Help Save THE GNU'S ROOM !

(we here at snakeBIT are honored to publish the following)


"Open Letter to the Auburn-Opelika Community
And our Artistic Community-at-Large,
Concerning The Gnu's Room:

Have you heard? By now, I'm sure you have. A thousand conversations between artists, musicians, book-lovers, and friends in our artistic community over the last two weeks... With shocked, hushed voices and sorrowful expressions... "Have you heard about The Gnu's Room?"

Yes, the Gnu's Room location in Auburn is closing. The place of a thousand new friendships, innumerable moments of beauty and art and everything that forges a strong community, the hub of our intellectual and creative discourse can no longer support itself with the high costs of urban rent and the heavy toll of a society-wide waning literary interest...

It is with great sorrow that we, priding ourselves to be a strong artistic community despite all the inclinations otherwise, immersed within a mainstream culture that usually ignores anything outside the box as paradoxically both "weird" and "boring", must now say goodbye to the familiar welcoming site of so many jazz concerts, book signings, independent film screenings, art shows, philosophy debates, poetry readings... All the beautiful activities that keep us engaged and exploring our connections with each others' crafts and with the larger creative world itself. It is the tenacity of the Gnu's Room spirit that has created the opportunities for new artists and paved avenues for the wisdom of experience and comraderie.

It is that great grief that we express, and no doubt much guilt, when we ask each other, eyes imploring for some happier explanation, to the loss of one of our community's most valuable creative outlets and resource.

Have you heard about The Gnu's Room?

Friends: It is with the tenacity of creative spirit itself that I suggest that we are asking the right question, but settling for the wrong answer. The Gnu News is NOT that we are losing the Auburn home to all things happily weird...

The Gnu News is, or at least should be, instead:

Have you heard about the Gnu location in the Opelika Arts District?

We have the chance to support The Gnu's Room and help them move their artistic home to a nest of artists-in-residence, independent venues, and local creativity in the new Arts District of Downtown Opelika.

Sponsored in part by Alabama Arts Council, The Railyard, the future Cotton Seed Studios, there are exciting plans to make this city block a vibrant home to all things artistic and musical. The Gnu's Room has been offered a warehouse space of over 5,000 sq feet (That's a lot of bookshelves!) at no cost for at least a year. This will give Tina and her staff the opportunity to re-align the in-house services towards both bookstore retail and their local publishing house, Solomon and George Publishing, and also redefine their part in a global shift to transcribe their inventory to an online catalogue of a vast, growing library of e-publications,before traditional paper-bound wisdom is lost to the decay of time and transient material existence. This Gnu Library will create the opportunity for our Gnu's Room to continue functioning as a vital core of creative discourse in our artistic community.

But, it won't be easy. Nothing really worth anything is ever easy.

We need to raise money to outfit our new home and get the interior up to par. We need to fund the move and transfer of almost 100,000, now and future, donated books to the Gnu Library. Most importantly, we need to support the statement that we are dedicated to the open access to music, arts, and literacy initiatives in our neighborhoods.

I know that we can make this happen. We just can't let our Gnu's Room disappear.

I would like to publicly announce both the launch of a "Save the Gnu's Room" Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of the Gnu's Room location in the Opelika Arts District and the Gnu Summer Festival on June 8th, 2013 at The Railyard to raise the awareness and funds necessary to preserve our heritage of creative community.

The money raised will allow the for the design and re-placement of the Gnu's Room, to ensure a smooth transition to the new space in August, and to generate the seed money to pursue e-publication services and other sustainable business initiatives.

If you ever performed at Gnu's Room, supported and particpated in artistic fellowship, played outside on their public piano, or just in general felt welcome, inspired or appreciated at this haven of intellectual outreach, your help is needed. Please contact us at savethegnusroom@gmail.com, pledge to our the Kickstarter project, or visit our Facebook page to get involved at this most crucial time.

Alaina Guzman"

(thank-you, alaina!)