Martha reading at the benefit

This past Friday, lots of local artists got together to raise money for St. Johns Booksellers. For my blog readers who don’t live around here, a little background: our neighborhood independent bookstore is housed in a 91-year-old building. Part of the facade crumbled and fell to the sidewalk on May 9. Big stucco chunks littered the sidewalk. The entrance was deemed unsafe, and the public forbidden to come in. Soon a chain link fence blocked the doorway. Our beloved bookseller, Nena Rawdah, was unable to conduct business. Since independent bookstores operate on a shoestring, Nena was afraid she’d lose her livelihood, and the rest of us were afraid that we’d lose the cultural and intellectual center of our community.

The community rallied around. Local businesses let Nena use part of their space on different days, as a “pop-up bookshop.” Nena selected books from the store, and customers rushed to buy. Other friends arranged for her to have a booth at the farmer’s market last Saturday. Catt, who is computer savvy, started a GoFundMe site. And then, on Friday, we had a benefit at Plew’s Brews, a neighborhood brew pub. Writers read from their work, and musicians performed. The GoFundMe site met its goal of $5,000. I don’t know how much the benefit raised, but it was a smashing success, attracting people from all over Portland. Even the former mayor, Sam Adams, dropped by to make a donation. And best of all, the facade has been shored up, the city engineer gave it thumbs up, and St. Johns Booksellers opened again for business yesterday!