oc goes soho
Back in the day (sorry, Stephen—I know how you feel about that phrase) my organization shared a lovely brick building in SoHo with a fellow literary nonprofit called Poets House and the corporate headquarters of Marc Jacobs . Although my coworkers are generally snazzy dressers, it was always clear in the lobby who worked for which company. My org was a holdover from the days when SoHo was home to actual artists, not just high-end galleries. Sometime in the mid-2000s, rent crept up so high that Poets House had to leave.* Shortly thereafter, my coworkers overheard a couple of Marc Jacobs employees talking in the elevator: “One poet company down, one to go.” Within a year, my org was out of there as predicted (to very nice but unnerving digs near Ground Zero), and Marc Jacobs took over the whole building. So it was more than a little ironic when they opened up a bookstore on Bleeker Street, called Bookmarc . Now there’s one in L.A. too; AK’s friend from school works there. She’s a form...