Greencup Books

GreencupBooks is a bookstore and book publisher located at 105 Richard Arrington Jr Boulevard South, next door to the Bare Hands Gallery. The store opened in February 2008, with grand opening ceremonies held February 8 with the release party of the book Stories from Real Life by Tony Crunk and illustrated by Peter Wilm.

Greencup is a not-for-profit organization, founded by Russell Helms. Helms named the store for a green coffee cup, one of his few possessions from a time when he took a year off in Tuscaloosa to write. Proceeds from the book sales go into Greencup's mission to provide free classes to the general public in areas such as creative writing, publishing, art, and music. Specialists in these areas donate time to teach the classes. They also offer lectures and workshops on a variety of subjects. Cave 9 has hosted performances in the upstairs space.

Helms and his family moved to Kentucky in July 2008, but the store remains open, run by a group of volunteers. Among those are executive director Michael Tesney. Helms plans to use the Birmingham store as a model and catalyst for other non-profit bookstores around the country.

References

• Crowe, Christina (August 21, 2008) "Greencup Books: A downtown bookstore explores anarchy as a business model." Black & White

External links

• GreencupBooks website