Bookleggers Library Launches Story Time Podcast and Mobile Bookstore

Bookleggers Library, Miami's favorite and, it would seem, only remaining secondhand bookstore, is rolling out two new ways for Miamians to engage with literature. That's literally rolling in the case of its new book trailer.

"We flirted with the idea of a bookmobile for years, but it's very expensive — the upkeep is massive," says Nathaniel Sandler, founding director of Bookleggers. "Actually, a trailer that you can pull is much more cost-effective, and it allows lots of people to use it as well because you don't need a commercial driver's license."

Fitted with blonde wood bookshelves on the inside, the sleek black vehicle has two doors, one on each side, allowing customers to walk through completely. Like fellow bookseller Dale Zine does with its mini-truck mobile bookstore, Bookleggers will activate it at various locations throughout Miami-Dade County. It has set up shop once at Sweat Records in Little Haiti following a soft launch at its Adventureleggers kids and family festival in the fall.

"We can open a book store in any parking lot in Dade County," Sandler says.

That "bookmobility," as Sandler terms it, adds a new dimension to the nonprofit's mission to flood the city with books and encourage literacy. It's installed free book boxes throughout Miami-Dade County and operates a used bookstore out of its headquarters at Bakehouse Arts Complex in Wynwood. Bookleggers also has a "book bike," which the trailer was originally meant to transport before evolving into its own concept. Customers can take the first book home at the shop and in the trailer for free, with each subsequent book costing only $2.

The trailer isn't the only project Bookleggers has embarked upon recently. It's also diving into the world of podcasting with Story Time. A successor to its Instagram series Story Time for Adults, the show launched on March 22, with new episodes premiering on Thursdays.
Produced with funding from the Knight Foundation, each four-episode season of the show will explore the myriad of diverse backgrounds in Miami by sending a different local artist back to their country of origin to gather stories. The first season is hosted by artist, musician, and Bootleggers program manager Juan Ledesma, who returns to Lima, Peru, where he lived until he was 15.

"We saw it as Bourdain for books," Sandler says. "We really wanted to tell people what was cool, what was happening now in Lima — what was artistic, what was creative, where are the books, where are the bookstores, where are the literary people."

With this mission in mind, Ledesma explores the city and interviews various locals and creatives. The first episode sees him visiting the bookstore Babel in the trendy Miraflores neighborhood with celebrated local food critic Javier Masias. Episode two, meanwhile, gets more complicated as Ledesma interviews the directors of La Revolución y La Tierra (The Revolution and the Land), a documentary about the agrarian reform policies of dictator Juan Velasco Alvarado, little discussed within Peru yet still deeply influential on life in the country. The film became the most-watched Peruvian documentary in history before a right-wing backlash led to its suppression by national broadcaster TV Peru, after which it became the most pirated Peruvian film in history. Future guests include artist and publisher Andrés Marroquín and Grammy-winning singer and former minister of culture Susana Baca.

"We have people who are genuinely very famous in Peru who are coming on to this podcast, and we're gonna be able to share them with Miami and the rest of the country," Ledesma says, encouraging anyone interested in Peru to visit. "Peruvians love to share their country, and I think that comes through in the show."
Both new initiatives came together at the podcast's launch party at Bakehouse on Thursday, March 22. Pisco flowed as a DJ played Peruvian cumbia and other music from the country while ceviche and other Peruvian hors d'oeuvres were gobbled up quickly. Quite a few attendees left with a book in hand. Maybe there is an appetite for literature in Miami after all?

Sandler certainly thinks so. He believes the reason there aren't more bookstores, secondhand or otherwise, in the city lies with the wider issues around renting in the city.

"I think Miami is a literary city. The bigger issue is that commercial real estate has such violent swings," he says. It's hard to find the right home that isn't going to suffer gentrification, and we're lucky to have the support of the Bakehouse. But it's also that in these older cities, a lot of older places are owned and operated by people who were able to buy real estate when it wasn't expensive."

Story Time: The Podcast is available on all podcast platforms.

Bookleggers Library. At Bakehouse Arts Complex, 561 NW 32nd St., Miami; bookleggerslibrary.com. Tuesday through Thursday noon to 5 p.m. or by appointment.