By Maria Asimopoulos
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
The first level houses the books: works by James Baldwin and Edgar Allan Poe sit on wooden surfaces, greeting people as they walk in. But the upstairs is bare, ready and waiting for artists, actors and musicians to fill the room with life.
Independent bookstore Charm City Books opened Oct. 5 in Baltimore’s Pigtown as a space for artists and bookworms alike.
Daven Ralston, 30, had the idea to open an independent bookstore with the support of her husband, Joseph Carlson, 35. Carlson said their shared love for teaching and art meant they had always desired to have a space where they could facilitate work and community events by fellow artists.
“Being artists, you are in a lot of ways not empowered,” Ralston said. “A lot of times artists have this desire to create or skill-share, and they don’t have the space to do it, and so I think that is another reason we wanted to empower artists and say, ‘Look, we’re artists. Here’s what we can do.’”
Carlson, who studied theater performance and holds an MFA in acting, has experience in turning unused spaces into what he calls “a hub of activity,” which influenced the couple’s decision to keep the books on the first level but keep the second floor available as a creative space for events.
Through Charm City Books, the two of them wanted to have “the ability to give other artists a space to practice their craft and do the work that they might not get to do otherwise, for whatever number of reasons.”
Carlson said he once put on a production of As You Like It by Shakespeare in Battery Park, Va. Over 500 people came, and he donated whatever money he made selling concessions out of a friend’s old pickup truck to park services.
Daven Ralston, owner of Charm City Books, works on her laptop in her favorite sunny spot near the front of the bookstore. Photo by Maria Asimopoulos.
“Theater became this tool for community engagement, synergy between different organizations, and then something that also then gave back and had a positive impact on the community,” he said.
In addition to selling books and providing a place for artists to share skills, they also hope to donate books to local schools through their Pay It Forward program.
A new wish list will be posted each month. The idea behind the program is that people can choose to purchase a book from the wish list to be donated, and Charm City Books will donate any titles that remain.
“For kids that are below the poverty line, it’s like one book for every 300 kids in Baltimore, which is awful,” Ralston said.
They are hoping to be able to turn the program into a fully nonprofit wing of the business as time goes on.
“One of the things that I just feel really strongly about is the importance of access to books and how much of a difference it makes in your success if you know how to read,” Ralston said.
Ralston has a degree in English literature and Spanish from the University of Virginia and is the sole curator of books for the shop. Her curation process involves looking at catalogues that publishers put out, bestseller lists, and posts by avid readers on Instagram.
The store currently holds over 2,000 books. Ralston said she tries to be conscious of purchasing books by people of color, LGBTQ+ authors, and women.
“I’m making a very conscious effort to reflect the neighborhood that we’re in, and the demographics of the neighborhood, and to highlight the stories and the art of women and people of color because we just don’t often see that,” she said.
Ralston and Carlson arrived in the building Sept. 15 and got to work on renovations, which only took about three weeks.
Their newly opened creative space used to be a police substation. They made space for a front desk and shelving by ripping out what Ralston called an “interrogation cube,” a small office in the center of the main room.
They decided to open at 782 Washington Blvd. in Pigtown after speaking to Kim Lane, the executive director of Pigtown Main Street, a nonprofit organization that works to retain and attract commercial businesses to the area.
“I’m a huge book lover and reader, so personally I was thrilled,” Lane said.
Charm City Books opened four months after a community survey identified a bookstore as a top priority for potential new businesses, following closely behind a grocery store and a pub restaurant.
“That just also felt almost karmic, because I think it was the next month that Daven called me,” Lane said. “An independent bookstore is a wonderful thing for a neighborhood. It creates a sense of community.”
The opening was a two-day event that ran through Sunday and featured 10 different activities or performances, including bouquet-making, yoga, and live music by local jazz artist Brandon Woody.
“I told the band, it was like libations were poured over this space,” Carlson said. “It was so beautiful.”
Ralston said that it was so packed that the couple was tired by the end of the weekend, but that it was “awesome” to see support from the neighborhood.
“It was a celebration of all of these locally talented, amazing people, and the neighborhood just really showed up,” Ralston said, adding that people came from other neighborhoods too—and even other states, like Virginia and Pennsylvania. “It was very good to feel like, in a small way, there was a mixing, and a blending, and a communication between the neighborhoods.”
There are a number of events lined up for the end of October, including an acting class for kids from ages 8 to 12 and a Halloween Extravaganza that will include a costume contest.
YouTube videos will be made about the events that take place in Charm City Books’ second floor in order to make skill-sharing and creativity accessible to as many people as possible, Carlson said.
“If
somebody has something they feel passionate about and dream of doing, I think
we’re just the type of people that are like, alright, well, let’s put the full
force of our energies behind it,” Carlson said. “We just want to serve and do
good work, and that’s really at our core.”