Politics and Prose Bookstore Los Acuartelados de San Isidro. Crónicas sobre disidencia artística en Cuba 1961-2021. Arsenio Rodríguez Quintana, ed Muntaner 2021.

 

Store History

In the Beginning 

Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade opened a small store named Politics and Prose at 5010 

Connecticut Avenue NW in the autumn of 1984.  Initially the store staff consisted of just two employees, Carla and Barbara, plus a part-time bookseller in the evening.  Before a year was up, there were two additional full-time employees. Within five years, there were a half-dozen employees, and the store was bursting. In the summer of 1989, P&P moved across the street, assisted by customers who carried books to 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW, a space twice as large. The bookstore now occupies more than 9,000 square feet of sales space, and almost 16,000 square feet of total business space, including offices and a coffeehouse called The Den. Two branch locations also exist at The Wharf and Union Market. P&P’s staff exceeds 100 employees.