Eso Won Books is a Los Angeles landmark. Like many of its peers, the Black-owned brick-and-mortar bookstore in Leimert Park shut down in March and struggled at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. That changed after the murder of George Floyd.
After reopening its doors in mid-May, co-owner James Fugate said his store began to see a “tremendous spike” in business. Customers from various backgrounds near and far began frequenting the store to find resources about race, racism, anti-racism, Black history and other related topics.
“It’s a redefining moment, I think,” Fugate told the Los Angeles Times. “What we’re seeing in here is something that is different from Rodney King. It’s different from Trayvon Martin. … People want to know more. People work in places and they don’t understand sometimes some of the issues that might arise with people they work with. They’re not like racists – they’re not some nut who just hates you because you’re Black or brown. But they want to understand more.”
Fugate’s experience is shared among other Black-owned book stores across the country, who reported selling out of inventory for the first time in decades.
Now Eso Won bookstore has expanded its hours to meet the continued demand. Customers can listen to live musicians while waiting outside — lines are frequent — and the likes of Miles Davis inside, LAist reported.
“For the last three months we have been very, very busy; people buying books that deal with racism and anti-racism,” Fugate told multi-talented Hollywood powerhouse Issa Rae during an Uninterrupted interview posted on Twitter. “So when we reopened we had such a huge response and people flooding the store with orders that we had to change the store hours because we got so many online orders, we realized we need more time to work on filling those orders.”
Founded by three Black men in the 1980s, Eso Won means “water over rocks” in the Ethiopian Amharic language. It is award-winning author Ta-Nehisi Coates’ favorite bookstore.
Eso Won began as a book cart and morphed into a community staple and safe haven where multiple events are hosted and invaluable connections made.
“We started on weekends and we just wanted to be able to provide books by Black people, being sold by Black people, by a Black company and then it just kept growing,” Fugate said.
Rae said she met Prentice Penny – who would become her future showrunner – at Eso Won after her book signing there for “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl.”
“Your store just has so many moments connecting Black people, connecting creatives.” Rae said she couldn’t imagine her childhood, life or career without Eso Won.
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Fugate admitted initially he was very concerned about how Eso Won would get through the coronavirus pandemic but expressed gratitude for customers’ loyalty and support.
“We were really scared you know; how will we survive this? We couldn’t let people come in the store. People had to do mail orders but people rallied to us,” Fugate said.
Rae said it was important” that Eso Won continues to exist, particularly at such a critical time in history.
“It means so much that Eso Won Books has found a way to stay open, which is so important during a time where we’ve seen a lot of racial unrest and uprisings,” Rae said before informing Fugate she was purchasing $5,000 worth of gift cards to donate to local L.A. schools. “You’ve seen people actively seek out Eso Won to learn more.”
