<\/b>Editor\u2019s Note: The following story was produced as part of Acci\u00f3n Latina\u2019s media internship program Chicas y Mujeres Poderosas, which launched in January 2018. The internship gave young women, ages 13-17, training in journalism, an industry that remains largely male dominated. El Tecolote will be publishing their final projects periodically. This story was written by DeLara Armijo, 13, of Marina Middle School<\/i>.<\/p>\n
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Can you balance three different things at once? Local bookshop owner, artist and single mother Kate Rosenberger can. On most days she paints for four hours in the morning and runs her three bookshops during the day. On days when she has her daughter Hazel, they spend as much time together as possible.<\/p>\n
As owner of Alley Cat Books on 24th Street, Dog Eared Books on Valencia Street, and Dog Eared Books in the Castro, Kate sets a certain vibe to her stores. When you walk in, it\u2019s like sipping your favorite cup of coffee. Kate herself is as cool as coffee, and the books have that certain smell of knowledge and content. Her artwork, displayed in her stores, can give you a new perspective, as you tilt your head on the side. The 80s music making everyone tap their foot, softly hum or lip sync as they choose their book. Kate loves her family and friends very much, possibly as much as she loves her bookstores, since the feel of it gives her a warm \u201cbeing at home\u201d feeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI paint full size animals a lot, I grew up on a farm,\u201d Kate says about her birthplace in Wisconsin. \u201cMy folks had some land and we grew corn, and that turned into soybeans eventually, and we had a bunch of animals.\u201d Kate, who goes by the name \u201cKate Akimbo\u201d for her art, says she gets inspiration for her art from everywhere, especially animals.<\/p>\n
A hard moment she has been through during her 13 years as a mother, is seeing her daughter Hazel become a teenager, Kate says. \u201cI can empathize with it \u2026 going through all of these changing identities, and it\u2019s hard to watch my daughter go through that sometimes \u2018cause there\u2019s no road map.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hazel is a soccer player, writer, cook and cello player. Just like her mother, she is a multi-tasker, which is not easy since she lives in two different households. \u201cShe has the most interesting observations about life. I just love talking to her,\u201d says Kate.<\/p>\n
According to a Bay Area Reporter article from 2016, Kate knew she wanted to work with books when she started working at Half Priced Books in Berkeley (which is now closed). \u201cFrom the first day, I knew I loved working in a bookstore,\u201d she says in the article.<\/p>\n
Kate\u2019s thoughts on ebooks are pretty fair: \u201cThey are a convenience for when you\u2019re traveling and you wanna carry a bunch of books and can\u2019t decide on which book to carry.\u201d<\/p>\n
She explained that a lot of people get ebooks for Christmas, but Amazon really wanted to get book readers to buy their own instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cJeff Bezos tried to put me out of business. When he started up Amazon, he went after the booksellers first, because he thought that books were easy to ship \u2026 and he thought if he could hook that audience then he could do anything else. So, I took that personally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kate hopes for her bookshops to keep thriving, growing and maintain their leases. \u201cI currently have some very good landlords, so I\u2019m hopeful about that,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I hope that people continue to be interested in printed word, which I think they will.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kate also opened up about her deceased partner, Michael Roman.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love his art, and he\u2019s brilliant. He\u2019s absolutely brilliant. It\u2019s hard to talk about him in the past … He was one of the most intelligent, most interesting people I\u2019ve ever met.\u201d<\/p>\n
They met when Michael came into Dog Eared Valencia with a piece of artwork he wanted to sell. After 20 years of Michael coming in to sell his art, one Valentine\u2019s Day he asked to stencil outside the store, and after he did, he asked to take Kate out for a bite to eat. \u201cAnd that was it. That was hook, line and sinker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Six years into their relationship, Michael developed a number of health problems. In December of 2016, Michael died in Kate\u2019s arms.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very scared to die, and he was at home with me for three weeks in the dying process,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd when he finally crossed, it was at 10:15 in the morning, and, he just took this big breath and spat up this little red thing, and then, a big exhalation and that was it. And his spirit left his body, and his spirit moved, in a horizontal level. It was incredibly profound … I sat with his body for four hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kate explains that Michael was a very funny person, recalling one date in particular.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael hadn\u2019t been to the ocean for a long time. We went to Ocean Beach and he took his shoes off, and he was half-drunk \u2026 he leaned over at one point, into the ocean, and his glasses fell off into the water,\u201d she remembers.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cMichael can only see out of one eye, so he\u2019s pretty blind without his glasses. But he turns to me and he says, \u2018Don\u2019t worry, they\u2019ll be back.\u2019\u201d He never did find the glasses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Editor\u2019s Note: The following story was produced as part of Acci\u00f3n Latina\u2019s media internship program Chicas y Mujeres Poderosas, which launched in January 2018. The internship gave young women, ages 13-17, training in journalism, an industry that remains largely male dominated. El Tecolote will be publishing their final projects periodically. This story was written by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":37924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3929],"tags":[16410,12365,12363],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-37918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-chicas-y-mujeres-poderosas","tag-kate-rosenberger","tag-michael-roman","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n