Lexi Wright: Still high-fiving
Written by Charles Noyes
Photos by Shana Sureck Photography
Sponsored by Valley Home Improvement
Published in Northampton Living (May 2021)
When Lexi Wright was choosing what to call her bookstore, she wanted it to reflect her own love of reading. “The idea behind the name comes from books being a point of connection between people,” Lexi said. “With little babies, the first thing we do is teach them to wave. Then we teach them to high five. Similarly, I think books can bring people together.”
One unique connection she has made through High Five is with her friend and fellow business owner, Lindsay Fogg-Willits. Instead of maintaining two fully separate businesses, they decided to open a shared storefront. Lexi explained, “Lindsay and I are each running our own independent businesses, and we’re operating like two planets in one solar system. The media of books and art are so synchronous and intertwined that it makes sense. It feels really symbiotic as we’re able to grow together.”
And Lexi has grown significantly since she first developed her love of reading. “Growing up in the 80s,” she said, “young adult books weren’t much of a thing. But books like The Baby-Sitter’s Club began to be published when I was a pre-teen. There was a series called Sleepover Friends that had all the things a 10-year-old girl would be interested in. I fell in love with the idea that books could be about my friends and me. It was exciting to see.”
Two decades later, Lexi had lived her dream of working in publishing in New York City, but she knew she needed a change. She arrived in the Valley from Brooklyn in 2006 to work for Disney Publishing, then worked remotely in editorial jobs headquartered in Boston, Toronto, and back in New York.
While building her career in family and kids’ publishing, she grew a family of her own.
Lexi met her partner, Thom, at Yoga Sanctuary in Northampton. Now nearly 15 years later, they live together in Florence with their son, Arlo, age 9. The whole family loves to read: Lexi and Arlo love graphic novels (the funnier the better for Arlo; graphic memoirs for Lexi). Thom’s reading choices dip into local history, paddle boarding, and the local river systems. And due to recent events, the family has been spending many weekends and evenings with puzzles, audiobooks, and Ru Paul’s Drag Race reruns, which suits them all well.
Lexi opened High Five Books in the fall of 2019, with a logo featuring two connecting hands adorning the door of its first location on North Main Street in Florence. She says her family was immensely supportive, helping with the physical creation of the space, “Thom installed all our fixtures, Arlo lugged boxes and shelved books—both continue to be understanding of the demands of entrepreneurship.”
When the pandemic hit in March, the book and art space closed to the public and pivoted to online classes and shopping. And while the lasting impact of the COVID-19 virus may put actual high fives on permanent hiatus, the same cannot be said for High Five Books. The store moved its shared retail space with Art Always into a larger location, one of the oldest storefronts in Florence, last August.
“If you had told me that in the first year of owning a business for the very first time that I would have to almost immediately shut down, find a new space, and pull my kid out of school, it sounds like it would be too much,” Lexi recalled, “I’m in an incredibly privileged position to be able to say it, but this experience has revealed that we are much more resilient than we may have previously thought we were.”
Lexi credits that resiliency, in large part, to her unique partnership with Lindsay. “For so many reasons, co-retailing makes an incredible amount of sense in both this economic climate and the unknown one to follow.” Having successfully jumped so many hurdles already, it’s no wonder that Lexi can’t help but praise her business partnership with Lindsay. The other thing she credits is, of course, the local community that has kept her business not just afloat, but thriving.
