This week we’re excited to introduce Émilie Lamy for our Nasty to Know series. She is the owner of the art and design bookstore, The Stacks, in New Orleans. We discuss books, her relationship to New Orleans, and how she’s engaging with local nonprofits to amplify their voices.  

Lexus Killingsworth:  You are the owner of the amazing bookstore, The Stacks, inside the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans. How did you get started in this business?

Émilie Lamy : I arrived to New Orleans about three years ago from Marseille in the South of France. My background in France is in graphic design. I worked in that field as a publisher, as a freelance project manager, a curator, a teacher, among other things. There was no bookstore specialized in art, design, and architecture, in any close range, when I moved here, so I used some savings that I had to open up a small bookstore within a furniture store where I used to work, Sterling Provisions, in the Marigny. It was around the same time as Prospect.3 and it generated a lot of excitement from locals and visitors. I then decided to keep on going after Prospect.3 and moved the bookstore to Central City. I needed a bigger place in order to increase and broaden the inventory. After that, I started a fruitful dialogue with the Contemporary Arts Center, which led us to our collaboration. It has been a game changer in terms of the bookstore’s growth! It’s like a relationship. There’s some hiccups here and there, but that’s okay. We are getting to know each other better and figuring out the best ways to work together. It’s constantly growing and expanding. It’s really exciting. It’s my baby!

LK: In what ways do you think The Stacks is beneficial to New Orleans and vice versa?

EL: Before there was no place where you could find catalogues of shows that are up in major cities in the US, so you had to either make your way there—which isn’t the easiest thing to do for everybody, right—or order online, which doesn’t allow the physical, material experience of touching, feeling, and flipping through pages. So that’s one thing, but really we try to offer an entry point for everybody, and make it so that anyone can feel comfortable and welcomed. Most importantly we are creating a space where people can come hang out, browse, discover, laugh, and have access to publications that are not available elsewhere, or at least not within reach. Every book, publication, print material that we bring in the bookstore is very intentional.

LK: What projects are you most excited about?

EL: We started this series of monthly conversations called “À Propos,” which means “about” in French. It features every month a different local nonprofit that works in the arts community in the New Orleans metro area. We invite them to come share with us and the audience what their organization entails, what their work is about, how they started, what are their future projects, what were the struggles of starting a nonprofit, how do you learn and grow from failures, etc.

I’m really excited about the platform that this gives to all of these amazing people that do such great things for the community and will help us understand their work. College graduates, for example, who want to bring a project to fruition but don’t really know where to start and are afraid of failure—which is 100% part of the creative process—could benefit from hearing all these people sharing their stories. All of us can benefit from it!

LK: I love how the community is able to engage with different leaders and learn from one another. What are you currently reading?

EL: A lot of different things. I started reading Letters from New Orleans by Rob Walker. It’s a collection of the letters he wrote after moving here in early 2003, before Hurricane Katrina. The perspective it gives on New Orleans is very interesting, often moving, sometimes infuriating, but also very funny and genuine. I just can’t put that book down. I’m also browsing through a book of drawings, Snippets of New Orleans, by the local artist Emma Fick. It’s an illustration of the city through a collection of drawings of mundane as well as historical facts and traditions. I’ve been also reading To Kill a Mockingbird, that I have to confess I had yet to read. And I just started to dive into Jim Harrison’s letters on food that was recently published, A Really Big Lunch, Meditations on Food and Life. It’s so good!

LK: They seem focused on the Southern half of the United States and New Orleans.

EL: Yeah, I try to make time for it, and read as much as I can about where I am living and understand its complex history more in depth.

LK: Have you noticed any major similarities or differences from where you lived in France?

EL: So I actually read this in Rob Walker’s book. He describes New Orleans as a very unselfconscious city, and I think that it’s probably the perfect way to define this place. Marseille is the same. It’s a port city as well with a really strong temper and identity that is the mix of so many rich cultures. It’s like, “This is me! If you’re not happy with this, well that’s what you get. Take it or leave it my friend!” It’s not perfect but all those scars, cracks, and potholes are what makes it beautiful, raw, and real, like a woman’s body, you know? This isn’t photoshopped, you’re gonna have stretch marks on it. That’s what you get! {laughs}

LK: Lastly, what’s the best thing about owning a bookstore? 

EL: All the research, learning, and reading, the constant discovery and excitement of sharing new titles, prints, and goods with people!