{"id":9780,"date":"2025-07-14T19:10:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T19:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/9780\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T19:10:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T19:10:03","slug":"i-am-going-to-miss-them-oldest-missouri-black-owned-bookstore-closes-as-owner-retires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/9780\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I am going to miss them’: Oldest Missouri Black-owned bookstore closes as owner retires"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here for updates on this story<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KSHB<\/a>) \u2014 Willa\u2019s Books and Vinyl, the oldest Black-owned bookstore in Missouri, is closing its final chapter as owner Willa Mae Robinson prepares for her retirement.<\/p>\n

The beloved shop, a cultural cornerstone in the Kansas City community, has been a beacon for literature and music enthusiasts for years.<\/p>\n

In a heartfelt farewell hosted by The KC Defender, the event served as a final love letter to Robinson\u2019s customers and supporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of these books, all of this music, all of this art \u2014 dedicated to you all,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n

Dozens, including Mayor Quinton Lucas, gathered to honor Robinson and her contributions.<\/p>\n

Robinson\u2019s passion for reading and music traces back to her upbringing in Arkansas, where her father, an avid reader, instilled in her the joys of literature.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was our life,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I am who I am now.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, it was the profound loss of her daughter and granddaughter that drove Robinson to fill a void in her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was trying to fill the fact that my children were gone,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I was just collecting books, books, books, books.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson worked for the post office for 30 years. In the 1990s, she retired and transitioned her personal collection into a public treasure, selling the books at festivals before establishing her storefront in 2007.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t collect all these books for them to be covered up somewhere,\u201d she said. \u201cI want people to enjoy the books.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she prepares to turn a new page, she is passing the torch to the next generation. The store is set to become an archive under the ownership of The KC Defender, led by founder and executive editor Ryan Sorrell.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo people from the community can come in for free and look at these rare books,\u201d Sorrell said.\u201dBeing able to nourish that love of literature is something that is extremely important to Mrs. Willa. So that, I think just the Blackness, the Black joy, the safety that people feel being in this space.\u201d<\/p>\n

The store\u2019s legacy will be preserved as a community hub and the headquarters for The KC Defender.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not enough that can be said about what she represents to our community,\u201d Sorrell said. \u201cShe went through trials and tribulations. She overcame extreme financial hardships, gentrification, all of these things. She could barely survive being able to run this bookstore. But because of her love for Black people, her love for Black literature, she invested her entire life into this. I am again deeply grateful, I\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Robinson\u2019s retirement is bittersweet, she looks forward to writing a new story.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am going to miss them,\u201d she said. \u201cI just want to thank them. Thank them for taking their time out because they could\u2019ve been doing something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

The day also served as a final sale, with attendees leaving with their own pieces of history.<\/p>\n

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Click here for updates on this story \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KSHB) \u2014 Willa\u2019s Books and Vinyl, the oldest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[223,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-9780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}