Business & Tech

'Pop-Hop' Book Store Setting Up Shop at Ave. 50 and York

The new shop would function as both a screen printing shop and a used book store.

A new indepedent book store and print shop is slated to open in early 2012 in the former location of .

According to Sarah Balcomb, a Highland Park resident who is working with partner Robey Clark to open the new business, Pop Hop Books & Curio "will be a creative retail space merging a bookshop and print studio, which will offer workshops, classes, talks, readings, performances and other creative programs."

"Our goal is to make it a place that fosters inspiration and action in equal measure," Balcomb said.

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"We want to create a space that embodies everything that is great about independent book stores, and then up the ante by offering a laboratory for people to create their own bound and printed matter," Clark said.

Balcomb said she also imagined Pop-Hop as a place where community members could hang out and exchange ideas.

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"Pop Hop, for me, is all about reinventing the concept of the independent book store as community art center," she said. "A book store is one of the few retail environments, outside of cafes and bars, where people actually hang out."

Balcomb and Clark recently launched a Kickstarter donation page to help raise seed money to support artistic programming at Pop Hop. 

"The retail portion of Pop Hop will help fund our programming, but without assistance from outside donors through organizations like Kickstarter, we probably won't be able to survive.

Those interested in donating to support the launch of Pop Hop can view their Kickstarter page here.


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