All About “Uptown Books”: Bilingual Theater and Bookstoreception in Washington Heights

Located along a peaceful block on Riverside Drive, a bookstore crowded with literature and memorabilia doubles as a community organizing hub. This is Recirculation, a project of Word Up Bookshop in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood. While many events bring the industrial space to life, this weekend launched Uptown Books — a one-act play about a bookstore, set in a bookstore, with all proceeds going to a bookstore.

Through this immersive show, where viewers may stand and walk among the characters, the audience is thrust into a world that is meant to be both zany and familiar. Somewhere between the aisles of nonfiction and revolutionary literature, an unexpected connection forms between a bookstore owner who doesn’t read, an ex-firefighter addicted to alcohol, and other quirky community members. Uptown Books playwright and director Adrian Miranda, who also acted in Sunday’s matinee show, was inspired by his past visits to Recirculation. As someone born and raised in Washington Heights, he believes bookstores are the heart of a neighborhood.

A Labor of Love

“When we think about bookstores, it’s a place where people can come and just get lost. There’s information there, there’s knowledge, and there’s escape,” Miranda says.

The plot of Uptown Books revolves around the concept of “sonder,” a neologism coined by American writer John Koenig in his book The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. According to Koenig, “sonder” is defined as the realization that every random passerby lives a unique, complex, and intricate life. It often inspires people-watching, and in this case, storytelling.

“If you see a guy in a suit with a beautiful watch crossing the street, [his life] might not be as it seems. There’s a duality to us,” Miranda says. “[As a writer], you kind of want to have a complexity in people, right?”

The play follows nine eccentric characters, each one representing an archetype or struggle relevant to the Washington Heights community. For instance, the character Doña Ana is a woman facing eviction and can only speak Spanish, which limits her options for law books. Poochie, the owner of the bookstore, inherited the space from his late mother and works to keep it afloat despite his disinterest in reading.

Actor and Harlem native Gabe Gutierrez portrays Daniel, a young community advocate who endeavors to help Doña Ana. As a lifelong New Yorker, he says his role in Uptown Books made him feel seen as a young Latino.

“As a young man, I always was told to help your elders, to always respect your elders. Whenever you can provide that kind of help, do it. It’s nice to have a character [in Daniel] that embraces those values,” Gutierrez says.

Part of what made the show so remarkable, he adds, is how Miranda handled the directing process. The entire production was volunteer-run, and even so, Gutierrez was impressed by how supported he felt at cast meetings and rehearsals.

“If I’m pointing towards anything, it’s definitely Adrian. The way his mindset is towards the process and everyone that’s involved, he’s very caring about it,” Gutierrez says. “Adrian wants to make sure that everyone feels like they have a place. That’s always what I look for in a director.”

Fellow Manhattan-based actor Jeunina Bergado plays Kate, a friend of Daniel who collects literature by every writer of color she can find. Growing up with minimal BIPOC and LGBTQ+ representation in media, Bergado not only sees herself in Kate, but views the character as “a braver version of herself.”

“Once I read the script, I thought [Adrian] wrote this with me in mind. I didn’t dive into film because there wasn’t much representation for people of color. I thought they wouldn’t want a short, tan Asian girl. When you don’t see yourself, you tend to give up or question yourself,” Bergado says. “When we do find something, we collect them and give it to the community that needs them. I know Adrian maybe felt the same way growing up.”

Giving Back to the Community

While it was written by, for, and in Washington Heights, Uptown Books also inspired new residents to dive further into the local culture. Lauren Deanes, who moved to the neighborhood from Maryland two months ago, says that Miranda’s show spoke to her as someone who is fervently against gentrification.

“You hear a lot of discourse about transplants coming here and hoping to recreate what they had where they lived previously, and I did not want to do that. I wanted to move to Washington Heights and really get immersed in what was happening already on the ground… I didn’t want to take from that,” Deanes says. “I think [the show] highlighted a lot of the dynamics I’m seeing, and the strength of a community.”

Amid the many changes that Washington Heights residents have witnessed over the years, the Word Up Bookshop has cemented itself as a neighborhood staple. When Word Up Collective member Tom Burgess passed away from COVID-19 in June 2020, the team established Recirculation, a volunteer-run, pay-what-you-can bookstore and creative hub containing his personal collection of literature, CDs, and records that Word Up co-founder Veronica Santiago inherited.

Memphis has volunteered at Word Up for 11 years, and witnessed the growth of Recirculation firsthand. They describe it as “a labor of love [and] the wishes of [Burgess] being realized in the community that he lived in, with the collaboration of trusted community members who have already hosted a bookstore and art space.”

Uptown Books is among the many community projects that Recirculation houses on a monthly basis. Other recent events include the Market 4 Gaza series, community writing groups, and open mics. A common thread between Recirculation’s programs is that they are organized to fundraise for a cause that aligns with Word Up’s principles — especially those that support immigrant rights and Palestinian liberation. As for Miranda’s production, all proceeds were donated to a bookstore.

“The breadth of events that we’re able to host in this space is not just art. It’s education, it’s book talks… [We’re] continuing to keep the doors open as much as possible and bring in as much dynamic programming that invites new conversations and neighbors together,” Memphis says.

From the play itself to the space it debuted in, Miranda hopes the ultimate takeaway for audience members will be their “duty to each other [as a community].”

“You have to self-sustain at a certain point,” he says. “That’s why we have each other.”

To keep up with future projects by Adrian Miranda or Recirculation and Word Up, be sure to follow their Instagram pages!

Interested in reading more independent projects supporting secondhand creations? Check out EnVi’s recent spotlight on GON Vintage here.