by donating through their Go Get Funding page. The organization is hoping to raise P500,000 by August 9; This will be enough to keep the shop afloat while allowing Gantala Press to continue creating more books and projects to grow their space.
"We see this as a valuable contribution to the dwindling spaces of learning: here and elsewhere, less and less bookshops thrive," reads the statement on their funding page. The planned space in Cubao Expo, it continues, will serve as more than just a bookshop; It's where they can finally hold events—such as their annual all-women art fair-slash-small press expo—workshops, exhibits, and whatever else to cultivate a place where women, and everybody in general, can come and learn.
Gantala Press works with women from all sectors to push their stories out into the public. Take for example, Makisawsaw: Recipes x Ideas, a different kind of cook book borne out of the plight of permanently contractual workers of condiment-maker NutriAsia Inc.; Talinghaga ng Lupa: Mga Tula is a collection of poetry written by Filipina farmers in their own languages; and much more. A part of all sales are returned to "the communities from whom the narratives are drawn and which they ultimately serve."
Having a shop not only literally cements the space for a Filipina feminist bookstore, but it will also help the initiative grow. Gantala Press began in 2015, and now five years later, a bookshop seems almost overdue.Â
Gantala Press is aiming to raise half a million pesos to get the bookstore rolling. These funds will cover operations for at least two years "during which we seek to facilitate income-generating activities to sustain the space and the feminist work that it is able to foster." Fingers crossed we soon see more spaces like these!
To donate, visit the Gantala Press Go Get Funding page. For more information, log on to the Gantala Press Facebook page or visit the Gantala Press website.
Main image from the Gantala Press Go Get Funding page
