Lauren Anderson was close with Daniel HoSang, Yale Professor of Ethnicity, Race, and Migration and American Studies, before she even opened the Possible Futures bookstore during August of 2022. Professor HoSang has taught Introduction to Ethnicity, Race, and Migration (ER&M200), Anti-Racist Curriculum and Pedagogy (ER&M 391), and Eugenics and Its Afterlives (AFAM455), many popular courses in his discipline. He is also a member of the Yale New Haven Teachers Institute and the Anti-Rascist Teaching Collective. I met Lauren for the first time behind the register as I browsed around the colorful and cozy store; we then connected later on as she shared her insight into the book space and its connection to Yale. She speaks fondly of HoSang, and his early encouragement in 2022 to open a place in New Haven where she could build community around books and where he could send students to buy texts for his class. Along with encouragement from others and a strong personal desire to educate her community, Lauren opened the doors of Possible Futures about a year and a half ago.
This charming community bookspace, identifying as a cross between a reading room and an independent bookstore, welcomes you the moment you step inside. The first time I visited, I was in awe of the bright colors and quirky decorations which lined the walls, integrated with the many many books on the shelves. Possible Futures heavily prioritizes representing historically underrepresented authors who haven’t been given the same public platforms as others. Common themes represented are race, sexuality, self exploration and more. Through these books, the store hopes to positively impact all generations, older and especially younger, in learning about topics that could help them better understand themselves and the world around them.
Professor HoSang hopes that by buying their texts at Possible Futures, students will be introduced to a new place to find books. Professor HoSang also encourages his students to attend Possible Futures events such as author visits including the Black Children’s Book Week Author and Signing and the Grand Tour: Reading and Signing with Elisa Gonzalez. He also encourages them to attend the store’s book clubs such as the short-reads-for-busy-people book club and the YA book club. These can serve as another way to engage with other New Haven residents and each other. Though if students choose to buy from Possible Futures, they have to commit time to walk over to the store from campus, anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes, and purchase their texts in person. This is a more time consuming activity than just doing what’s easiest, and buying them off Amazon or making the quicker trip to the campus bookstore. However, if students do decide to make the trip, Professor HoSang notices, “In every case once they do it they are really really glad” and “many students just continue to go there, read there, meet people there etc.”
Lauren Anderson began her career as a teacher and professor before opening Possible Futures. She taught classes about the history of US schooling pre colonial to present, and about critical pedagogy, critical literacy, and the literary landscape for children and young adults. Her previous experience in education positioned opening the bookstore as a natural next step, and her collaboration with teachers and institutions was an even more meaningful project. Anderson tells me that from 2022 to the present, she has worked with teachers both formally and informally, providing texts, hosting events and meetings, and book clubs, such as the educators’ book club. When it comes to Yale, she says that professors mostly reach out to her to work together as they hear about the store from their colleagues. Starting in the spring of 2024, Possible Futures will become involved with Yale’s Prison Education Initiative, spearheaded by Professor of History, African American Studies, and Law, Elizabeth Hinton. This initiative was started by inmates, who had been a part of a prison education program in which they received books to read, who now want to collect these books and give them back to their community. Possible Futures will be one of the project’s partners in distributing the inmates’ books back to people in-store and to others behind bars. These inmates have started donating books back to the bookstore as part of a project called “Love Beyond the Bars.” Possible Futures works to bring together people who care about issues such as anti-racist teaching, restorative justice, and equitable housing.
One of the most pressing issues for Anderson is finding financial support to be able to donate books to local young people, families, public school classrooms, and allied organizations as well as selling them to those who can afford it: this is where the BookJoy fund comes in. Lauren tells me that this fund “is a pay-it-forward account” where people can donate money to pay for books that the store gives local young people and their families. This money also goes towards New Haven public school visits; if a school is doing an event at the store around teaching a specific book, the store can provide copies. Lauren tells me that “books feed our dreams” and “give us information about what we could be and what we could do,” so this fund is an essential part of achieving their mission to provide them to people.
Although this space is technically a bookstore, Lauren describes the selling of books in the back rooms of the store as a means to provide something potentially more impactful, the community reading room. The community reading room is situated at the front of the store, looking out the large windows onto Edgewood Avenue, bathing in sunlight. During my visit to the store, I was able to see the reading room in action: a group of women were sitting around in a circle discussing how they were attempting to open their students’ minds and help them think through topics such as race and inclusion. This bi-weekly knitting group open to all levels of knitters and crocheters is only one of many groups set up for people to come together and join in community activities. Whether it is discussing weekly readings as part of a book club, or attending talks and readings by prominent authors, people find space at Possible Future to engage with each other and the texts around them. In Anderson’s words, through their book clubs, Possible Futures makes an effort to invite “intergenerational and multiracial connection.” A few of these clubs include the Educator Book Club, the 100 Years of Baldwin Book Club, and the Short-Reads-for-Busy-People Book Club. The number of people in each book club ranges from as few as five to as many as 30, but Lauren believes that “organizing is not about numbers, it’s about presence” and sometimes the smallest book clubs foster the strongest connections.
When I asked Lauren what her best sellers were, she told me that this was a hard question to answer. She explained that oftentimes the obvious books are not always the best sellers, and the store really makes an effort to shelve a curated collection of what they believe has lasting meaning—not just the ones that sell the best. However, she did describe these best-sellers as diverse: children’s books, queer children’s books, graphic novels, nonfiction, and lots of Baldwin. She also discussed how current events played a role in what books were sold. For example, many books by Palestinian authors are being sold right now, such as 100 Years War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi. Their presence and proximity to Yale also play a role in selling a specific book, In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower by Davarian L. Baldwin, which is a book of particular interest to New Haven residents.
This bookstore filled with bright colors and comforting vibes is the perfect place for students to get off campus, meet new people, and check out some books while also escaping the grasp Amazon can have on us all. Tucked on the corner of a small side street, Possible Futures creates a little sanctuary perfect for a change of scenery and some fun reads.
