John and Rafael Hart, the couple behind North Portland’s worker-owned, queer-focused Always Here bookstore, are planning to stick around for the long haul. After about a year and a half operating their store as a pop-up, Always Here recently reopened in the old Craft Factory storefront on the corner of N Williams at Going Street. With a five-year lease in place, the Harts are ready to establish their bookstore as a neighborhood fixture—not just as a place to get books, but also as a reliable hangout spot and refuge.

“Bookstores are a retail business, but they’re also not. The retail part is how you stay [in business],” Rafael said in a recent interview with the Mercury.  “Most community-focused bookstores are also a place where people can just hang out.” The name Always Here is a reference to the fact that—despite anti-LGBTQ+ narratives to the contrary—queer and trans people have always been here. But it also speaks to the Harts’ goals for their shop. The pair started Always Here in 2023 as a mobile book cart, setting up at Pride events and other markets around the city. After a few months, Asian American-focused art space Jelly Cup Collective invited them to temporarily share a storefront just a few blocks south of their current location. Finally, late last year, they found their current space and opened in March.

Inside Always Here, LGBTQ+ pride flags line the walls above the bookshelves. There’s a busy bulletin board advertising a trans book club and resources for people seeking gender-affirming care, among other flyers. The rest of the store is filled with shelves of colorful books, tables displaying more titles, and a few reading chairs. 

The store’s selection, much of which engages with queer stories to some degree, spans all ages. But the Harts say the sections for youth are the “heart and soul of the store,” and acknowledge that queer young people can feel particularly isolated and in need of friendly hangout spots.  

“It takes extra effort to include young ones in community with queer people,” John said. “Retail businesses, by and large, treat teenagers like a liability…if you come [to Always Here] and you have no money, and you sit in our chairs and read five entire graphic novels and leave, I’m going to say ‘thank you.’ It sincerely means a lot.”

Books and comfy chairs aren’t the only resources the Harts provide. The store keeps “mutual aid lockers” in the bathroom, stocked with supplies including menstrual products, Narcan, socks, and gender-affirming gear like chest binders and breast forms, for discreet access. The products, which Always Here accepts via donation, are available to all free of charge, but may be particularly appreciated by young trans or gender nonconforming people who lack other support. 

In the atmosphere of increasing vitriol that targets queer and trans youth, adults who are supportive of young trans people have been slammed as “groomers,” an accusation even sharper for adults who are queer themselves. To the Harts, this political reality makes their jobs all the more important. Rafael said they’ve found a welcoming community through the bookstore and value the ability to help others seeking support. On a more personal level, they said they’re not going to let the bigots win. 

“I took almost 30 years to get comfortable with my own queerness and transness,” they said. “I’m not going to let the powers that be take that from me. I’m not going to stop doing what I want to do, because people are being hateful.” 

As for what’s next for the bookstore, the Harts say they’re looking forward to hosting author readings and regular events, like book clubs and writing groups, which are much more feasible to plan in a permanent space. 

“We’re planning for the future,” John said. “Some of the bookstores that we look up to have been around since the ’70s. If we can be around even half as long as them, there’s a lot to accomplish.”

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Always Here, 4555 N Williams, alwaysherebooks.com