PORTLAND, Ore. — Early Friday morning, Shalimar Williams got up and, just as she does most mornings, went into work at her new job: Running Holy Beanz Coffee Shop on Northeast Alberta Street. She opened the business three weeks ago.
Even amid the economic slump tied to the pandemic, another coffee shop opening in Portland might not normally make the news in a city that has plenty of them. But for Williams, the road to this point was long and hard. In fact, she said, it nearly killed her.
“I’ve been through a lot of trials. I've survived. One parent was incarcerated. One parent was an addict. They're great now. I was incarcerated for a couple years,” she said in an interview last week, sitting in her shop. “I really wanted to give back to the community that I probably terrorized a little bit.”
The 38-year-old said she's determined to give back.
“My mission statement is ‘Purpose in a cup,’” she said.
Williams has five employees, some of whom have been in prison. Others, she said, are battling addiction or are survivors of domestic violence.
Williams said she aims to hire people who need a helping hand. She gets them formal barista training and promises that if they hit a snag and need to step away from the job, it'll be waiting for them when they come back.
The goal is to change the perception of what a felon looks like, Williams said, and she knows that telling her story is the first step.
“I was dancing and selling drugs and you name it,” she said of her life before prison, growing up in Northeast Portland.
The turning point was a car crash in 2006. Williams was driving. Her passenger, a friend, was injured. Prosecutors charged her with driving under the influence and assault.
“I left a bar … I hit like 115 [mph] down Columbia Boulevard," she said.
She was sentenced to three years at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville. It’s Oregon’s only women’s prison, and a few years ago, directors launched a coffee cart, run by women at the prison. They get work experience and, in some cases, an early release date.
Williams didn’t work at the cart, but said she found solace sipping the coffee and reading the Bible.
“I fell in love with Jesus and coffee in there,” she said, smiling.
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After she was released in 2008, Williams hit the ground running. More than a decade later, she has two degrees in business administration, she’s a certified domestic violence advocate and a mom to a 12-year-old son, Jason.
When COVID hit, Williams said she decided to do more than just succeed. She wanted to give back.
Earlier this month Holy Beanz opened its doors; a Black-owned, woman-owned small business in Northeast Portland.
“It's my responsibility to turn around and give back because there's a lot of girls that are on drugs or two that aren't alive anymore, and I am. And I feel like I have a sense of duty to turn around and give back,” Williams said. “I always say I literally turned my pain into power. My pain is my purpose.”