Joe Biel Steps up for Street Books
Got a great fan letter from Microcosm Publishing founder, Joe Biel, who invited us by to receive some donated titles. Thanks again, Joe! We love Microcosm -- they were one of our earliest supporters. I visited the shop last May to see their own haley trike (used to bike their books & zines around), and received a donation of books to start off our library collection. Very grateful for the generosity people in Portland have shown to the Street Books project.
Lord of the Flies, Revisited
In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, Golding puts forth the idea that a group of young people, left to their own devices on a remote island, will revert to savagery (spoiler alert: it gets pretty freakin' savage). I spotted a copy of the book in our Street Books library during my shift on Wednesday, and since I was stationed in front of the Right2Dream Too camp at 4th & Burnside, it was easy to ruminate on how the group of people maintaining the camp have done so far. They're not on a desert island, sure, and they're not children, but in many ways they have embarked on a similar kind of experiment. They have created roofs overhead, rules by which to govern themselves, and they have brought together a diverse community of people who happen to have one important commonality: lack of shelter. Now, instead of sleeping solo under a bridge, or being poked awake and told to move on by police downtown, there is a resting place where they can sleep without fear of being disturbed, or losing important possessions. I get the sense that the camp has the kind of struggles one would expect when a diverse group of people assembles and lives together amid different personalities, management styles, and ideas. But I also think that William Golding would be pleasantly surprised to see the society built at Right2Dream going so well.
Happy Holidays from Street Books
It has been a great year of building friendships and literacy. From the Street Books family to yours, best wishes for a happy holiday season!
An Event & An Ailing Patron
We'll start with the ailing patron. One of our most faithful readers is Eric, a slight man in his 70s, who's been checking out books since June. If you follow this blog, you will know him by his cowboy boots, bolo tie, his One Way: Jesus baseball cap. He was also featured on KGW's channel 8 news, when Sue presented him with a pair of cowboy boots donated by a Street Books supporter. Eric has had a rough go of it lately, with pneumonia and heart problems that resulted in a recent hospitalization. He's currently got a week or two at a motel downtown, but he is weak and not eating well. A small group of people from Right2Dream, plus Sue Zalokar and I from Street Books are checking in on him and taking him meals. Our hope is that he'll soon have guaranteed shelter and can really rest and heal. We'll keep you posted. Keep him in your thoughts. The Event: Street Books is pleased to announce a book drive in conjunction with Ecotrust's annual bake sale to benefit the Raphael House. It's a great opportunity to come unload some paperbacks, and eat a tasty baked good. We'd love to meet you in person, or say hello to old friends.
Date: Thursday, December 15. 11-4 pm
Location: Ecotrust building, Atrium: 721 NW 9th Avenue (9th & Johnson)
More details here.
Thanks everybody, and hope to see you there.
Gratitude, From Street Books
There's a lot to be grateful for on this Thanksgiving holiday. I'm thankful for my fellow street librarian, Sue Zalokar, and how she stepped up this summer to take library shifts and help me see the long-term potential of the Street Books project. She is a huge reason that Street Books keeps on keeping on, and I appreciate her energy and good work. I'm grateful as well for Street Book's new working board: Israel Bayer, Beth Chapman & Amy Dennis. They have given their time and enthusiasm to the project, and are a stellar cast of characters to have with us. I'm grateful to the folks at Ecotrust, for their willingness to donate storage space for our books. Street Books will have a book drive there on Thursday, December 15th, from 11-4 , (721 NW 9th Avenue). It will coincide with Ecotrust's annual bake sale to benefit Raphael House, an agency helping survivors of domestic violence. Bring paperbacks down to donate, and enjoy a baked good at the same time. The rain has finally arrived in our fair city, and our winter library cards are hot off the presses. Our hours are 10-1, Mondays and Wednesdays, serving the Right2Dream camp, Old Town/China Town & the Skidmore Fountain area. We've acquired a large umbrella to open over our library (the regular-sized umbrella being a sad attempt at coverage - see photo below), and our plan is to keep running library shifts through the winter. We've realized that on the truly blustery days, when wind blows the rain sideways, and the library cart/umbrella is in danger of being blown all the way to Astoria, people are generally less motivated to gather on the street and talk about books. So on those days, we will pack it in. But we are grateful for the days that aren't too stormy. We will do our best to be outside offering good books to the people who are living there. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your support. Happy Thanksgiving from Street Books.
Michael Donated A People's History
We are grateful to have a copy of Howard Zinn's book for our street library. A People's History of the United States is "the first scholarly work to tell America’s story from the bottom up—from the point of view of, and in the words of, America’s women, factory workers, African Americans, Native Americans, working poor, and immigrant laborers." I read it while living in Ecuador, in 2002, and the effect it had was to make me feel very patriotic -- humbled by the thought of all the immigrants who'd come before, their dreams, their hard work in a new country. Zinn tells the old stories with a new perspective, one rarely mentioned in the history books in school. It's an important book to read.
Street Books Segment on Channel 8 News
Here, Laura Moulton speaks to Pat Dooris, a KGW Channel 8 News reporter. The segment aired November 7 and featured a couple of our patrons too!
How Much Debt Do You Owe?
Outside the Occupy Portland library, this poster:
The fine print:
Andrea: $30,000, student loans
Steve: $8,000, student loans
Rex: $36,000, mental health/hospital
Cameron: $900, my dog needed it
Street Books Visits the Library at Occupy Portland
The librarian on duty, Zella, showed us the stamp inside each of their library books, and said that several Multnomah County librarians have volunteered their time to catalogue and digitalize incoming book donations. On the shelves: everything from The Lover by Marguerite Duras to Crashing the Party by Ralph Nader, to A Beginner's Guide to Puppetry.
Laura Shares Her Vision
Laura, an activist at the Right 2 Dream Too camp, contributed her zine about practicing nonviolence. It's available to read at the Street Books library. Thanks, Laura.
Street Books: Ever More Mobile
This fall and winter will find us operating shifts under the roof structure at the Bill Naito fountain, but we will also be biking around the blocks in the Old Town/China Town areas in order to reach as many patron as possible. We will begin bike shifts at 10 a.m., Mondays and Wednesdays, and after making stops through the area, we'll park at Bill Naito from 11:30-1 on those days.
Motley Crew
A motley crew, indeed! I am bouncing off the gate to China Town hovering over a stoic looking duo: Street Books founder, Laura Moulton, and long time Street books patron, Eric, who is camping in the Right 2 Dream Too camp on 4th and Burnside.
All Signs Point to Yes
When the question was, do people living outside need a library? Is it really something that will help? The answer was yes. When we wondered, will people step up and help finance our fall & winter library, the answer was yes! (we met our $4,000 goal in 2 weeks, and people continue to donate to the kickstarter campaign -- as of this writing, we're at $4, 724. We have 68 hours remaining to hit $5,000. If you know of others who have been meaning to donate to Street Books, please spread the word). We began our fall library on Wednesday, October 5th. Skidmore Fountain was emptier than usual, and a crisp wind skittered the autumn leaves across the square. Several of our regular patrons came to find us, to check out new books and catch up. Passersby paused to study the collection, and to offer help. Sarah Mirk from The Mercury stopped by to say hello, and a man named John Scaife asked what he could do to help the project. He's a retired electrician who lives downtown, and he said he'd help us with our search for downtown book storage. Thanks, John.
And thanks, all of you, for your support of our Street Books project. We will continue to run our twice weekly library shifts (details on location/days/times will be announced next week), and each week we'll keep you posted on the unfolding stories of our patrons. Happy fall!
Street Books Moves to Field Work
The fine people at Field Work have invited Street Books to live in their front window (at: 1101 SW Jefferson Street), through mid-October. We like Field Work because it's a space that used to be vacant before students from PSU's Art & Social Practice program turned it into a space for socially engaged art and design projects. According to their website, it's a "home base for urban discovery & projects that explore interaction with the public." We here at Street Books value our interaction with the public. Conversations with our library patrons this summer were what made the project so rich and interesting for everyone involved, whether it was comparing notes about a work of literature, or listening to a story from the road. Last week when Sue and I moved the bike library to Field Work, I encountered several of our regular patrons. Tye-Dye said, "Man, where have you been? I waited for you on Saturday, but you never came." I told him we'd taken two weeks off in September to get organized, and he let me off the hook. He said he wanted to turn in the Vonnegut he'd checked out, and find something new. Chris flagged me down and said he was concerned because his graphic novel MacBeth was starting to get pretty banged up in his backpack. I suggested he turn it in on my next shift, if he wanted. These conversations and others that day reminded me of how glad I am that the project will live beyond the summer.
And part of sustaining our project has come in the form of the kickstarter campaign we launched 3 weeks ago. We have been amazed and grateful at how quickly people stepped up to pledge their support to our street library. Between now and October 12, when the campaign ends, we hope to hit our target ($4,000), and then some. Recently some friends suggested that we add a $50 donation level to our kickstarter page, saying that it's a "sweet spot." So we're going to go for it, and add the new level as we enter our third week in the campaign. If you have friends and family that you know have a weakness for the number 50, by all means tell them about our project, and direct them to the kickstarter page. And we thank you again for your support. Stay tuned for more posts, with details about our fall/winter operations.
Street Books Reception, & How the Project Will Live On
Street Books invites you to a reception for our library patrons, book/money donors, and anyone who is interested in supporting our street library as we launch fall/winter operations. As you know, this project was initially backed by a grant from Regional Arts & Culture Council. The reception will be an opportunity for Street Books to thank RACC and everyone else who has contributed their support to Street Books, and to launch the project as its own entity. The reception will be held this Monday at: Mercy Corps Action Center (28 SW First Avenue, next to Skidmore Fountain)
6-8 p.m.
Drinks, Snacks & Marvelous Raffle Prizes, as well as a viewing of Travis Shields' documentary on Street Books
A Colorful Street Books Shift & The Photos That Got Away
As with most weeks, the Street Books shift did not disappoint. This librarian had an interesting conversation with C., a regular patron, who broke down the city by drug areas: Park Blocks is weed, he said. China Town, crack, though it's better than it used to be. Pioneer Square, Alder and Washington Streets between Broadway & Fourth: pills, heroin. The Galleria on Morrison and under the Burnside Bridge is meth, he said. Though in winter it's a mixed bag under the bridge. C. says he's trying to kick heroin -- he's been clean 14 days now. We're wishing him good luck. Portland legend (actress, writer) Marjorie Sharp came by with her little dog, and participants from a city-wide scavenger hunt called CitySolve (including superheroes, some in short-shorts--see below) visited the Street Books library to have their pictures taken.
Portland poets Matthew & Michael Dickman stopped by, carrying a bag of pickles and about 20 baguettes. They are twin brothers who have both had success with their writing. Michael's recent book is Flies, and it's already winning prizes. Matthew has a great collection called All American Poem, for which he's also received prizes, including the Oregon Book Award for poetry in 2009. He said in an interview, that he wants people "from the community that I come from" (the Lents neighborhood in southeast Portland) to get his poems. "Also, I decided to include anything I wanted in my poems...Pepsi, McDonald's, the word 'ass.'" Matthew said he'd like to donate a copy of his collection to the Street Books library, so we look forward to that. After they said goodbye, I realized I'd missed a great opportunity to snap their photo -- to talk them both is like talking to one Dickman in stereo, and seeing them together is great. Ah well, just visualize 2 poets in plaid shirts and horn-rimmed glasses, bearing pickles & baguettes, and you'll get the picture.
The other photo I should have taken: A wonderful conversation sprung up between security guard/Street Books fan A.B. and Jeffrey, a formerly homeless/meth addict who is now a student at Marylhurst University. Jeffrey was in my creative nonfiction class this summer, and helped out at the Street Books library. He's a terrific writer, and he is full of ideas about how he wants the rest of his life to go. He gestured to A.B., who was looking through the library books, and said "That guy used to wake me up in the park next to the elephant, back when I was still using. He was always pretty nice about it." "Hey, A.B.," I said. "This is Jeffrey, and he used to be on the streets. He says you weren't mean about telling him to move on." I told A.B. that Jeffrey was a college student now, and free of drugs. A kind of success story. "I thought you looked familiar," A.B. said. He reached out an shook Jeffrey's hand.
The Street Books project has created an intersection for these conversations to happen, where people can stop and talk to one another. People who live under roofs, people who live under bridges, people who love books, poets with baguettes, and dogs on leashes. So many stories to be told.
We are very glad to announce that the Street Books project will live on after the RACC grant ends in early September. We will have a reception in September (Save the Date: September 12, 6-8 p.m., at the Mercy Corps Action Center), to wrap up the grant and launch Street Books as its own entity. We'll keep you posted on how you can help us to run the Street Books library through the winter, and beyond. Thanks again to everyone.
MacBeth Close-Up
The graphic novel Chris is reading, adapted by John McDonald. Wish it had been around when I was reading it in college.
Sue, Guest Librarian, Blogs About Her Shift
Read about Sue's latest adventures with Street Books at www.suezalokar.com
The Street Books Bicycle, With the Pit Crew
Fresh out of the Mercy Corps building this morning, this librarian discovered one very flat tire on the mobile Street Library. Fortunately help was right around the corner, in the form of Waterfront Bicycles. They have a seriously welcoming, can-do approach, and they had me biking away on a new tire in the space of 15 minutes. Plus they didn't let me pay them for labor. Hats off to the great people at Waterfront Bicycles. While I was waiting, a bearded man named Sonny said, "Are you the street librarian?" I said, "Yes," and he handed me two dollars. "For incidentals," he said. Thank you Sonny. Below: Jeff & mechanic Katherine Pauman do the hard work.
