Following the retirement of founder Willa Robinson, Willa's Books and Vinyl in Kansas City, Mo., will become a public archive, programming space, and headquarters of the Kansas City Defender, Startland News reported.
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| (photo: Kansas City Defender) | |
The Kansas City Defender, which is a Black-led media company and advocate for the city's Black community, began working with Robinson in spring 2024. It has turned the store's inventory of more than 20,000 books into a public archive, and it will use the space at 557 Troost Ave. to host programming like its educational initiative B-Real Academy. Activities at the former bookstore will also support the Defender's mutual aid endeavors.
"We didn't want to see the longest-standing Black bookstore in Missouri just disappear," Nina Kerrs, a mutual aid organizer with the Kansas City Defender, told Startland News. "Until people walk into this space and see what the books are, the first editions and the deep history, they won't understand. But this place matters."
The Defender held a farewell celebration for Robinson, who is 84 years old, on July 12. "I'm not ready to retire, but it's time for me to retire. All of these books, all this music, all this art, is dedicated to you all," she said.
Robinson opened Willa's in 2007 in a space on Troost Ave. In 2012 she moved the book and record store to a space in the Citadel Office Building before returning to Troost Ave. in 2022. At the time, Robinson relied on a crowd-funding campaign to help the bookstore move; the campaign raised $19,600, nearly double the $10,000 goal.
When Kerrs learned that Robinson was considering selling the inventory and closing the store, it was an "immediate call to action."
Kerrs called the transition "life-changing" for the Defender. "To have a space where we can be ourselves and be safe, to learn, organize, and grow, that's what Miss Willa gave us, and now, we'll carry it forward."