Papercuts J.P.’s Layte to Discuss Indie Vitality and Importance at TEDx Talk

On October 3, Kate Layte, owner of Papercuts J.P. in Boston, Massachusetts, will take part in her Jamaica Plain community’s first-ever TEDx event. Layte will be one of 20 speakers and performers, including dancers and musicians, delivering presentations at TEDxJamaicaPlain on the theme Joy & Purpose.

Layte’s speech will focus on the importance of independent bookstores. “There’s nothing that I’m more passionate about than books and I find joy in sharing my passion with my community,” Layte told Bookselling This Week.

Papercuts J.P., which opened on Small Business Saturday in November 2014, is about to complete its first year in business. Layte established the bookstore after working at Hachette Book Group and as a bookseller at Borders. “With endless access to ideas and the most interesting people — I knew I’d never be satisfied doing anything else,” she said of her first bookselling experience.

From her TEDx presentation, one of a series of speeches to be delivered over the course of four hours, Layte said she hopes listeners will take away the understanding that “you’ve got to take risks with what you choose to read, challenge yourself, and make the time to read.”

TEDx Talks are a locally organized version of the popular TED Talks, which were created with the goal of spreading ideas through short, powerful presentations. The talks were launched in the 1980s as a conference bringing together conversations on technology, entertainment, and design.

Creating a presentation for the TEDx Talk has been challenging for Layte. “The [TED Talk] style is about having one core idea — and having one idea by its nature is not something I associate with books and bookstores,” she said. “Bookstores give us access to endless ideas. So it’s been tough for me to try and explain what books do, what they mean to me, and why I find the bookstore so vital within the constraints of a structured speech.”

Tickets for the October 3 event are available here. An after-party at the Loring-Greenough House in Jamaica Plain will feature food, drinks, live music, and games as well as a chance to mingle with speakers and fellow attendees.

In addition to preparing for her TEDx presentation, Layte is busy launching a project in honor of Papercuts J.P.’s first anniversary — an anthology of exclusive new and collected works by authors who visited the bookstore during its first year in business.

The 336-page compilation, What Happened Here: Year One at Papercuts J.P., will be produced through Inkshares, which relies on preorders to fund book publications. The bookstore is looking to secure 1,000 preorders to produce What Happened Here, which will include contributions from authors Abigail Thomas (What Comes Next and How to Like It, Scribner), Chris Hedges (Wages of Rebellion, Nation Books), and Edan Lepucki (California, Hachette), among others.