PORTLAND, Ore. — Powell’s is Portland’s Eiffel Tower.
So said Samiya Bashir, a poet and Reed College professor, on PBS NewsHour Weekend on Saturday.
“When people come to visit Portland, visiting Powell’s is at the top of the list,” Bashir insisted. “You know, you go to Paris, you want to see the Eiffel Tower. You go to Portland, you want to go to Powell’s bookstore.”
Other Portlanders and leading literary lights also appeared on the nationally broadcast program to praise the iconic independent bookstore, which closed all of its locations last month because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Powell’s CEO Emily Powell has said the company’s very existence is at stake. “We don’t know what the future holds -- none of us does,” she wrote in a March 27 message to the “Powell’s community.”
PBS NewsHour’s segment made clear that the bookstore shuttering for good would be a disaster for the city, a serious blow to both Portland’s retail landscape and sense of self.
Literary Arts director Andrew Proctor told NewsHour Weekend’s Tom Casciato that the impact would stretch well beyond the Rose City, calling Powell’s “one of the most important institutions in American literary life.”
“The Ice Storm” author Rick Moody reminisced about the first time he was booked to give a reading at the flagship location, and “that amazing experience of coming up Burnside and seeing the marquee.”
He said every time he visits Portland, he plans the trip around a visit to Powell’s -- as a customer, not as an author making an appearance.
Asked about the possibility of Powell’s not surviving the coronavirus crisis, Emily Powell said she was “tearing up, just thinking about it.” But she’s staying optimistic, adding that she’s been heartened by the surge in online sales coming through Powells.com.
“We’re shipping a lot of classic literature,” she said. “You know, people need some way to divert themselves from what’s happening outside their houses right now.”
-- Douglas Perry
This article was originally published by The Oregonian/OregonLive, one of more than a dozen news organizations throughout the state sharing their coverage of the novel coronavirus outbreak to help inform Oregonians about this evolving health issue.