The Ghost of Orlando Books - A Making Feminist Media Fieldtrip

08 March 2019

This week in WGS 498/ GSJ 504: Making Feminist Media, our topic was "Distribution Networks and Bookstores," so Dr Meagher planned a field trip to see the ghost of Orlando Books.

Orlando Books was an activist, progressive bookstore on Whyte Ave, 1993-2002. Drawing on news stories about the Edmonton based feminist bookstore that were published in the periodical Feminist Bookstore News, we found the store's former address (10640 Whyte Ave, now a dress shop) and learned more about the shop's role as a community hub. As Orlando Books founder Jacqueline Dumas points out, she "wanted to create an alternative space where everyone in the community would feel welcome: a bright, airy open space that carried books I hadn't been able to find in other bookstores at the time" (click here for source).