LA CASA AZUL BOOKSTORE

La Casa Azul Bookstore is dedicated to providing cultural, and educational programs via literature and art in East Harlem. It is our vision to foster public awareness and appreciation of the arts by being a focal point where people come to find unique art and books; and participate in culturally-based programs that celebrate Latino traditions and literature.

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Educator Night at the Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling!

Tuesday, December 15, 2015 4:30pm – 6:30pm Free event. register HERE 

Educator night will take place at the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling: 898 St. Nicholas Ave, at 155th Street.

Educator night is an opportunity for teachers,teaching artists, school administrators and community educators to see what the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling can offer you and your students: amazing and exciting learning opportunities you won’t find anywhere else! Gain exclusive access to the Museum, reserve visits for your students, collect useful resources, have fun networking with colleagues – and relax with a glass of wine!

La Casa Azul Pop Up Bookstore will be open and offering a 15% discount on all purchases!

Please bring a current valid school ID to show that you are a current teacher, principal, counselor, librarian, or school district staff. Valid forms of ID include: • School identification • Pay stub • Union card

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Latino Pride Center presents a book reading featuring Charles Rice-Gonzalez & Charlie Vazquez

Thursday, December 17, 7:00pm - 9:00pm - free event!

Event location: 1767 Park Ave. 4th floor New York, NY 10035

Engage in the resistant narratives of being LGBT and Latino in the Barrios of New York City. Both authors will read from their works and engage in a conversation about the experiences of “coming out” within the Latino community.

Charlie Vázquez is a Bronx-born writer of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, and director of the Bronx Writers Center. He’s the published author of two novels, several short stories, and poetry, as well as having edited two anthologies of Latino literature: The Best of PANIC!, which was based on his breakthrough East Village reading series (2008-2011,) and From Macho to Mariposa with author and cultural producer Charles Rice-González.

Charles Rice-González, born in Puerto Rico and reared in the Bronx, is a writer, long-time community and LGBT activist, co-founder and Executive Director of BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance and a Distinguished Lecturer at Hostos Community College -CUNY. His debut novel, Chulito, has received awards and recognitions from American Library Association and the National Book Critics Circle. He co-edited From Macho to Mariposa: New Gay Latino Fiction with Charlie Vazquez.

Books will be provided by La Casa Azul Bookstore.

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Educator Night at the Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling!

Tuesday, December 15, 2015 4:30pm – 6:30pm Free event. register HERE 

Educator night will take place at the Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling: 898 St. Nicholas Ave, at 155th Street.

Educator night is an opportunity for teachers,teaching artists, school administrators and community educators to see what the Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling can offer you and your students: amazing and exciting learning opportunities you won't find anywhere else! Gain exclusive access to the Museum, reserve visits for your students, collect useful resources, have fun networking with colleagues – and relax with a glass of wine!

La Casa Azul Pop Up Bookstore will be open and offering a 15% discount on all purchases!

Please bring a current valid school ID to show that you are a current teacher, principal, counselor, librarian, or school district staff. Valid forms of ID include: • School identification • Pay stub • Union card

[lacasaazulbookstore]

Characters en la Comunidad exhibit opening and book reading with Lyn di Iorio and Ernesto Quiñonez

Friday December 11, 6:30pm - 8:30pm

6:30pm - 7:30pm, reading and panel 7:30pm - 8:30pm, book signing and reception

About Bodega Dreams: The word is out in Spanish Harlem: Willy Bodega is king.  Need college tuition for your daughter?  Start-up funds for your fruit stand?  Bodega can help.  He gives everyone a leg up, in exchange only for loyalty--and a steady income from the drugs he pushes. Lyric, inspired, and darkly funny, this powerful debut novel brilliantly evokes the trial of Chino, a smart, promising young man to whom Bodega turns for a favor.  Chino is drawn to Bodega's street-smart idealism, but soon finds himself over his head, navigating an underworld of switchblade tempers, turncoat morality, and murder. In a stunning narrative combining the gritty rhythms of Junot Diaz with the noir genius of Walter Mosley, Bodega Dreams announces the arrival of a writer who The Village Voice has already hailed as "a Writer on the Verge."

About Outside the Bones: For the first time an English language novel explores the mysterious and sensuously dark world of Palo Monte, an Afro-Caribbean religio-magical belief system similar to Haitian Vodun.  The novel takes the perspective of a hilariously loud and street-toughened, but ultimately tender-hearted, New Yorker named Fina Mata.  She dabbles in witchcraft, and her unrequited love for her upstairs neighbor, the musician Chico, leads her to put a spell—or fufú—on him.  

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Holiday Paint Party! (BYOB)

December 6, 2:00pm - 4:00pm Fee: $35 for 2 people, so bring a friend!

Bring your favorite bottle of wine and release your inner-artist with our painting class!

These classes are perfect for beginners, so grab your friends, coworkers, plan a unique date and meet some creative people. It’s also a great way to decorate your apartment because you are sure to go home with a painting you can be proud of. All materials included in art class.

Fee: $35 for 2 people! – bring wine, beer or other drink of choice, must be 21 or over at attend event. Pre - registration suggested, limited seating!

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Winter coat drive at La Casa Azul Bookstore

Dates: Wednesday, December 2nd - Sunday, December 6th.

Help provide at least a little warmth this winter by donating a coat, jacket, hats and gloves this season. What do donate: new/gently used coats/jackets, all sizes accepted. The coat drive is co-sponsored by Oloshas United-Northeast through “One Warm Coat”, to benefit Homes for the Homeless; The Willing Heart CCC; and the Philadelphia Martin Luther King Jr. Association for Non-Violence, Inc. Drop off location: La Casa Azul Bookstore, 143 E. 103rd St, East Harlem, 10029

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Meet Nelson A Denis, author of War Against All Puerto Ricans - Revolution and Terror in America’s Colony.

Thursday, December 3rd, 6:30pm - 8:00pm, free event

From the US invasion of 1898 to the modern day struggle for self-determination, Nelson Denis provides a panoramic history of an island once referred to by the New York Times as a significant ”commercial value…it would be much better for [Puerto Rico] to come at once under the beneficent sway of these United States than to engage in doubtful experiments at self- government”. Based on oral histories, personal interviews, eyewitness accounts, congressional testimony, and de-classified FBI files, War Against All Puerto Ricans tells the story of a revolution integral to Puerto Rican history, but virtually unknown to the American Public:  the Puerto Rican independence revolt of 1950.

Nelson A. Denis was the editorial director of El Diaro, the largest Spanish-language newspaper in New York City, and won the Best Editorial Writing award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.  A graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, Denis served as a New York State Assemblyman (1997-2001) and he has written for the New York Daily News, Newsday and Harvard Political Review.

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Join us in celebrating Navidad en El Barrio!

Saturday, December 5, 2:00pm - 3:30pm, free event

Sing along to traditional aguinaldos and meet Sonia Manzano, author of Miracle on 133rd Street!

About the book: It’s Christmas Eve and Mami has bought a delicious roast for a Christmas feast. But, oh no! It’s too big to fit in the oven. Jose and Papa need to find an oven big enough to cook Mami’s roast. As they walk from door to door through their apartment building, no one seems to be in the Christmas spirit. So they head down the street to find someone willing to help, and only when they do, lo and behold, the scent—the itself magical smell—of dinner begins to spread, and holiday cheer manifests in ways most unexpected.

Sonia Manzano from Sesame Street and two-time Caldecott Honor-recipient Marjorie Priceman have cooked up a Christmas tale about how the simplest things—like the tantalizing smell of Christmas dinner and the sharing of it—can become a holiday miracle. December 5th is also Take a child in your life to a bookstore day, part of a national campaign to place books in the hands of children!

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Holiday Paint Party! (BYOB)

December 6, 2:00pm - 4:00pm Fee: $35 for 2 people, so bring a friend!

Bring your favorite bottle of wine and release your inner-artist with our painting class!

These classes are perfect for beginners, so grab your friends, coworkers, plan a unique date and meet some creative people. It's also a great way to decorate your apartment because you are sure to go home with a painting you can be proud of. All materials included in art class.

Fee: $35 for 2 people! – bring wine, beer or other drink of choice, must be 21 or over at attend event. Pre - registration suggested, limited seating!

[lacasaazulbookstore]

SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY at La Casa Azul Bookstore!

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Join us for #IndiesFirst - an author and illustrator supported movement that celebrates indies and encourages shopping indies first buy shopping at La Casa Azul Bookstore on SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY!

Why support local businesses? It’s about making your hard-earned money go further, fueling the local economy, and helping to preserve the unique character of East Harlem.

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Gift Ideas at La Casa Azul Bookstore Pt.3

La Casa Azul Bookstore is a great place to find gifts for loved ones this holiday season! To help, we have some #GiftIdeas for you! ‪#‎ShopSmall‬ this holiday. Receive 10% off when purchasing our 3 item sets (pictured below) in store!

Know a Sandra Cisneros fan? 10% off with this 3 item set! 

Know a Gabriel García Máquez fan? 10% off with this 3 item set! 

[lacasaazulbookstore]

Winter coat drive at La Casa Azul Bookstore

Dates: Wednesday, December 2nd - Sunday, December 6th.

Help provide at least a little warmth this winter by donating a coat, jacket, hats and gloves this season. What do donate: new/gently used coats/jackets, all sizes accepted. The coat drive is co-sponsored by Oloshas United-Northeast through “One Warm Coat”, to benefit Homes for the Homeless; The Willing Heart CCC; and the Philadelphia Martin Luther King Jr. Association for Non-Violence, Inc. Drop off location: La Casa Azul Bookstore, 143 E. 103rd St, East Harlem, 10029

[lacasaazulbookstore]

SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY at La Casa Azul Bookstore!

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Join us for #IndiesFirst - an author and illustrator supported movement that celebrates indies and encourages shopping indies first buy shopping at La Casa Azul Bookstore on SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY!

Why support local businesses? It's about making your hard-earned money go further, fueling the local economy, and helping to preserve the unique character of East Harlem.

[lacasaazulbookstore]

Gift Ideas at La Casa Azul Bookstore Pt.2

La Casa Azul Bookstore is a great place to find gifts for loved ones this holiday season! To help, we have some #GiftIdeas for you! ‪#‎ShopSmall‬ this holiday. Receive 10% off when purchasing our 3 item sets (pictured below) in store!

Support East Harlem's indie bookshop and local artist, Tanya Torres! 10% with this 3 item set! 

Know a bilingual baby? 10% with this 3 item set!

Know an Esmeralda Santiago fan? 10% with this 3 item set! 

Gift the words of a Nuyorican writer this holiday season. 10% with this 3 item set! 

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Bone marrow donor registry drive

Saturday, November 21, 2:00pm - 4:00pm

The drive is sponsored by children's book publisher Lee & Low Books, multiracial advocacy organization Project RACE, and comic and writer Alex Barnett, who will run the drive in partnership with Be the Match. The drive, which involves a simple cheek swab, seeks to expand the bone marrow registry database, an issue of special importance to multiracial people who often struggle to find donor matches. Come by and help us save a life!

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Celebration of young adult literature! Sofia Quintero, Danette Vigilante and Daniel Jose Older in conversation with Shelley Diaz

Friday, November 20, 6:30pm - 8:30pm

Meet three fantastic young adult authors, they will read from their latest publications and participate in a panel discussion, led by Shelley M. Diaz.

Shelley M. Diaz is Senior Editor of School Library Journal's Reviews and SLJTeen newsletter editor.

Show and Prove by Sofia Quintero It may be the summer of Reaganomics, the twin epidemics of crack and AIDS, war in the Middle East and urban blight.  But it’s also the summer when hip hop proved its staying power without losing its innocence, something that Smiles and Nike struggle to do. This isn’t going to be a book for teens. It’ll also be a fun, nostalgic trip for any reader born in the mid-60s to early 70s or die-hard hip-hop aficionado.

The Trouble With Half A Moon by Danette Vigilante Thirteen year old Dellie lives with the guilt that her little brother's death was her fault. Her mother cries all the time and because she wants Dellie to stay safe, she keeps her inside as much as she can. It doesn't matter that Dellie longs to go outside to be like other girls or that there's a boy she likes and he likes her too. All that matters to her mother is that she's safe at home. So, Dellie has no choice but to watch the world of her housing project through her second story window.

Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older With the help of a fellow artist named Robbie, Sierra discovers shadowshaping, a thrilling magic that infuses ancestral spirits into paintings, music, and stories. But someone is killing the shadowshapers one by one -- and the killer believes Sierra is hiding their greatest secret. Now she must unravel her family's past, take down the killer in the present, and save the future of shadowshaping for generations to come.

[lacasaazulbookstore]

Gift Ideas at La Casa Azul Bookstore

La Casa Azul Bookstore is a great place to find gifts for loved ones this holiday season! To help, we have some #GiftIdeas for you! ‪#‎ShopSmall‬ this holiday.  Receive 10% off when purchasing our 3 item sets (pictured below) in store!

Know a Calaca enthusiast? 10% with this 3 item set! 

Know a Junot Diaz fan? 10% off with this 3 item set! 

Know a Young Lords enthusiast? 10% off with this 3 item set! 

Know a young activist in the making? 10% off with this 3 item set!