The crowd inside the Untold Story in Anaheim was ready for open mic night to begin last week, but there was no way it would start on time.
Whenever owner Lizzette Barrios Gracián tried to approach the podium, someone pulled her away for a hug. A congrats. A recommendation. A thanks.
The bookstore opened last year in an industrial part of the city so isolated that 911 dispatchers couldn’t find it when Barrios Gracián called about a medical emergency. Though it quickly earned a loyal following for focusing on BIPOC books and allowing activists to meet there without having to buy anything, the location wasn’t working, and Barrios Gracián was ready to close what had been a longtime dream…