emoke b'racz
by sandi tomlin-sutker

“Poetry is still my favorite way to educate my soul. Words carry the appropriate space between them for my soul to meander in and learn new paths for being. The universe measures how much time we spend there and gifts those brave enough to walk a lyrical life.” -- Poet’s Corner by Emoke, Malaprops bookstore and cafe, Asheville NC

Is it possible to blend dreams and business? What does it take to sustain a dream turned business long-term?

Important questions, I think. And Emoke B’Racz, owner of Malaprops bookstore in downtown Asheville is just the person to answer them. She came here over 20 years ago from the Big City, New York. Looking for a new, more rural place to start a business, she fell in love with these ancient mountains. I lived here then too, and remember my friends and I jumping for joy at the prospect of a bookstore with a focus on women’s writing and a place to sit discussing those books: the café with the name echoing Virginia Wolfe’s A Room of One’s Own. In those days finding women’s books was difficult, partly because it was difficult for women writers to get published. In most anthologies for example, women writers made up less than 10% of the offerings.
Back then, Emoke was a pioneer. She had a dream, not so much a business plan. A space where writers and readers could commune. She tells me about the time, 18 years ago, when two very Southern women - dressed “to the nines” in matching Everything - told her, as they walked out of the store, that they “didn’t know theyah wuh sooo many women writers!” She knew, at that moment, she was on the right track.

In 1982 there were few shops downtown: the Mediterranean Café, of course; the Open Door was on Wall Street then, along with Waechter’s fabric shop, Wings/Beads & Beyond and a few others that are no longer here (Our enjoyment of High Tea Café on Wall was instrumental in influencing us to move here). Malaprops has moved from its old location (now filled with another of Emoke’s businesses, M’Press). Big changes in the past 20 years.

At that time, her main competition was Captain’s Bookshelf and a small bookstore on Wall Street. But today, the “big box” stores like Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million and even more, the web sites like Amazon, erode the customer base of small bookstores like Malaprops. How does she keep the dream alive? For one, she has expanded into ventures like M’Press (cards, stationery, photo albums, etc.) as well as Downtown Books and News (used books and newsstand on Lexington Avenue with partner Pickett Huffines which they started in 1989 because the old downtown newsstand closed and many women had told them they needed access to less expensive books.) More revenue, but of course, more expenses (Malaprops alone employs 39 people!).
Emoke doesn’t plan to ever get rich from this dream and the businesses that have resulted from it. It is, after all, more a labor of love and a bit of a mission to provide quality over quantity and showcase writers whose books may not make it into the more corporate stores. If Emoke had not become a bookseller, she might have become a medical doctor; that was her other dream (physics and mathematics were her number one interests). She is an accomplished poet and painter (while I waited to interview her, I sat in the Café under a wonderful grouping of her work). Her life is full and rich and she has realized much of her dream. She garners national acclaim and won the Publisher’s Weekly Independent Bookseller of the Year award in 2000. Each week there are writers speaking at Malaprops; multiple generations of avid readers come in to comb the shelves and sit over a latte to discuss their favorite author’s newest offering. In many ways this place is an Institution.

Yet, change is always the constant in life. While new shops open in the downtown, others are closing. The recent recession (still very current for many small businesses) has affected sales, gas prices seem to be affecting tourism this season—there are always myriad factors businesses must cope with. Real Estate prices, as most of us know too well, are soaring. Rental prices for shops, apartments and condos are rising accordingly. Old buildings are renewed and contain a lively blend of businesses and offices and living spaces. But what sorts of businesses survive in this changing market may depend upon what consumers want. When I was in graduate school in Political Science, I learned the concept of the Tyranny of Small Decisions—a similar idea is the Law of Unintended Consequences. In both instances, we make individual decisions based upon limited thinking, limited knowledge or perceived small consequences of our decision. This is very different from the Native American idea that we must think of the results of our decisions down through seven generations!

If we want the kind of lifestyle that includes small shops and cafés, each with their own unique ambiance; if we care that 45% of the sales of independently owned businesses stay in the community (as opposed to 13% of revenues for chain stores); if we realize that the tourists that flock to our town do so because they are looking for something different, we will choose to support the locally owned stores that are the backbone of Asheville’s attraction.

Emoke expresses some trepidation about the direction downtown Asheville will take in the next few years. As we finish our talk and our coffee, I look around the café and into the bookstore itself. I think about how different, how barren downtown would be without the uniqueness of businesses such as Malaprops. I hope the citizens of Asheville will value it enough to make conscious decisions to shop here first. And I hope the city planners will recognize the importance of Asheville’s grass roots businesses, supporting and nurturing them into the future.