The Washington Post reports on the efforts to save a bookstore near and dear to the hearts of many Bay Area residents.
Until its first closure in 2005, Kepler’s Books had been a Menlo Park institution since it’s founding in 1955. Kepler’s was a mainstay in the 1960’s counterculture movement – the bookstore was started by the peace activist Roy Kepler, and hosted famed musicians of the era like Joan Baez. After it closed in 2005, devotees of the bookstore raised enough money to keep it open – but now Kepler’s is facing the prospect of folding again. Praveen Madan, the co-owner of the San Francisco bookstore The Booksmith is teaming up with Clark Kepler, the current owner of Kepler’s to try and save it. Together they’ve started The Kepler’s 2020 Project, which plans to implement a strategy that uses a nonprofit organization to buoy the bookstore’s programs while selling the bookstore’s shares to community members to raise profits.
According to The Washigton Post, Madan and Clark recently “invited almost 80 people from around the country to a three-day meeting to re-imagine what a community bookstore could be.” Ron Charles of The Post attended the conference and blogged his account of all three days.
