The Diary - June 6

The Diary

June 6, 2026

Inside and outside the Reading Room—it was an eventful week.

On Friday, I stayed open until 8pm as part of Peoria’s First Friday program.  The acoustic duo Hollow Down set up a makeshift stage in the front room and let loose with a bluesy-folksy Gothic-Americana soundtrack.  Folks wandered in and out of the Reading Room. Some sat in chairs and took in a concert. Others perused the shelves, books in hand, their feet moving to the music.

In addition to functioning as a bookstore, I want River City Reading Room to be cultural venue.  Hollow Down cast a Brigadoon spell-- transforming the shop into an intimate listening den for the evening.  My thanks to Percy and John for a stirring performance and to  ArtsPartners, who made the performance possible.

Outside, across the street, city officials and citizens gathered  earlier that day for the formal dedication of the revitalized courthouse plaza, now christened Bicentennial Park.  I visited the park on Thursday.  The centerpiece is a sculpture of bison fording a stream.   At the base of the bison, water shoots upward, creating a dynamic sense of motion and a beautiful tableau. The park functions more as a plaza—an urban room--  than a park. The plaza is immediately surrounded on two sides by the courthouse.  The Commerce Bank Building (416 Main Street) and the Twin Towers loom over those walls.  I don’t think there is a better “postcard” of downtown.  If there is a more urbane setting in the city, I have yet to visit it.

As I exited the park to return to the shop, I stumbled upon a Japanese garden hidden behind the wall separating the courthouse from Main Street. Inside the store, a customer told me that the garden was the passion project of the man who once maintained the plaza.  He built the garden on his own time—laboring early in the morning and after quitting-time to transform a forgotten corner into an oriental oasis.  The Japanese garden is not in sync with the revitalized plaza’s new look, but I hope it survives and thrives.

On Saturday morning, I sat outside the shop and watched runners approach the Steamboat Classic finish line.  The day before, a man who leaned on running to win his battle with testicular cancer, was inside the Reading Room.  Brian Sluga, a Pekin native, has written a spirited and inspiring memoir, “The Shriek I Do Remember”  that chronicles his fight. Brian will return to the Reading Room in September to discuss his journey and sign his book.