A Space for Sharing Personal Stories

Eso Won Books is open for business as well as conversation as the open layout shows. There is space to move around, to walk, to pull up a chair and listen. Many photos of the bookstore show the large area with the capacity for at least three rows of chairs. It is not a very large room. It looks like it could be a small classroom, with the speaker acting as the teacher filing the minds of audience members, engaging them with personal accounts and stories.

The wall of windows prevents the room from becoming stuffy or crowded, keeping the small room open and connected to the community outside. The top of the windows displays the faces of three strong African American leaders in red and green over the clear bottom half, showing the guiding influence and the open possibilities. Life is full of color and adventure, just as books are. Eso Won shares culture through the visual arts as well as the written word through tapestries. They hang above the register. The color and depiction in the images allows for some iconography allowing the viewers to be more imaginative and creative as they see African American leaders and potential. The tapestries remind people that Eso Won is not a simple business, but rather a place, a space for culture and communication.

 

Walter Benjamin declares “these books arouse in in a genuine collector. For when such a man is speaking to you , and on close scrutiny he proves to be speaking only about himself” (59). The books at Eso Won do not simply reflect owners, James Fugate and Tom Hamilton, but rather reflects a culture. Eso Won shows a diversity and depth in the African American culture through the variety and perspective of the collection and the people.

Eso Won is all about the people as shown through the store’s advertising of speakers and guests on its Facebook and website to the physical layout of the store. Photos of Eso Won show a large empty area, space that could have filled the small store with more books is instead often filled with rows of chairs for people to sit and enjoy the visitor. Eso Won’s website has a calendar of events on both the left and right sides of the site. The About Us section has a sentence about the bookstore followed by a long list of guests.


To talk about the space of the bookstore is to understand what happens there. Eso Won is place to come together and to share. Personal stories are key to the store. Eso Won is more than a bookselling place, it is a story sharing environment. The idea of “‘[t]here… [being] more to a bookstore than bestsellers,’ highlighted independents’ pride in their diverse title selections and wide range of services” (Miller 169), and is in agreement with the practices of Eso Won. The store prides itself on its incredible list of guests, a service that invites the community into the story and establishes “a relationship to objects which does not emphasize their functional, utilitarian value—that is, their usefulness—but studies and loves them as a scene, the stage, of their fate” (Benjamin 61). The books at Eso Won are the scene of the bookstore as they provide the backdrop for speakers and writers. Together with the book signings and readings, books can become the scene of the action, a space that becomes the place to come together.
Eso Won’s many guests speak bringing a reality to their work as readers are able to see them as real people not simply a person behind a keyboard. A connection is formed as experiences are shared aloud. The space is small and comfortable, but because of the size it is not simply a lecture in which everyone can see the speaker, but the speaker cannot actually see all of the people he or she is addressing. It is a personal space, where people come together, and the relationship between reader and writer becomes more intimate.

Eso Won is known for its focus on African American literature and so it is no surprise that most of the books available are written by African Americans or share stories that the community can relate to. Books and stories are empowering; “the acquisition of an old book is its rebirth” (Benjamin 61), just as the telling of an old story can give it new life, both for the speaker and listener. Books live through the readers as they create their own understanding and connections.

Eso Won sells stories in its wide variety of literature from President Barack Obama to Tyra Banks to Alice Walker. Bestsellers and popular celebrities as well as lesser known works and authors grace the shelves of Eso Won.
Eso Won carries conversational pieces from cookbooks with barbecue and soul food to political bestsellers. Read a story, listen to one, talk about it, all are important aspects of the Eso Won culture. Eso Won has a variety of products from CD’s and DVD’s to books for children to adults. Cookbooks, history, poetry, and politics are all subjects that can be found along the bookshelf covered walls. “Every passion borders on chaotic” (Benjamin 61), I am not saying that Eso Won is chaotic, it is very neat, but books are not overly organized as books are allowed to mingle together, sharing a shelf, just as visitors share their experiences together. I was unable to show the organization of the books, but I tried to show what it may look like. I used images to highlight small sections of the bookstore.


The image on the left shows many books, some fiction and some nonfiction. The Help sits proudly next to Oprah’s book, stories of Nelson Mandela shows a united front, Love, Honor, Betray creates a story that could have happened. They are all personal stories. They may appear to be very different, but they all provide readers with a glimpse into the past. A closeness is created in the space of Eso Won Books through the people and books.

Open the door, see the array of books, feel the openness of the space, and know that Eso Won appreciates your participation in the African American literature culture.

Many of the books sold at Eso Won discuss active citizens just as consumers at Eso Won are active citizens of the community, some are physically inhabitants of Leimert Park, but most are a part of the culture that Eso Won stands for. The store is a part of an “Eat, Shop, Play Crenshaw” Movement, allowing the customers to support the local area and businesses. “[I]ndividuals incorporate some understanding of a social benefit into their consumption habits” (Miller 200). Eso Won supports the citizen consumer and hopes people will support them as they continue to have a good relationship with the community in this space for sharing and communication. Eso Won has had an impact on its community because of the relationship individuals have with the space and the books.

 

Works Cited
Videos
Eat, Shop, Play Crenshaw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP3QaduNDkQ
Black Business Review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuRMUnw5H-U
“Swirling” Book Launch and Eso Won Book Signing and Mixer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NfUonw6-K8

Images
Guest Speaker http://www.fairfoodnetwork.org/sites/default/files/Fair-Food-EsoWon_124.jpg
Audience http://i.ytimg.com/vi/rZ1rIFvH2WA/maxresdefault.jpg
Painting http://www.tracyldarity.com/painting%20eso%20won%20book%20reading3.jpg
Tapestries and back of bookstore http://locallookingglass.com/tag/music/
Books http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef0147e18dab84970b-800wi
Books http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures/assets_c/2014/03/Book-Rack-thumb-600×444-70606.jpg
Owners, tapestries, register http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures/assets_c/2014/03/Eso-Won-Tapestry-thumb-600×505-70614.jpg

Websites
Love, Honor, and Betray. Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7952232-love-honor-and-betray
Eso Won website http://www.esowonbookstore.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/esowonbookstore

Text
Benjamin, Walter. “Unpacking My Library: A Talk about Book Collecting.” Illuminations. Ed. Hannah Arendt. Trans. Harry Zohn. New York: Schocken Books
Miller, Laura. Reluctant Capitalist: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Print.

Just Come In and Browse: Eso Won Books’ Past

A welcome banner provided by Leimert Park for Eso Won Books' move in 2006.
A welcome banner provided by Leimert Park for Eso Won Books’ move in 2006.

If you go to yelp.com and search for Eso Won Books, you’ll see that Eso Won bookstore is the first store to pop up, unless you forgot to change the location to Los Angeles.

Then maybe Swan’s Fine Books or Barnes and Nobles near San Francisco, may be your first choices. But once you look at the correct page, the many comments and current standing at four and a half stars seems promising, especially since the most recent activity was on December 12, 2014. While the 23 reviews go all the way back October 2007, they only echo the pleasure the customer has had doing business with Eso Won books for almost three decades. And what did Eso Won books have that customers were looking for, well that’s been the question for quite some time now.

 

Back in in the late seventies and early eighties, James Fugate debated between going into law and politics or going into the book business. After some deliberation, he followed his passion for books. Originally from Detroit, he moved around to various states for managerial positions in bookstores. Eventually, he found himself in Los Angeles where he managed the Compton College Bookstore. At the time, the Compton College Bookstore was known for its large selection of African-American history books. Though Fugate’s passion was already ignited, the fire sparked and his interest flamed, admitting “I could pretty much buy what I wanted to buy. [and] so I bought lots of African-American books” [Carter]. While Fugate could feast on the literature at Compton College’s bookstore, he noticed a deficit in the variety of books sold at chain stores. They shelved the same best-sellers from the best-known authors. But lack of depth and relatability struck him, firing for the creation of a community hub to educate the local people. Fugate believed “bookstores are still important – just to come in and [browse]” [Carter]. And by having a wide variety of books that were unavailable at other stores, he could fuel the community. Together in a community group, James Fugate, Thomas Hamilton and a former third party owner collaborated and opened the first location of Eso Won Books at Slauson and Crenshaw in 1988. This independently owned bookstore would breathe air into the written words which had lost it. Fugate explains his opinion regarding chain stores, “I don’t think [mainstream] bookstores have that kind of familiarity with Black subjects. They don’t have the interest it seems; they don’t know some of the things that [Black people] take for granted” [Carter].

Though the store was off the beaten path located in a strip mall, it was lined wall-to-wall with books and invited browsing for rarities and treasured titles. They held discussion groups and stimulated conversation about icons such as Malcom X, Martin Luther King Jr., Elijah Muhammad and many others.

A view of the community support Eso Won received on its opening day in Leimert Park.
A view of the community support Eso Won received on its opening day in Leimert Park.

It came to the point where this community center extended past the bookstore’s walls and expanded to their homes. Fugate recalled, “I had 20 cases of books in my apartment, Tom had 20 in his garage. People rang our doorbells at 9 and 10 in the morning saying, ‘Do you have this book? I gotta have it!” [Aubry].  Eso Won’s reputation gained momentum with the first public acknowledgement being a piece in the L.A. Times View section. At the time Shahrazad Ali’s book The Blackman’s Guide to Understanding a Blackwoman was released, but not many stores would give the book shelf-life. But Eso Won Books was noted as one of the only bookstores where this controversial book could be bought. But this independent store was limited to a small domain. So Fugate and Hamilton debated whether or not to move, and in August of 1996 they signed a lease for a space at the Ladera Center in Ladera Heights, which would provide an upper level income and racially mixed neighborhood.

Though no one could have predicted what the next few weeks brewed. A partnership, which included former NBA Earvin “Magic” Johnson, bought the Ladera Center in an effort to develop retail centers in urban and minority communities in California. Though Johnson says in an interview, he wanted to “show other African Americans that they could make it too,” he stunted the growth of two African Americans’ bookstore. Even though the former owners had approved the deal, the new owners did not give a lease to Hamilton and Fugate. Eso Won’s owners believe this could be because they were a small independently owned bookstore, and the new owners would rather find larger tenants. With intentions of already moving, Eso Won books makes its second physical move to La Brea, Inglewood in Los Angeles.

As Eso Won continued to build its community of followers and its reputation, Fugate and Hamilton premiered signings and special guest readings for anyone in the community.Professor of Yaborough, who teaches English and Afro-American Studies, said,

Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance sign copies of their romance "Friends: A Love Story" at Eso Won Books
Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance sign copies of their romance “Friends: A Love Story” at Eso Won Books

“Eso Won is willing to bring in anyone who is doing something in black literature-which is what the Aquarian used to do…Culture as a commercial outlet may be the only way to really reach everyone. It’s great to come to an event and see young people, old people, people who have never come to a talk or lecture. Eso Won is a place outside of academia, outside of college campuses, where all black people can come for education” [Aubry]. Which is completely true, when you look at the list of authors who have visited the store. Between household names like Bill Clinton to literary activist Toni Morrison, Eso Won Books has consistently used their store as an educational platform for the community. Click here to watch a video of a reading hosted at Eso Won Books.

 

And on the rare occasion, owners Fugate and Hamilton chose to protect their community sanctuary at the cost of a book signing and burned bridges. In May 2002 Maya Angelou published A Song Flung Up to Heaven, and journalist, Wanda Coleman critiques the book, describing it as “a sloppily written fake, bloated to 214 pages by large type and widely spaced chapter headings, more than half its 33 chapters averaging two to four pages” [Drew]. To save their store’s integrity, Fugate diminished the reviews authenticity and interpreted it as a personal attack on Maya Angelou rather than thoughtful criticism. So Fugate and Hamilton banned Wanda Coleman from their store in an effort to maintain its harmony. Fugate responds, “My partner and I didn’t want that type of negative energy in our store because it’s non-productive. Similar to how people don’t want cynicism in their home, we don’t want negativity in our home” [Drew].

Over the next four years, Fugate and Hamilton discuss moving their home, and in 2006 they move to their current store at Degnan Boulevard. Though, once again, Fugate and Hamilton have unfortunate luck with moving. Shortly after their move, the country moved into a recession where independently owned stores across the country faced tight wallets. The profits felt the blow, but decreasing due not only the recession.

James Fugate and Thomas Hamilton open their Degnan Boulevard location with a celebratory ribbon cutting ceremony.
James Fugate and Thomas Hamilton open their Degnan Boulevard location with a celebratory ribbon cutting ceremony.

Since Eso Won moved to a smaller location, the new venue did not allow for the same volume of selection, and likewise, many of the regular customers did not follow the store to the new location. The book sales continued to decline, “Competing with the Internet and big-chain, mega-store discounts, the constant struggle to pay bills has left the pair with no choice but to consider closing the doors to its Leimert Park location unless the community gives support” [Sabathia].

James Fugate and Thomas Hamilton accepting an award from Congress Woman Diane Watson in 2006.
James Fugate and Thomas Hamilton accepting an award from Congress Woman Diane Watson in 2006.

After providing for the community for two decades, the community gave back to Eso Won Books. Patrons came from across the county in search of not only books, but to save the community. Reporter Sandy Banks claimed when she and other customers went into Eso Won Books, it was not to just “find books they might enjoy, but to feel, for a little while not in the minority.” Without this Eso Won as a safe space for race, not only Fugate and Hamilton would lose, but the community would lose an integral piece of its heritage.

Eso Won co-owners, Thomas Hamilton and James Fugate, on the opening day of their Degnan Boulevard bookstore.
Eso Won co-owners, Thomas Hamilton and James Fugate, on the opening day of their Degnan Boulevard bookstore.

Over the next several months, the owners strategized for ways to increase profits. Eventually, they settled by selling older books they had been stocking for years and allowing recent editions such as The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings or a Ralph Ellison biography to occupy the shelves. By tuning into specific demands of the community, they hoped to be able to continue doing what they had been doing almost three decades.And now today, it looks as though Eso Won has come out of some of its roughest times, and still it provides a platform for education in the community. With recent signings and guest speakers, I think now it just as good a time as any to come in and browse.

 

 

*Note to reader: Any links for books were first tried at Eso Won Books online store, but if unavailable at Eso Won Books’ online store, it was then linked to Amazon.com

Citations

Text

Carter, http://search.proquest.com.libgateway.susqu.edu/docview/1026545793/9FDDCD0D4C59478CPQ/6?accountid=28755

Aubry, http://search.proquest.com.libgateway.susqu.edu/docview/292966315/9FDDCD0D4C59478CPQ/2?accountid=28755

Boyer, http://search.proquest.com.libgateway.susqu.edu/docview/293488087/28D9E526A3F54128PQ/2?accountid=28755

Drew,

http://search.proquest.com.libgateway.susqu.edu/docview/281923627/6A7D56694F3749CCPQ/16?accountid=28755

Zwahlen,

http://search.proquest.com.libgateway.susqu.edu/docview/422244587/B8F6472EC3BE4D64PQ/1?accountid=28755

Sabathia,

http://search.proquest.com.libgateway.susqu.edu/docview/369347739/6A7D56694F3749CCPQ/1?accountid=28755

 

 

Text Dipity

Wynton Marsalis,

http://search.proquest.com.libgateway.susqu.edu/docview/292956885/6A7D56694F3749CCPQ/32?accountid=28755

Barack Obama and Toni Morrison

http://search.proquest.com.libgateway.susqu.edu/docview/421435102/6A7D56694F3749CCPQ/38?accountid=28755

T.D. Jakes

http://search.proquest.com.libgateway.susqu.edu/docview/288835842/6A7D56694F3749CCPQ/20?accountid=28755

Bill Clinton

http://search.proquest.com.libgateway.susqu.edu/docview/422191822/9FDDCD0D4C59478CPQ/1?accountid=28755

Dr. Mable John

http://search.proquest.com.libgateway.susqu.edu/docview/369299675/9FDDCD0D4C59478CPQ/5?accountid=28755

Tanya Wright

http://search.proquest.com.libgateway.susqu.edu/docview/848851631/6A7D56694F3749CCPQ/12?accountid=28755

Clifton Taulbert,

http://search.proquest.com.libgateway.susqu.edu/docview/1548421223/BEFCD3D4FE594FA2PQ/6?accountid=28755

“Peace in the Hood”

http://search.proquest.com.libgateway.susqu.edu/docview/1548421223/BEFCD3D4FE594FA2PQ/6?accountid=28755

 

Pictures

http://theprperson.smugmug.com/Business/Eso-Won-Grand-Opening-Fall/

Maps embedded from Google

 

Pouring Poems into the Open Arms: Eso Won Books

image

“Take long stares at your hand until true love returns to your touch Then touch
Stand right in a garment of light
I want to pour poems into the open arms of your drums
I want to get in between your piano keys and unleash the healing secrets”

–Kamau Da’ood, “Leimert Park”

Nestled in between the 90008 McDonald’s and Pizza Hut is Eso Won Books, an “independent black (people) owned bookstore,” as the website says. When first reading this identifying statement, I wondered how the owners would interweave their ethnicities and cultural identities together into the commerce of bookselling. But as the area’s demographics support, the cultural need is not for the next best-selling book, but rather it is for a stimulation of the African heritage.
This Los Angeles bookstore is located in the neighborhood of Leimert Park. It’s nicknamed the “Harlem of the West Coast” since its estimated population is 12,311 is low in ethnic diversity. Also according to the Los Angeles Times, 79.6% of the population is black, which is a high for the county.

Now another defining factor of Leimert Park’s population is its education demographic. Even though education is spread out between graduate degrees and high school drop outs, 18.2% of residents did not attend high school and 20.3% have only completed some of a high school education. In the same way, 28.8% of residents have some college education, but only 14.9% have a bachelor’s degree, leaving 10% with graduate degrees.

chart This neighborhood has a large percentage of family households, 62.7%, meaning there is more than one person living within a house, including around 35% of households having at least one child. The median household income is $45,865, and around 63% of workers are classified as white collar employees.

If you compare Leimert Park to Florence-Graham, another southern L.A. neighborhood, 84.9% of households are family households with 66.2% of those households having at least one child. Even further, 42.3% of residents have no high school education and 25.7% have some. And from there, the median income is $32,712. So in comparison, Leimert Park demographics seem higher than some of the neighboring areas.

 

So what exactly is going on in Leimert Park then. Well, Leimert Park seems to be a cradle for African culture. It is the intersection of American life and African heritage, molding African American culture. Not only is there a sense of identity but there is a community which prides itself upon its culture. Just ask the president of the Leimer Park Village Merchants Association, Jackie Ryan, who has said, “We hope to preserve African American culture.” Just look at the stores on one block of Degnan Boulevard, where Eso Won Books is.


Next door to Eso Won is Africa By the Yard, a store that sells imported African prints and fabrics, unavailable at the local Walmart a few blocks over. On the corner of Degnan and 43rd is Ackee Bamboo Jamaican Cuisine which serves brown stew tilapia and ginger beer and many other dishes. Across the street is Sika, a seller of handcrafted jewelry and African imports such as clothing. And just down a little is the World Stage Performance Gallery which is known as the cultural hub. Many events such as the Kwanza Music Festival and classes such as drum workshop, jazz vocal lessons, and the Anansi writers’ workshop. Famous authors and poets such as Kamau Daáood, Akilah Oliver, Nafis Nabawi and Anthony Lyons have not only made appearances but have also supported the workshop and the World Stage.


View Larger Map
By just looking at the places surrounding Eso Won, it’s no surprise that the owners identify their bookstore with race. This identity is woven into the name. The word “Eso Won” is African for “water over the rocks.” And it creates a metaphor that knowledge will flow out of the bookstore’s reservoir, or at least its own perceived identity as a knowledge fountain. These bookstore owners considered, in Laura Miller’s words, “books, like other forms of art, serve both the individual and the nation. Books enrich the spirit and refine sensibilities; they crystallize the nation’s hopes and embody the finest sentiments of our national life.” In Eso Won books are there to define the sentiments of a cultural identity with African and African American culture. Just take a glance at its electronic bookshelves which mirror the culture of the area. Though the themes span from “Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America” to “In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement”—titles you would not normally find at your local Barnes and Nobles. Instead their stock reinforces the identity through African histories and leaders alongside with African American histories and leaders. Likewise, the categories of books feed to the families in the area such as “What are Young People Reading? (ages 9-14).”

Though many people don’t associate Los Angeles as a cultural hub for African and African American culture, Leimert Park was founded to counteract the deficit, and the area’s ethnic identity has rippled into the commerce of the area and has poured out from the borders of Leimert Park into open arms.

Citations:

Text

Census 2000, SCAG, Los Angeles Department of City Planning <http://maps.latimes.com/neighborhoods/neighborhood/leimert-park/>

Eso Won Bookstore <http://www.esowonbookstore.com/>

Miller, Laura J. Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.

Mike, Angeleno, http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures/columns/la-letters/8-literary-lions-of-leimert-park.html

Onboard Informatics, <http://www.sfrealtors.com/US/Neighborhood/CA/Los-Angeles-Demographics.html>

Images

Eso Won Books,< https://d3lawkbdj6aabd.cloudfront.net/singleplatform/image/upload/cf010a2fc9912f53eab962e0380bc9de07735852.jpg>

Graphs

Ethnicity in Leitmert Park, Los Angeles Times <http://maps.latimes.com/neighborhoods/neighborhood/leimert-park/>

Maps

Google Maps: Leitmert Park, Los Angeles; Degnan Boulevard-Eso Won Books; 4327 Degnan Boulevard

 

Poem

Kamau Da’ood, “Leimert Park”, <http://artists.refuseandresist.org/news7/news324.html>