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The fabled Greek storyteller Aesop is the inspiration behind the fragrance, skincare, and hair product company of the same name. While perfume may seem to have nothing to do with queer literature, for Aesop, it does.
In 2021, the company launched the Aesop Queer Library to celebrate Pride month.
Rather than changing their logo or incorporating rainbows into their marketing, they’ve partnered with local bookstores and organizations with pro-LGBTQIA+ philosophies to develop in-store takeovers and pop-up “Reading Room” libraries across the globe. These libraries center books by queer authors, inviting guests to not only engage with those works in store but to also bring home a free copy for themselves.
This year’s Aesop Queer Library is teaming up with the American Civil Liberties Union.
- The company has partnered with the ACLU for four years, noting their commitment to defending American rights, including and especially freedom of speech and expression.
- The “Body of Work” theme for this year’s Queer Library aims to explore how “the queer body can challenge assumptions, give greater visibility to stories too often overlooked or ignored, and serve as an act of joyful resistance.”
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Among the authors whose books will be featured are Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Torrey Peters, Seán Hewitt, Ocean Vuong, Brandon Taylor, Pedro Lemebel, Alejandro Varela, and Kristin Arnett.
Aesop has also partnered with Penguin Random House. According to Alyssa Taylor, Director of Brand Marketing for Penguin Random House, “By featuring a wide range of LGBTQIA2S+ voices across genres and formats, we hope to invite more readers into the fullness, complexity, joy, and resilience of the queer experience.”
You can visit the Aesop Queer Library’s pop-up reading rooms this weekend, June 26 through June 28, at stores in Los Angeles (Aesop Abbot Kinney and Silver Lake), New York (Park Slope), San Francisco (Fillmore), Miami (Design District), Austin (Domain NORTHSIDE), Houston (Montrose), Dallas (NorthPark), DC (Georgetown), Chicago (Lincoln Park), Hoboken, Portland (NW 23rd), Seattle (Capitol Hill), and Philadelphia (Walnut Street).
- “Main Branch” locations—where most Aesop store products will be swapped out with books—will be in Los Angeles (Larchmont) and New York (Nolita).
- If you’re in Chicago this weekend for the American Library Association Conference, Lincoln Park is only a short cab or El ride away.
The Aesop Queer Library has distributed over 115,000 LGBTQIA2S+ books globally since its launch.