It takes a tenacious soul to run a small bookstore for ten years on Northeast Killingsworth, but O.B. Hill is determined to see his venture survive. Reflections bookstore broke ground as the only African-American owned bookstore in the overwhelmingly white city of Portland, and its location has never placed it in the way of many affluent literary folk. The store, which until recently shared a building with a coffee shop, also called Reflections, has struggled financially throughout its existence. Finally, when the lease ran out last year, Hill made an economic decision to move the bookstore in search of cheaper rent. The Reflections coffee shop remained in its old location in the Walnut Park shopping center, and now hosts a smaller bookstore, called Talking Drum, as well.

“The coffee shop was paying for the bulk of the place, as so as to not place a strain on the coffee shop, I decided to move to a location more compatible with the finances of the bookstore,” Hill said.

It took some time to find that in the end, he didn’t have to look far. After operating for several months out of a temporary space on Garfield St., Hill finally found a new permanent space for the bookstore. Renamed the Reflections Mirror Image Bookstore, the shop has now reopened at 330 N. Killingsworth, next to Vinny’s Pizza and will be holding a series of events to celebrate its grand opening from Nov. 26 through Dec. 11.

Among the opening events will be an exhibit of photos of the Black Panther party, presented by Bill Jennings of It’s About Time, an organization devoted to preserving the legacy of the Black Panthers and their program for social change. The showing will be held Dec. 4. Hill is also planning to collaborate with Vinny’s Pizza to hold spoken word events in the future. And, as at the old Reflections, there will be monthly book club meetings the third Saturday of every month.

More than selling books, Hill considers his mission to be combating ignorance and illiteracy, especially in the African American community. Eventually, he would like to form a reading group for people working to overcome illiteracy. And, along the same lines, he will now be collaborating with the Books to Prisoners collective, which sends donated books to people incarcerated in prisons around the nation. Reflections will provide a space for people from the North Portland community to come and help with mailing nights, or simply pick out books to send to their friends and family who are incarcerated.

Unlike many other states, Oregon prisons stipulate that prisoners can not receive used books or books that have had contact with the public. Only new books coming from a recognized publisher will be accepted. Until very recently, this prevented Books to Prisoners from sending any books to Oregon prisons. However, through the Beloved Community Publishing non-profit, the Books to Prisoners organizers have been able to gain “recognized publisher” status for their new project, called Books to Oregon Prisons. The group is now soliciting donations of new books from various publishing companies. It will be housing some of these books at Reflections and will hold a mailing party on Dec. 11, in conjunction with the store opening.

Hill points out that Oregon’s small black population is disproportionately large in the state’s prisons. As an outspoken advocate of the United States government paying reparations to African Americans for the conditions created by slavery, he says, “We can’t forget that a lot of the problems we have in society can be traced back to the relationships that were formed in the original time when Africans were captured and enslaved.”

Reflections carries books primarily by black authors, but not exclusively. Hill said he was thinking about creating a section for leftist and anarchist political writings as well.

“We’re here to serve the community,” Hill said, “which is primarily African American, but if there’s a need, we’d be willing to meet it.”

Abby Sewell is a local activist and writer.