Eleanor's Norfolk

Eleanor's Norfolk your local q***r, worker-owned bookstore & creative community space

a few reads we love for the littles that are full of heart, storytelling, and all the info about caring for the planet!🌱...
08/21/2026

a few reads we love for the littles that are full of heart, storytelling, and all the info about caring for the planet!

🌱 Composting for Community by Michael Martinez & illustrated by Hannah Abbo shows us how food and other items we toss in trash break down and how soil, like our communities, is full of life.

🐅 If Tigers Disappeared by Lily Williams introduces kiddos to tigers from all across the world - sharing facts not just about them, but about the ecosystems in which they live and contribute.

here 'til 8 tonight! we definitely won't be reading any kids books and welling up with tears. definitely not.

[2 hardcover kids books, composting for community and if tigers disappeared, sit on a blue table. composting for community has an illustration of a community garden where you can see both the topsoil and the roots under the ground. there is a boy and a dad standing at the top of it holding a shovel. another child is seen tending to a watermelon vine. if tigers disappeared shows a tiger and a cub featured prominently in the middle of the of the illustration. they are in a jungle. off to the side, sitting behind a rock are two young kids looking at the tigers. behind the table is the corner of a bookshop, on the right wall is a round mirror hanging on the wall and on the left you can see a copy of the kids book, abolition is love, sitting on a shelf.]

we've got a page turner of a read for our sociology & cultural studies friends - The Return of the 90s: A Cultural Histo...
08/12/2026

we've got a page turner of a read for our sociology & cultural studies friends - The Return of the 90s: A Cultural History of the Present, an anthology edited by Madeline Lane-McKinley and Sean O'Brien. covering topics from the decade that included a declaration of the "end of history," the essays within bridge feelings of nostalgia for the late 1900's with the reckoning that comes when you explore how the dreams (and nightmares) of the 90s continue to shape our current moments in culture and politics.

grab in shop (on our new media & culture shelf) or online 💫

[a black metal skeleton is standing in a planter and is holding a copy of the book, The Return of the 90s. behind the skeleton is the corner of a bookstore]

y'all have no doubt seen the abundance of flock cameras we have throughout hampton roads. as of may 2026, there were 187...
08/11/2026

y'all have no doubt seen the abundance of flock cameras we have throughout hampton roads. as of may 2026, there were 187 known located in Norfolk alone and you have no ability to opt out of this constant state surveillance.

the folks at deflock norfolk are working to end the city's flock contract, which costs taxpayers $430,000 annually. to date, we've paid them about $2 million dollars to invade our privacy and track the movement of everyday citizens at the same time we continue underfunding schools, libraries are all closed on sundays, rec centers haven't reopened since before covid lockdowns, and there are more and more folks lining up for housing assistance and access to fresh, healthy foods.

a few things we know from deflocknorfolk.org ->
🌱 data has been improperly shared across state lines, and used by police officers to track and stalk ex-girlfriends
🌱 the City of Norfolk has no oversight or control over queries made to this data by out-of-state agencies and other Flock customers
🌱 Black, Brown, and poor communities are targeted more than others (according to a recent study conducted by folks at CNU) and Flock has already used this surveillance to assist ICE & Palantir to track, kidnap, and disappear immigrants
🌱 Flock has been caught using camera feeds without their contract holders' consent for marketing and sales, including feeds from children's gymnasiums, playgrounds, and schools

stop by to join the community conversation and contact your city council person to end the contract and remove the flock -> saturday, august 29, 6pm

[a graphic with a white and light green background and burnt orange font. it reads deflock norfolk, saturday, august 29, 6-8p, educational workshop & contact your councilor party, @ eleanor's 801 boush st, ste b. join us to learn more about what flock is - how it tracks us and circumvents our rights - and how to engage your local city councilor to end mass surveillance in norfolk. for more info, contact them at [email protected]]

dropping in to give all the thanks to the folks who help keep the porch pantry & free store as stocked as possible!⛱ cur...
08/10/2026

dropping in to give all the thanks to the folks who help keep the porch pantry & free store as stocked as possible!

⛱ current summer needs are water, sunscreen, and chapstick
📆 ongoing needs are bandaids, shampoo, soap, toothpaste & toothbrushes, and deodorant (for kids & adults)

take whatcha need, leave what you can

a few reads for the book lovers....Tar Hollow Trans by Stacy Jane Grover is an exploration of the rural Appalachian Q**...
08/09/2026

a few reads for the book lovers....

Tar Hollow Trans by Stacy Jane Grover is an exploration of the rural Appalachian Q***r experience

Shut Up and Read by Jeannine A Cook is a memoir that traces the beginnings and trials of running a bookstore while honoring legacies and the future

Monk and Robot by Becky Chambers is beloved by every book lover we've ever met

Poetry as Spellcasting: Poems, Essays, and Prompts for Manifesting Liberation and Reclaiming Power by Tamiko Beyer, Destiny Hemphill, Lisbeth White invites you to deepen your creativity and intuition as integral tools for self- and communal healing and social change

Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler by Susana M. Morris is a cultural biography that charts the life of one of our greatest writers, situating her alongside the key historical and social moments that shaped her work

The Cat Who Saved Books is a cozy, heartwarming fantasy that celebrates books, cats, and the people who love them

here 'til 5 to share the all the book love



[the 6 books listed in the caption are laid out in 2 rows on a blue fabric bench. they are all face up and equally spaced. tar hollow trans has a black cover with rainbow watercolor typeface, shut up and read features an image of Cook in front of her bookstore Harriet's, monk and robot is a light green cover with a hand drawn image of a robot hand coming down to meet a monk's hand while both are surrounded by flora, poetry as spellcasting is a clay cover with hands at the both opening up to stars, positive obsession has a yellow cover with a drawn image of octavia bulter and white and yellow typeface, the cat who saved books has a drawn image of cat walking through the cover of a red book on the left hand side and black typeface on the right]

from the - "Our river carries stories, sustains ecosystems, and connects our communities. As we work together to resto...
08/09/2026

from the - "Our river carries stories, sustains ecosystems, and connects our communities. As we work together to restore and protect these vital waterways, we're honored to welcome acclaimed author Alexis Pauline Gumbs for Undrowned: A Hymn to Returning River Life.

This special gathering invites us to imagine what becomes possible when we deepen our relationship with the river—not simply as a resource, but as a living system worthy of care, restoration, and stewardship.

Whether you're an environmental advocate, community member, educator, artist, student, or simply someone who cares about the future of our waterways, we invite you to join us for an evening of reflection, learning, and collective visioning.
Together, we can help write the next chapter for our rivers—one of renewal, resilience, and connection."

we recommend you register through the erp's website to hold your seat. to pre-order a book, check the link in our bio.

a reading list for folks who tend the earth from folks who aren't trying to build rockets and colonize other planets whi...
08/08/2026

a reading list for folks who tend the earth from folks who aren't trying to build rockets and colonize other planets while destroying this one for wealth and power🍃

because we know -> extraction didn't start and it doesn't end with data centers, further destruction and development made possible by our local municipalities won't stop until we stop it, and there are already folks all over the globe (and in our lil hometown) who are doing the work and teaching us how.

[slide 1 - a felt board stands on a wooden bookshelf next to a copy of the book Practicing Social Ecology by Eleanor Finley. in white letters on the board, it says "this is the coolest summer we're gonna have! lol xo eleanor's peep the list on bookshop.org
slide 2 - 9 each show one book standing on a wood stool in front of a stack of books, in order, they are A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars edited by Erin Sharkey, The System is Killing Us: Land Grabbing, the Green Economy & Ecological Conflict by Xander Dunlap, Anthropocene or Capitalocene edited by Jason W Moore, Dark Laboratory: On Columbus, the Caribbean, and the Origins of the Climate Crisis by Tao Leigh Goffe, The Burning Earth: an Environmental History of the Last 500 Years by Sunil Amrith, Eco Revolution: Climate Justice, Community, and the Fight for Our Planet by Maya Penn, A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and its Assault on the American Mind by Harriet A Washington, Restoring the Kinship Worldview: Indigenous Voices for Rebalancing Life on Planet Earth by Wahinkpe T**a and Darcia Narváez
slide 10 - a stack of books sits on top of a wooden stool in the middle of a bookshop]

coming up in august 8/9,11am: super graphic ultra modern book club8/9, 4pm: mutual aid meeting8/12, 6:30pm: onyx collect...
08/07/2026

coming up in august

8/9,11am: super graphic ultra modern book club
8/9, 4pm: mutual aid meeting
8/12, 6:30pm: onyx collective open mic
8/23, 11am radical studies book club
8/27, 6:30pm: abolition studies
8/28, 6pm: Undrowned with Alexis Pauline Gumbs: A Hymn to Returning River Life
8/29, 6pm: deflock community convo
8/30, 1pm: modern anarchism book club
8/30, 3pm: q***r community hub meet-up

(1: above info. 2: word of mouth open mic flyer, 3: undrowned flyer, 4: anarchist study group flyer)

here's what we're reading next for august and september book clubsthe Vegetarian - august 9th 11 am"Before the nightmare...
07/30/2026

here's what we're reading next for august and september book clubs

the Vegetarian - august 9th 11 am
"Before the nightmares began, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary life. But the dreams—invasive images of blood and brutality—torture her, driving Yeong-hye to purge her mind and renounce eating meat altogether. This interrupts her marriage and sets into motion an increasingly grotesque chain of events at home."

Outgrowing Modernity- august 23rd 11am
"Climate collapse, social crisis, the decline of modernity: colonialism, capitalism, and our full-faced denial have ushered in an urgent new era... Vanessa Machado De Oliveira explores the impacts of colonialism as neurocolonization: an oppressive function of modernity that rewires how we think, act, imagine, and adapt."

Enemy Feminisms- september 13th 11am
"in a time of rising fascism, ceaseless attacks on reproductive justice, and violent transphobia, we need to reckon with what Western feminism has wrought if we have any hope of building the feminist world we need."

Zapatists stories for dreaming an-other world- september 27th 11am
" Marcos's inspiring and sometimes Kafkaesque stories bear witness to how a defense of indigenous traditions can become a lever for the construction of a new anti-capitalist and anti-patriarchal world. "

{image one is copies of august book picks on olives trees with pomegranate and thyme stickers.
image 2 is copies the september book picks and descriptions on joe pyweed with starbusts scattered.}

Letters from a Living Utopia: Reclaiming Liberation from Palestine to the World by Yaffa AS is a slim volume, consisting...
07/16/2026

Letters from a Living Utopia: Reclaiming Liberation from Palestine to the World by Yaffa AS is a slim volume, consisting of 15 letters from the author to a variety of folks & ideas including themselves both past and present, siblings, rest, language, and liberation.

as you're reading, you can feel that each letter is written with such care and intention, inviting you to reflect on the words contained within and the world we're collectively working to build. their letters call for you to embrace the idea of utopia as a living project, one that is "meant to be lived every day, even as war, genocide, and starvation engulfed our people.” i didn't know what to expect going into this read and i was left with a connection and hope for the present that has been slippery as of late - the hope that liberation actually is within everyone's reach.

this one is for folks exploring and experimenting with what it means to be liberated.

limited stock available in-store for purchase & check-out or peep our shop pages on bookshop & libro for other options.🍃

from - "...Mx. Yaffa builds epistolary bridges in these pages, connecting the historical struggle for liberation of the land and its people with the intimate ways that we can recover hope...a journey of resilient repair that will leave every reader with the deeply felt certainty that Palestine will be free, but also that Palestine has always been free."

[slide 1 - 3 copies of the book listed in the caption are on a black shelf. the cover is blue lines with a white outline of palestine on the right hand side. the title, Letters from a Living Utopia, is in a green, uppercase typeface and spans the left side of the book. the subtitle is in black and is written in between each line of the title.
slide 2 - a graphic has a green background and features two images of phones - one with an image of a landing page for libro.fm and one with a landing page for bookshop.org. in white typeface to the left of the libro phone is written, for the listeners, libro.fm/eleanorsnfk. in white typeface to the right of the bookshop phone is written, for the annotators, bookshop.org/shop.eleanorsnfk.com]

Address

801 Boush Street, Unit B
Norfolk, VA
23510

Opening Hours

Thursday 12pm - 6pm
Friday 12pm - 6pm
Saturday 11am - 7pm
Sunday 12pm - 5pm

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