Bol Worker Owned Bookstore Cafe

06/09/2026

Join us this Saturday June 13th at 10:30am for a bilingual story hour in Hindi-English. Bring your kids, bring yourself!

Shom Tiwari is a local librarian. They will read out stories and play some music.

Some of the books used for the story time include:

My First Book of Hindi Words by Rina Singh
Chaiwala! by Priti Birla Maheshwari
Luli and the Language of Tea by Andrea Wang

These books will be available for sale at Bol.

06/09/2026

Join us on June 17th at 6:30pm for an engaging conversation with Dr. Delia Aguilar about her book Toward A Nationalist Feminism.

Delia D. Aguilar was involved in the women’s movement in the US and in the Philippines at their different moments of inception, engaging with and critiquing both, along with comrades of color in the academy and outside. Her writings reflect this engagement: The Feminist Challenge (Asian Social Institute, 1988), Filipino Housewives Speak (St. Scholastica’s College, 1990), Women and Globalization (Humanity Books, co-edited with Anne Lacsamana, 2004). She has taught women’s studies in the Philippines and in the United States.

The new edition of Aguilar’s Toward a Nationalist Feminism was launched in 2024 in Ateneo University in the Philippines. It was sponsored, among others, by the online journal Kritika Kultura. According to Canadian/Iranian feminist scholar Shahrzad Mojab, this book “gave us the political and theoretical tools twenty-five years ago and its reprint with new additions is critical for understanding the historical roots of the present and forging a feminist revolutionary path forward.”

The book will be available for sale at Bol.

RSVP using the events link in our bio.

06/06/2026

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Join us for a special Cookbook Club on Thursday, June 18 from 7 to 9 pm (after this one, we’ll go back to our newfound convenience of having Cookbook Clubs on Sundays) where we will be joined by the legendary Anela Malik, ( )a DC-based author, speaker, and host whose work centers Black women, curiosity, and the belief that a bigger, more meaningful life is not only possible, but worth claiming.

Anela is one of the authors of American Soul: The Black History of Food in the United States, which was published by National Geographic last year. Often treated as regional, niche, or “ethnic,” Black foodways are foundational to how America eats. American Soul traces those roots across the country, connecting history, place, and people to show how food has always been a tool for survival, creativity, and community. Through stunning photography and thoughtful storytelling, the authors documents what Black communities have built, what they’ve passed down, and how their influence continues to shape American culture today. 

Once you register by purchasing a ticket via our withfriends page, you will receive a sign-up sheet with a list of recipes from American Soul. You can select a recipe to make and bring to the event, where we will be eating and conversing in community with one another and Anela. 

We will also be curating a selection of wines paired to the theme of the cookbook. When purchasing your ticket, you have the option of purchasing an additional “wine tasting experience”. This will be good for one glass of wine or a taste of three wines, along with context about how the production of wine is intimately connected to climate, labour, and politics.

Tickets are expected to sell quickly—reserve your spot now!

05/17/2026

A moving conversation about finding oneself through love, loss, old letters and a dusty well worn book in A Room in Bombay. https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-room-in-bombay-a-memoir-manil-suri/d371caece62fdb0e?ean=9781324106388&next=t

05/17/2026

05/17/2026

Shehzad Ghias discussing satire comedy, silenced history and nationalism from his new book, Pakistan Lost at BOL COOP 5/14

05/14/2026

Our May Cookbook Club for Lebanon will be held on Sunday,May 31 from 5 to 7pm and 100% of ticket proceeds will go towards mutual aid efforts during the current escalating humanitarian and security crisis facing Lebanon. We will be cooking from not one but two cookbooks — simply because both were gorgeous and we couldn’t pick between them!

Hisham Assaad’s Bayrut is a stunning ode to the food of Beirut, a city with a tumultuous past and a thriving food culture, poised between the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Assaad’s recipes range from the classics to more modern fare, and tell the story of a city with ever-popular street food, a thriving restaurant and café scene, and traditional family favourites handed down through generations. A travel guide as well as a cookbook, the recipes are interspersed with stunning photographs that will keep you flipping through the pages for fun.

Maureen Abood’s celebrates the baked goods of Lebanon — think baklawa cheesecake, chocolate pistachio knafeh bars, zalabia Donuts, orange blossom caramel pecan rolls, raspberry rose water macarons, and ma’amoul. This is a great cookbook for the novice baker, as it includes helpful process shots, and step-by-step instructions through numerous techniques.

Here’s how the cookbook club works: register for the event via our withfriends. Stop by Bol during our open hours and browse both cookbooks. Pick the one that speaks to you, make a recipe from it, and join us for a potluck style dinner and conversation. You will receive a sign-up sheet and further details once you register!

05/14/2026

Please swing by Bol during our open hours (10 am to 3 pm) this Saturday, May 16 for a one-time only plant pop-up. With the sun emerging again after a long winter, it’s time for new plants to soak up all that light on your window sills. We’ll have small potted house plants — including jade, money plant, ruby necklace, pothos varieties, and spider plant — as well as basil and mint, all looking for sale. All of our plants are potted in upcycled and second hand containers. We will also have pots that haven’t yet been planted, in case some of your existing plants need to be repotted.

05/12/2026

Join Bol Co-op and Claudia Jones Movie Club for the screening of HARLAN COUNTY, U.S.A., which unflinchingly documents a coal miners’ strike in a small Kentucky town.

Kopple spent years with the subjects depicted in the film, was given unprecedented access to their lives and families, and captured the abuse they experienced at the hands of strikebreakers, police, and company thugs while fighting for fair labor practices and decent wages.

Featuring a haunting soundtrack—with legendary country and bluegrass artists Hazel Dickens, Merle Travis, Sarah Gunning, and Florence Reece—the film is a heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line. An honest portrait of corporate greed and individual courage, HARLAN COUNTY, U.S.A. is one of the most important films ever made about American labor.

Please register using the events link in our bio.