Black culture in Leimert Park

Back and front (right) of my favorite t-shirt

"Support black-owned businesses," my daughter in Oakland said. "Don't just buy things off Amazon."  

I had planned to buy The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African-American Cookbooks by Toni Tipton-Martin for a friend's birthday, so I ordered it from Eso Won Bookstore just off Crenshaw Boulevard in Los Angeles last Sunday.  I'd seen an article by the author in the New York Times a week earlier.  

The book didn't arrive within 6 days, however, the way Amazon usually does.  At this point, the birthday was getting close, so I decided to drive to Eso Won and pick up the book.

Friday of Fourth of July weekend after three months of staying home to avoid the Covid-19 virus--it was time for a big trip to a place I'd never been. 

Within 30 minutes I was in a new world--the Leimert Park neighborhood, "center of both historical and contemporary African-American art, music, and culture in Los Angeles."  I'd  been to Baldwin Hills before but hadn't wandered off Crenshaw.
 

The store hours were to end at 4 pm, and it was already 2:30.  Street parking was easy, so I put on my mask and walked up to the door of Eso Won Books, only to learn that I had walked past a waiting line of ten people.  Life under Covid-19--people were being admitted to the small bookstore only after someone else left.

After retreating to the end of the line, I enjoyed watching my surroundings--restaurants with outdoor seating, shoppers, sidewalk sales of t-shirts and jewelry and other things.  I was a bit embarrassed at not dressing up a little for this visit.  Everyone else around me was nicely dressed for a summer afternoon, and everyone was African-American. 

But then a sidewalk salesman came by hawking beautiful t-shirts--one that showed George Floyd and Colin Kaepernick and said "I can't breathe--until black lives matter."  I started negotiating to buy one. "What sizes do you have?" etc. and went to an ATM to get cash.

To do all this, I had to get out of line for Eso Won, but the t-shirt was worth it.  After buying two shirts and putting them into my car, I went back to the line, but I was further from the door than when I started, and it was after 3 pm.   

I made it inside the store at 3:45 pm and they had an extra copy of The Jemima Code.  Yay!  They had lots of other fascinating books and cards too, but I didn't feel that I could just browse while people were waiting to get in.

Face masks from Sole Folks, a few doors down from Eso Won

Afterward I walked around and bought two face masks imported from Kenya with a colorful geometric pattern on them.  There were other great t-shirts too as well as cotton summer jackets and skirts--a shopper's paradise.  







I admired a high-end place just opening, half retail and half art gallery, called Sole Folks.

Sole Folks, with both art and fashion, opening soon

A framed work of art at Sole Folks

Fronts of two t-shirts

Backs of the same shirts

Order from @AndreaShopsforYou

I needed to wrap the gift and get to the post office by 5 pm, so I didn't stay long.  Walking back to my car, I asked myself: "Why did it take 34 years of living in Los Angeles before I found the Leimert Park neighborhood?"