BABYLON FALLING

The spirit of revolution lives in the Lower Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco with its headquarter at Babylon Falling. That's where we had a chat with Sean Stewart - the mind behind this unique culture spot.

If there's no integrity there's no store. Fuck it."

What's your background? I grew up in Jamaica. I was actually born in the States and I might not have been here today, cause for example my sister's Green Card was taken away when she was young. So it's just through the chance of being born here, that I am able to do this shit. I grew up in Jamaica since I was 3 years old, went through high school then came to the States and was in and out of the States for the past 14 years. And I finally decided that this is it, this is where I want to live, this is what I want to do. My family is all in Jamaica.

So you must be very well educated... Really I was a delinquent, I was a fuck up, a shit head kid, that's actually part of the reason why I left Jamaica, you know, cause I couldn't go further on at school. Through my time in Jamaica I was never a reader, my sister was always a reader and both of my parents. My mom is a professor and my dad read more than my mom. So basically I come from the environment where it always existed, it was always in the air. But being a boy and being outside most of the time I wasn't conscious of it. I was going through my shit and when the time was right I picked up a book off of my dad's book- shelf by CLR James "The Black Jacobins". I picked up the right book at the right time in my life and it set me off. It's now crazy to me to see all this shit, cause I was anti-reading, you know... Since I was 19 for about 10 years I was just straight reading all the time all the time, trying to make up for the lost time.

So how did the idea of the bookstore come about? I was in New York when the idea really started to come together. I graduated school, I hated it, it was the worst shit imaginable to me, the constricts of school. I finally finished school after 8 years and I was doing bullshit jobs and it was never a possibility to have my store. But once I realized that the money would be available, that it's a possibility, I started thinking of what the store would actually be.

How did you pick the first books? Originally the idea was just simply "revolution". The store was going to be called "La Lucha" - the struggle. I got so excited but someone told me that Spanish version of Hitler's mein kampf is la lucha. So I was like fuck that shit! Plus, it's not my culture, you know. Then I started thinking of what's my culture, my heritage, how can I represent who I am, and that's where the name Babylon Falling came from. The first books originally were gonna be all revolution. Then when I compiled the list of books I realized it was mad depressing. It was too much. So I went from "revolution" to "the spirit of revolution", cause that's essentially what I thought was important. Then I started picking books based on actual revolutions, revolutions in art, revolutions in writing. I took suggestions. It's like organic thing, it changes all the time. There are few that are never gonna come off the shelves. Like "Wealth Of Nations" by Adam Smith. It's essential in understanding how the current system we're operating in is built. Or "Understanding Media"... But there were some missteps. I went too literal sometimes, taking whole shelves of bullshit like Scottish historical fiction. Like who cares? I hardly care, you know.

Stagnation is death. So we remind people to keep moving."

You talk a lot about revolution, but what's wrong with the world today? So much! So much. But the main goal of the store is to remind people that the word revolution isn't about word. It's the idea of change. Revolution is the idea we all have to embrace. It's something that's in our history, it's in the history of this country, it's throughout our own lives. Everyone experiences sudden changes in their lives. So for me stagnation is what's wrong. Stagnation in every arena. Stagnation is death. So we remind people to keep moving.

What's the role of art in your store? This is a book store 100%, but art is crucial, because it's the representation of what we can not express, the element that is crucial to culture. I like art but I'm not an art guy. I don't know shit about art to the level of a gallery snob. But I like art because of the message it conveys. The art that we have here allows us to lower the barriers to entry to reading. Because I feel like it was by chance that I became a reader. The way my life was going, noone could have predicted that I would have a bookstore. And I think that it's daunting going to a bookstore if you're not a reader, even if you want to open to the joys of reading. I find that people nowadays are better equipped to communicate through images, than words. So it's that first level of entry. Someone might be walking by the store and the image draws them in. Someone says "what am I gonna do Thursday night? I could go to an art show and drink some free beers" they don't say "yo, let's go to a bookstore"

What's the one book everyone has to read? The one book that I recommend most to people is "Watchmen" graphic novel by Alan Moore. The movie is coming out in 2009. It's one of those books, that led to a lot more shit in my life. It's written well, the art is great. There's a lot of allusion in it, and if you're curious enough, you can follow all these threads. I don't want to snitch on the book too much, but there are elements within it that can lead to more reading. And that's the best type of reading.

Did you ever plan on making money with the store? Yea, absolutely planned to make money. It is what it is, oldfashioned business. And it's been love so far. Now it's a series of things: "Best of the Bay", people recognize me, people show love, going beyond what they really need to, to show their love. So now it's getting its own legs. I see people I don't know wearing our shirts. That's love! But yes, from the beginning the store was moving upward in the right direction slowly and organically. From the beginning I broke every industry rule about book-selling. They told me I can't have the space less than a 1000 sq feet. This space is almost half of that. They say there's no way you can survive on this kind of specialty. So from the beginning I knew it was going to be a struggle, so the plan was for the long steady growth. There are ways to make quick money, like selling Harry Potter, by making some justification that Harry Potter is revolutionary and you'd be surprised you see shit like that popping up in so-called radical book stores. I sympathize that, but I didn't want to ever be in that position. So the plan was for the long steady growth and integrity. If there's no integrity there's no store. Fuck it.

Name three invaluable things you'd like to sell in your store. Like world peace for example. Fuck world peace! I want equal rights and justice. Equal rights doesn't mean peace. I definitely wouldn't be selling world peace here. That's for sure. I'd be selling equal rights, justice and food.

• My wildest dream is...to be building schools. I don't know where, but that's what I wanna do. And by building I don't mean cutting ribbons on the schools for a foundation, but I mean really building schools. That's one dream and the other one is to have a culture spot on the beach, not a bookstore but a full workshop space, art, creative space.
• Big up to...my fiance Kensey, my homie artist, writer, the most outsider of outsider artists Red Jordan Arobateau, my homie Shaun Roberts, all the people in the Lower Nob Hill neighborhood that are supporting the store and the Bay area. Everybody who's showing love. It's a beautiful thing. Babylon Falling.

For art submisisons: art@thebigupmagazine.com

For content submissions: bigup@thebigupmagazine.com

For advertising opportunities: lud@thebigupmagazine.com