July 14, 2025
The bookstore will remodel right into a public archive and neighborhood hub.
The oldest Black-owned bookstore in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, will shut its present chapter, however its mission to advertise Black literacy will stay alive.
Willa’s Books and Vinyl opened its first brick-and-mortar retailer in 2007, however its proprietor, Willa Robinson, had been sharing tales with the Black neighborhood because the Nineteen Nineties. Robinson sought out uncommon and vintage books by Black authors, introducing them to native various youth and galvanizing a love of studying.
She says this mission stored her storied bookstore round for many years. Since then, she has grown her assortment to over 20,000 books.
“You by no means noticed Black youngsters in books,” Robinson mentioned to the Kansas Metropolis Star. “I’ve been gathering books for years, since 1978, and only a few of the books had Black youngsters in it.”
In response to Robinson, encouraging Black boys to learn required having tales they felt seen in. For the bibliophile, that meant ditching the classics and prioritizing works by Black authors.
“You must have books that children are occupied with,” Robinson informed the outlet. “As a result of as a younger lady, I didn’t learn the classics … and I believe younger Black boys don’t establish with them as a result of it’s not about them.”
Nonetheless, age caught as much as the long-time entrepreneur. The 84-year-old determined to shut up store on the request of her family members. She hosted a retirement celebration July 12 to have fun her timeless work locally, marking a bittersweet finish to the bookshop.
Regardless of her retirement, the previous bookstore will stay devoted to Black youth literacy. Robinson has partnered with the Kansas Metropolis Defender, a neighborhood Black digital information outlet, to proceed its legacy. Robinson will grant possession of her paintings, titles, and different archival gadgets to the Defender.
The Defender will take over the bookstore, guaranteeing it turns into a communal hub and public archive of those works. Members of the neighborhood can go to and skim the books without spending a dime, which embody first-edition novels by Black authors akin to Frederick Douglass, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright.
With the bookstore as its new headquarters, the Defender may also host its B-REAL Academy (Black Radical Schooling for Abolition and Liberation) to have interaction the neighborhood on Black historical past and radicalism. The huge efforts will additionally hold Black tales and teachings inside Missouri, as many state faculties confronted ebook bans and cuts to DEI initiatives.
“Once we discuss in regards to the erasure that’s at the moment taking place with Black schooling, of Black books, there’s simply no higher place to intervene than the oldest and longest-standing Black bookstore within the state,” defined Defender Founder and Govt Editor Ryan Sorrell.
The Defender goals to proceed Robinson’s legacy by means of this effort, with a fundraiser within the works to assist with renovations.
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