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Laura Moulton is a Portland-based artist, writer, and teacher who recently received a RACC grant for her Street Books project. As Street Books librarian, Laura wheels a custom-modified Haley Tricycle to two locations around town (Skidmore Fountain and South Park Blocks), providing free library services to people living outside. You can find out more about her project here. She talked with us about how her project came to be, and how it’s been going.
[Interview is transcribed and condensed.]
How did the idea for Street Books arise?
In college I worked for a year and a half with the Food and Shelter Coalition in Provo, UT. I really loved meeting the guys and hearing their stories. Some of them were definitely down on their luck, but some of them were outside by choice.
Years later in my inner SE neighborhood I met a group of men who were living outside, and did a radio feature on them for KBOO. One guy, Quiet Joe, liked AB Guthrie, who wrote The Way West and The Big Sky. Quiet Joe struck me as a frontiersman–the man-against-nature sort of dream. He was outside by choice and he made a living recycling wire and metal. Any idea I had about homeless people, that they didn’t read books–that was the end of it for me.
That’s how I came to write a grant for RACC. I like talking to people, especially people who don’t have many opportunities for conversation, and I love books. It all works together.
You’ve done similar participatory or social practice art before. Can you say a bit about it? How would you describe this kind of art, for people who are, say, used to seeing their art on a wall?
I did a project at PSU called Object Permanence. That was a beautiful big mobile gallery with plexiglass windows and old Royal typewriters for people to leave messages. My brother helped me build that one, as well as the Street Books bike. It was a similar idea to Street Books; a spectacle that drew people, created conversation, and gave passersby the opportunity to sit down and contribute to the project.
The Art & Social Practice MFA at PSU is great–it’s art that steps out of the gallery and doesn’t take traditional forms. The social practice targeted might be journalism, environmentalism, or social work–but it all has a creative impulse behind it. I sat in on one of Harrell Fletcher’s classes there, and it really rocked my world. I had been doing these kinds of projects all along but I hadn’t had a name for them.
I remember, in an an advanced social sculpture class, we had to bring in a sculpture we’d made. I was petrified. I spent the weekend worrying and finally took in a gumball poetry capsule. I explained the project, showed the gumball, unwrapped the poem, and read it…and was sure it wasn’t the right thing. But it was perfect. Harrell was impressed, the students thought it was great.
Have there been surprises along the way with the Street Books project?
I’ve been blown away by how people have responded to it. One woman wrote, “Now that I can’t get out anymore, it’s been reinforced to me how vital books are and how important your service is.” I’ve gotten emails of support from wonderful people.
I was surprised at how many people of means really genuinely want to help people who don’t have anything. One Saturday, people were coming up and shaking my hand and bringing paperback donations. I also had patrons there. There was a great moment when this tiny woman brought me a stack of donations and then stood looking at one of my patrons who was there, and you could tell she really wanted to have a conversation, but there was hesitation too. They had a short talk, and I could tell it was thrilling for her.
I also just finished teaaching a creative nonfiction class at Marylhurst, “Writing and Service: Documenting Lives in the City.” The goal was to seek out someone whose story wouldn’t be otherwise told, and spend some time with them to document their story. All the students came down during the class to visit the Street Books library. Almost all chose patrons that I knew, and interviewed them to collect their stories. When they presented they talked about how it changed them, because this was a group of people they wouldn’t otherwise have engaged with. It was amazing to see how they chose to document the experience.
I’ve had my own little epiphanies: a really tattooed kid will request a high-brow book, and I’ll have to remind myself, nothing guarantees anything. You can’t assume anything.
I’ve had a lot of people say, I just never thought about homeless people reading. There’s this assumption that they don’t have education and can’t read, or wouldn’t be interested, or would only be interested in pulpy stuff. But I’ve had the best conversations with patrons who wax poetic about books, and I could never have expressed it the same way.
What about backlash, or criticism of the project?
There were some comments on the Mercury story, that seemed to me like the kind of voices that would weigh in on any subject in a negative way.
I’ve asked myself the question, how is this going to help a guy who has been sleeping out on the banks of the Willamette River for a month? Do I really want to offer him a book? Is that what he can most use? And then I realized, that’s what I can offer. If it’s helpful that’s great.
I’ve had people examine what I’m doing and walk by without taking a book…but on the other hand the response has really surprised me, how many patrons are regulars now, and how it’s a huge thing for them. It’s not just coming to get a book. It’s coming to a place where the librarian knows your name and greets you warmly. I love when my regulars come back and I can tease them and talk to them.
I’ve got a full range of characters. Very rarely are they impaired by substances. Once I had a kid who’d torn it up a little because it was his 21st birthday, and he told me so. He was pretty swaggery and belligerent. I asked him what he liked and he said Che Guevara. The next week he came back and asked for that, not really even looking at me. I said yes, here it is, and it blew his mind. I saw him again and waved to him when I was biking home on Saturday, and he waved back. It’s a pretty cool thing.
You’ve been getting a lot of press coverage. How’s that going?
It’s been so cool, and unexpected. There was one week when it all happened to converge. Rebecca Koffman covered me in the Oregonian and did a wonderful job, came several shifts and studied the patrons, covered the project nicely without romanticizing it. So on this day, she was there, the videographer from the Oregonian was there, a KBOO person was there collecting sound samples, and then Alison Hallett from the Mercury happened by. All on the same shift. It went well, but after that shift I got a little more wary about what that looked like. It felt like we could run the danger of it becoming a caricature of itself.
A documentary filmmaker, Travis Shields, got in touch to cover the story too. He’s been very careful, quiet, low-key, and he’s super-talented and has other Portland projects he’s shot. He’s collected footage and is editing it for the NW Film Center Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival. If it shows in the festival I’d love to gather my patrons to go and see it together.
So, the media has been a very cool thing. Saturday I had a flat tire on my shift, right by Waterfront Bicycle. They’d heard of me on the radio, and they fixed the flat and wouldn’t let me pay for the labor. So, the media’s been helpful in getting the word out.
I did a live radio interview with Sean Moncrieff, on Newstalk national radio in Ireland…I forgot to say the name of the website. I did get an uptick in Dublin traffic after that, though. I’m not sure how they found me in the first place…I did an OPB Think Out Loud piece, so maybe from that.
How much longer does the project run?
I was going to end in August, but I’m thinking of of extending into the first couple weeks of September, because it was so rainy in June. Then I’m thinking of taking a break to regroup and gather resources. In November I’m thinking of a weekly winter library cart.
I need a good place to stash the bike. It’s been housed in the Mercy Corps Action Center so far, both for storage and as a temporary exhibit when it’s not in use. I have an option at FieldWork near PSU. It’s an ongoing project space for the Art & Social Practice students. They may be interested in hosting it in September.
For winter, I’d need to find a place that has automatic shelter, such as under the Burnside Bridge.
One of my students in the Marylhurst class is a baker, and I invited her to be Baker in Residence, maybe provide some warm scones or something.
I’d really like to provide a presence through the winter, because I could blog in my gloves…it’s a miserable situation. In summer there are more people living outside recreationally. Winter weeds them out and it’s mostly people who are really serious or in need. I’ll just see what’s possible. I’d love to continue it, but I don’t know what that will look like yet.
