Symposium Books

Symposium Books Independent bookstore in the heart of Providence, RI, est. 2004. New•Used•Bargain Books + More

An independent bookstore in the heart of downtown Providence, Rhode Island. Serving the community since 2004, Symposium has built a strong reputation for quality books at excellent prices, in-store and online.

Author Event! Meg Stone’s “Don’t Fight Back”Thursday, June 4th @ 6pm  Join us on June 4th at 6pm as we host Meg Stone in...
05/24/2026

Author Event! Meg Stone’s “Don’t Fight Back”
Thursday, June 4th @ 6pm

Join us on June 4th at 6pm as we host Meg Stone in conversation with Brandie Stringer to discuss her latest book, Don’t Fight Back: And 10 Other Myths About Crime, Personal Safety, and Gender-Based Violence.

About the book:
From a nationally recognized violence-prevention expert, an accessible guide that debunks the most pervasive myths about crime and offers evidence-based strategies that make us safer
A specific image of violence and how to avoid it lives in a lot of our imaginations. And what some of us fear most is shaped not by the strongest evidence, but the most viral horror stories.
Meg Stone, an abuse and violence prevention expert, dives deep into dangerous safety myths and helps us understand what the evidence shows and what men in positions of authority just expect us to believe because they said so.
Meg debunks myths about:
How attackers behave (“Don’t Fight Back. It Will Make the Attacker Angry and You’ll Get Hurt Worse”),
What (or who) to fear (“Crime Is at an All-Time High and Going Up”),
What you should never do (“Don’t Wear a Ponytail. An Attacker Could Grab It”); and
What you should always do (“Trust Your Intuition”)
Each chapter offers practical strategies for protecting ourselves that also contribute to the activism it takes to change the conditions that cause or contribute to violence.
You don’t have to diminish yourself or restrict your life to avoid being attacked. Critical thinking, not following simplistic directives, is the real way to be “smart” about safety.

More info on .com - Events and in comments

Good morning!  Here are some highlights of the used books we got in lately!!All out now on the used & bargain book table...
05/23/2026

Good morning! Here are some highlights of the used books we got in lately!!

All out now on the used & bargain book tables.

We have in some excellent new releases this week 📚Over 75 new arrivals!! New - must have fiction, terrific nonfiction… S...
05/22/2026

We have in some excellent new releases this week 📚
Over 75 new arrivals!! New - must have fiction, terrific nonfiction… Several new titles from indie publishers, works in translation, and - of course - diverse voices!! Plus some cookbooks, children’s books and art books!

Going to be lovely weather this weekend for reading outside the store, along Westminster St, Grants Block or inside 📖

We have a full fridge of cool drinks - if needed

See you 🔜

Open Mic at Symposium Books 🎙️🎙️Saturday, May 30th 7pm-9pmOur monthly open mic is back with special guest and featured p...
05/21/2026

Open Mic at Symposium Books 🎙️🎙️
Saturday, May 30th 7pm-9pm

Our monthly open mic is back with special guest and featured poet - Monica D. Vance !!

Slots fill up fast so please sign up online by clicking the performers slot under tickets and/or showing up at 6:30 the day of to sign up in-store.

We’ll have complementary drinks for patrons 🥂

Performers will get 5-10 minutes (depending on turnout) to perform whatever they choose: song, dance, performance art, poetry+prose reading, you name it!

Come on out and support local artistry!

About the featured performer:
Monica D. Vance is a poet, therapist and speaker. She performs her healing poetry at open mics in Rhode Island and the New England area. Most notably, she has been featured at GBH’s Outspoken Saturdays and Afroverse PVD’s Hide-N-Speak.

She has been practicing as a therapist since 2017 and currently works at a community health center.
Online and offline, she motivates creatives to develop a healthier, “new” mindset. If you want to keep up with Monica’s motivational nuggets, you can check her out on Instagram: . Monica’s debut poetry collection, “Leaving the Dust and the Weeds” launches on Friday, June 26th.

Author Event! The Things He Didn’t Break!Saturday, May 23rd @ 4pmWe’ll be hosting the author of “The Things He Didn’t Br...
05/20/2026

Author Event! The Things He Didn’t Break!
Saturday, May 23rd @ 4pm

We’ll be hosting the author of “The Things He Didn’t Break”! TW: this event will discuss domestic violence extensively.
Join us on Saturday, May 23rd from 4-5pm as we host a discussion about the memoir, The Things He Didn’t Break! Signed copies of the book will be available and patrons will have a chance to engage with the author.
About the book:
For years, she believed surviving him meant staying. Staying quiet. Staying agreeable. Staying alive. Only later did she learn that real survival begins the moment you stop protecting the man who is hurting you.

The Things He Didn’t Break is a raw and haunting memoir of domestic violence, the kind that does not arrive screaming but slips in softly and rearranges your reality piece by piece. Love becomes leverage. Safety becomes a performance. Fear becomes something you learn to carry without flinching. Each chapter traces how control tightens slowly, how silence becomes a skill, and how a woman can disappear inside a life that looks normal from the outside.

Leaving was not the end. The damage lingered in the body, in the breath, in the way ordinary moments could feel dangerous without warning. Survival continued long after the relationship ended, written into muscle memory and instinct.

When she finally spoke, the cost was immense. It became a never-ending cycle of interviews and courtrooms, each one demanding she relive what she was trying to survive. The justice system did not erase the past, but he was found guilty. He was put behind bars. Even then, survival did not stop. It simply changed shape.

This is not just a story of leaving.
It is a story of rising through trauma, through the legal system, and through every attempt he made to silence her.

He broke many things.
But he did not break her.

Content warning: This book contains depictions of domestic abuse, sexual violence, and trauma.

May 27: Silent Sapphic Literary Society6-7pm  We’re partnering with Rhode Island Sapphics  for book club!!!Join us on Ma...
05/19/2026

May 27: Silent Sapphic Literary Society
6-7pm

We’re partnering with Rhode Island Sapphics for book club!!!
Join us on May 27th from 6-8pm as we host the Silent Sapphic Literary Society!!!
Are you a sapphic looking to talk about books with other sapphics but don’t want assigned reading? THIS IS FOR YOU!!!
Bring your own book and mingle with othe sapphics. Sapphic books are encouraged but not required. Below, you can see how we’ll be spending the evening:
6-6:30pm:
“Book report” (Discuss what you’re reading)
6:30pm-7:30pm:
Quiet Reading Hour
7:30pm-8pm:
Optional socializing, or just keep reading!
Learn more at rhodeislandsapphics.com!

Can’t wait to see you!!

Poetry Reading: Anna Lena Phillips Bell’s “Might Could”Friday, May 22nd @ 6pm  Join us on Friday, May 22nd from 6-7pm as...
05/18/2026

Poetry Reading: Anna Lena Phillips Bell’s “Might Could”
Friday, May 22nd @ 6pm

Join us on Friday, May 22nd from 6-7pm as we host Anna Lena Phillips Ball in conversation with Angela DiVeglia and Katherine Hollander .a.hollander to discuss her new collection of poetry, Might Could.
About the book:
In Might Could, Anna Lena Phillips Bell considers how to make a life in hurricane country, amid a verdant landscape touched by industrial pollution and the climate crisis. Poems to familiar plants and to everyday objects—marigolds, a vase, a spoon—invite the reader in, while others act as notes to self, offering wry reminders. At the collection’s core is an extraordinary crown, “Bref Doubles for a Late Conception,” imagining a hoped-for child. Even as they carry the knowledge of potential and actual harm, Bell’s profound, formally inventive poems establish an expansive sense of place and play. With precise intonation, uncanny and often exuberant diction, and subtle humor, Might Could contemplates meaningful companionship with one’s own body, with human family, and with the more-than-human world.

More info on .com + in comments!

Good morning!! Latest selection of a few of the new releases in this week! Some exciting new books in as well as a fresh...
05/16/2026

Good morning!! Latest selection of a few of the new releases in this week! Some exciting new books in as well as a fresh selection of vinyl records!

See you all soon friends 💙

Poetry Pour x Symposium presents Poetry Book Club!!!Friday, May 29th @ 7pm thepoetrypour will be partnering w/  on Frida...
05/13/2026

Poetry Pour x Symposium presents Poetry Book Club!!!
Friday, May 29th @ 7pm

thepoetrypour will be partnering w/ on Friday, May 29th from 7-8pm to discuss Andrea Gibson’s “Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns”!

This month, we’ll be reading and discussing Andrea Gibson’s Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns. Copies are available in-store and online

About the book:
Four-time Denver Grand Champion, Pushcart Prize nominee, and winner of the 2008 Women of the World Poetry Slam, Andrea Gibson’s dynamic and energetic first book, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns, challenges us to not only read, but to react.

“Andrea Gibson does not just show up to pluck your heartstrings, [they stick] around to tune them. If being floored is new to you, ya might wanna grab a cushion. Beware the highway in [their] grace and the crowbar in [their] verse.” – Buddy Wakefield, author of Stunt Water

“To call [them] one of the best poets would be a gross understatement. [Their] words cut so sharply and completely they cannot be shaken. [They are] a rare artist who forever changes those who experience [their] poems.” – Carlos Andres Gomez, HBO Def Poet and co-star of Spike Lee’s Inside Man

Hauntingly vivid, the poems march through a soldier’s lingering psychological wounds, tackle the curious questions of school children on the meaning of “hate”, and tangle with a lover’s witty and vibrant description of longing. Gibson’s poems deconstruct the current political climate through stunning imagery and careful crafting. With the same velocity, the poignant and vacillating love poems are equally capable of sweeping the air out of the room. Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns has a bold and unforgettable internal voice and is rich with the kind of questioning that inspires action.

📍Symposium Books
240 Westminster Street, Providence

We just got in some excellent new and used vinyl in this week !!  Stop by weekly to check the latest additions!Owning vi...
05/12/2026

We just got in some excellent new and used vinyl in this week !! Stop by weekly to check the latest additions!

Owning vinyl is always 100% yours whereas with digital - you never truly own it! Actually, same with books!

💙 Physical Vinyl and Books!!

Address

240 Westminster Street
Providence, RI
02903

Opening Hours

Monday 11am - 6pm
Tuesday 11am - 6pm
Wednesday 11am - 6pm
Thursday 10am - 8pm
Friday 10am - 8pm
Saturday 10am - 8pm
Sunday 10am - 6pm

Telephone

+14012737900

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