‘City o /
Roses’
Path to
Championship
College
Showdown
Supporting
migrant
families
Oregon, Auburn
give title game
new look
See page 5
w w w .p o rtla n d o b s e rv e r.c o m
Volume XXXX, Number 47
Wednesday • December 8, 2010
See page 8
Established in 1970 - . o r t y &
Committed to Cultural Diversity •f^ u u u ty s ^ of
service
Feminists Reaching Out
Non-profit
bookstore
adopts
survival plan
C ari H achmann
T he P ortland O bserver
In Other Words, the only non-profit
of 30 feminist bookstores in the country
is like roaming around the room of a
smart big sister you never had.
Seventeen years ago, the volunteer-
run organization opened on Hawthorne
with the mission of being more than just
your everyday bookstore.
Unique to the sort, the community
organization currently operates in a
humble brick building on the comer of
Northeast Killingsworth Street and
Williams Avenue, where in addition to
stocked shelves of feminist and radical
literature, a staff striving to support,
enrich, and empower women, hosts vi­
sions of art on the walls^ locally-made
crafts, and community-inspired events
on a wooden mini-stage.
Within the last year, In Other Words
has planned to expand into a full-fledged
community center; including a free lend­
ing library, an archive of historical femi­
photo by C ari H achmann /T he P ortland O bserver
nist texts, free educational program­
ming, and a free resource center with a Katie Carter (left) and Amber Rowland help bring a community center focus to ‘In Other
Words,' the sole-surviving feminist non-profit bookstore in the country, located on
vast range of materials.
“We are a community-driven space, Northeast Killingsworth Street and Williams Avenue.
by
Few Hints of
a Hidden Life
Terror suspect struggled to fit in
N igel D uara and J eff B arnard
The plot described by the FBI was horrific: a 19-year-old
Somali-born Muslim with a grudge against the West, ready
to kill and maim thousands at Portland’s tree lighting cer­
emony.
by
Osman Barre and Mariam Barre enter the U.S.
Courthouse in Portland for arraignment o f their son,
Mohamed Osman Mohamud.
driven by what the people want” says In
Other Words Program Director Katie
Carter. “It is integral to our mission to
have as many accessi ble books to people
as possible, and what better way than a
library.”
Yet, like many small, independent
businesses who boast bigger ideals than
profit, In Other Words is facing the
harsh reality of online conglomerate
competition.
Let's face it, "we can't sell our books
for a penny," said Carter, in reference to
online companies like Amazon who have
recently come to dominate the com ­
merce of books.
Last April, federal law changes al­
tered the text-book selling industry al­
lowing college students cheaper access
to textbooks. Though the small non­
profit is pleased for the struggling col­
lege students, the legislation effectively
wiped out the small non-profit’s main
source of income, textbook sales.
In other words, the bookstore has
slipped into a serious financial bind in
what could have been their most excit­
ing, project-filled winter. With a sense of
urgency, the bookstore is confident that
they can replace lost textbook sales
through grants and individual dona­
tions.
Last month at their 17th birthday party.
In Other Words rose over $4,000 dollars
in a single night. However, in order to
keep doors open through the winter and
overcome increased operating costs of
the expansion, In Other Words seeks
continued ’W ' on page 15
While the FBI describes Mohamed Osman Mohamud as
a would-be terrorist, there were few hints of that hidden life
to Mohamud’s friends, who knew him as "Mo," a quiet,
suburban teen who liked to drink gin and play video games.
The teen who allegedly thought he was going to kill
thousands of people the day after Thanksgiving in the name
of Islamic radicalism is the same one who, three days earlier,
wrote and read a Kwanzaa poem about unity with two
Christian college students.
Court documents and Mohamud's friends describe the
slender Somali-American as juggling contradictory lives —
that of an immigrant struggling to fit in and a Muslim who had
continued
on page 14