BASCH to host potluck for community input

Home City News BASCH to host potluck for community input

As part of ongoing renovations to transform the Book, Art, and Spiritual Center of Hillsdale into a music ven- ue and community center, BASCH will host a potluck Tuesday at 5 p.m. to discuss options for the bookstore’s future development. The potluck will also decide whether to limit the store’s hours to Tuesdays 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. until January to reduce heat- ing costs. Plans to update BASCH’s exterior with a mural have been postponed as winter approaches, and BASCH staff will focus on painting and rearranging inventory to make space for community events.

Recently, BASCH has host- ed open mic nights, featured local authors, arranged polit- ical meetings, and hosted stu- dent bands as staff has reevaluated the bookstore’s offerings.

“We’re evolving, and we don’t quite know what we’re evolving into yet,” said Deborah Connors, who has volunteered at BASCH since 2013. “We have to come up with a new concept to make this work. One person or a few people can’t do that. It requires a community effort to build a new concept.”

BASCH employees and volunteers completed a project to renovate the storefront by replacing rotten wood and hanging a new sign in September. David Kohli, a BASCH employee in charge of inventory and database work, said expanding music offerings will boost BASCH’s customer base.

“Once we get started with the music venue, that’s going to bring people down here,” Kohli said. “They’ll come in and they’ll say, ‘I know somebody who will just love this place.’”

In addition to weekly ka- raoke nights, Wunsch hosts Hillsdale College student bands and open mic nights. But there’s not much room for music enthusiasts amid more than 130,000 titles that overflow BASCH’s bookshelves.

“We get a lot of people in here, and there’s no room to move around,” said Wunsch.

In order to make space for events, Wunsch aims to clear out two standing shelves that dominate almost half of the store’s main room.

Connors said BASCH’s impact on Hillsdale extends beyond books and music performances.

“It’s about information for the community,” Connors said. “Some of that is in books, but there’s more to it than that.”

BASCH is a place for community members to discuss important issues, Connors said. For example, BASCH becomes a political forum every Tuesday night as Wunsch meets with members of the Hillsdale Justice Project.

The Hillsdale Justice Project started with “the realiza- tion amongst the people that our system of justice is a tad out of balance,” Wunsch said.

The project, which now has approximately 30 members, discusses perceived issues with Hillsdale County’s court system. Wunsch said he leads discussions and shows educational videos to “point out to people what their rights are.”

By educating people about their rights as citizens, BASCH and the Hillsdale Justice Proj- ect provide a space for Hillsdale’s residents to discuss issues with members of the community.

“We bring together the idea that all human beings can rise to new challenges and learn new things,” Connors said.

Connors said she is exploring options for official memberships as BASCH expands from a bookstore into a meeting place for the community.

Cimmeron “Tex” Summey, who started volunteering at BASCH two years ago, said BASCH’s support of local authors has enriched his own reading.

“One of the best books I’ve read this year has been from a local author,” Summey said, holding up a copy of “A Look Back to the Present,” a novel by Hillsdale resident Charles “Chopper” Ferguson. Ferguson was one of three local authors featured by BASCH in a special event in October.

Connors said the community will help to define BASCH’s new direction.

“A lot of people desire to belong to something, and here, people can create what they want to belong to,” Connors said.

No matter what direction BASCH takes in the future, its connections to the communi- ty stem from its identity as a bookstore, Summey said.

“We’re about selling books, but we’re also about bettering the community,” Summey said. “There’s a lot of stuff in here people can learn.”