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9Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Betsy Johnson, Brad Witt, Former President Trump, Henry Heimuller, Joe Biden, Pat Robertson, Ted Cruz, Joe Biden’s dogs, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Bill’s Standard Disclaimer
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Portland Street Librarian
Street librarian Diana Rempe has set up a cargo bike with a shelf display and a huge wooden box inscribed with STREET BOOKS. It’s filled with everything from works by popular authors, with history, classics, poetry, thrillers, comic books and more.
For more than a decade, librarians with the nonprofit mobile library Street Books have been biking around the city bringing books directly to people who live outdoors. There’s no proof of address or ID required to check out a book, no late fees, and no deadline to return a book. Street Books was founded in the summer of 2011 by writer and teacher Laura Moulton.
The library began as a one-person, one-bike operation that summer, with Moulton setting up shop at locations like the Skidmore Fountain near the Willamette River, and the Park Blocks near the Portland Art Museum. She used family book collections, used books she bought or books that were given to her.
Street Books has grown into a portable literary scene for avid readers on Portland’s streets like Ben Hodgson. Hodgson said, I was living outdoors when I first found Street Books, and I was checking out maybe three books a week. I probably got over 50 books that first season. I’d sit down at the waterfront on that bench and pass the time of day. It really, really beats sitting around doing nothing, and it most definitely beats sitting around feeling bad.
A lot has changed for Hodgson since then. For years now, he’s been housed. He’s one of several paid street librarians, positions that Street Books has sought to fill with people who’ve experienced homelessness, when it can.
He’s also an author. Hodgson co-wrote the new book “Loaners: The Making of a Street Library” with Moulton about the library, his life outdoors and their friendship. In the book, Moulton recalled their first meeting, at the bike library, out by Skidmore Fountain. Hodgson had red horn-rimmed glasses and a wild beard, and he checked out the satirical crime novel “Dog Eats Dog,” and John Steinbeck’s “Travels with Charley: In Search of America. He was the first one to bust my chops for not having P.G. Wodehouse, Moulton said in a recent conversation. And then he quickly proved himself to be an incredible storyteller — far better read than I was or am.
One of the many assumptions that people can make about people experiencing homelessness is that they don’t read, that they lack the interest, the ability, or the literary taste of their housed neighbors. Fact check: Many of them love to read. And as Hodgson pointed out, their tastes run the gamut, like the woman whose face lit up at the book by Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho they’d stocked upon her request, or “the guy that didn’t want that particular Nietzsche book because it was the wrong translation.
The street Library also does book requests, In college, one fellow studied Hemingway, Vonnegut, romantic poetry, “Beowulf,” and more. Yeah, he says, he may be living outdoors, but he’s got a college education. Homeless people are just people like anybody else, he said. “I myself, I’m out here, but I happen to have a degree in literature, and I love to read. And where else could I go? I go to the library — we have a good central library — but having it come right to us is amazing. Earlier in the pandemic, the library shifted to more one-on-one outreach in an attempt to avoid the type of in-person gathering created by a typical bike library shift, though those have resumed. Founding street librarian Laura Moulton has also delivered boxes of books to some of Portland’s organized villages for unhoused residents.
Meanwhile, the library has expanded beyond books to bring needed supplies to people on the frontlines of a housing crisis, a public health crisis and a climate crisis. They delivered hundreds of donated N-95 masks — helpful for dealing with both fire smoke and police tear gas — during the 2020 wildfires and racial justice protests. During a winter ice storm, they skied around downtown Portland delivering books and cold weather supplies. And, once a seasonal library, Street Books has now converted to provide year-round services. They feel if their patrons are always outside they will be too.
A simple joy to read a book. A o many could not enjoy if it were not for the Library on Bikes.
Tammy
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