Octavia's Insurgency on Hill Street

Michael Sedano

with Jesus Salvador Treviño interview quotations

Something genuinely exciting arrived to Pasadena's northcentral commercial desert-in-transition where a tired commercial corner with a donut shop has grown to house a couple of take-out pizza places, a Rite-Aid, an off-brand gas station. Energy sparks here with three places to eat a snack or a meal, a clothing place, and do yoga.

Now, there's a bookstore. 

Any bookseller is a literary treasure meriting a community's support. Octavia's Bookshelf is not "any bookseller," which the store's driving force, Nikki High, illustrates in these excerpts from a video documentary coming soon to Latinopia. The interviewer is Jesus Salvador Treviño, himself a driving force behind a cultural treasure, Latinopia, the documentary-of-record site for raza cultura.

"Octavia's Bookshelf is a local Black woman-owned bookstore that prioritizes Black, Indigenous, and people of color authors."

"you're going to find genres from children's books to young adult science fiction, cookbooks, womanist novels, non-fiction, romance. You'll find it all here. We have our classics like Toni Morrison, Toni Cade, Bambara, of course, Octavia Butler herself has many books here, Audre Lorde. These are all women that have inspired me throughout my life, but we'll also have new authors and local Pasadena authors." 

An "available" space next to Octavia's Bookshelf welcomed a cornucopia of gluten-filled snacks, along with a genial emcee looking for an excuse to give stuff away and add fun to an already exhilarating event. 

Ay de mi, a new bookstore! And it's right here in the neighborhood. As it should be, local authors flocked to owner Nikki High to offer copies of their books and relate the possibilities of holding readings. CasaSedano's LivingRoom Floricantos, now enhanced with Octavia's Bookshelf readings, certainly adds a literary cachet to this section of town, que no?

"Octavia Butler was a local to Pasadena science fiction writer. She started writing science fiction in the '70s, maybe before, but Kindred was published in 1979(link), although she had been working on it for quite some time. Octavia Butler wrote books that challenged you to look at what we're doing to the climate globally, what could potentially happen politically. She talked a lot about race subjects that were really uncomfortable to talk about in some spaces during that time. She was brave enough to write very strong characters that were Black women. She was really just a pioneer in that space. She often said that she wasn't really a science fiction writer. People just didn't know what to do with her, so they put her books in sci-fi, but she calls herself a histo futurist "

Pasadena nurtures diversity in mostly hidden ways. The city's "black section" lines the eastern rim of the Arroyo Seco. There's a hazy border between the Mexican / Centroamericano neighborhoods that extend from the Arroyo to Lake Avenue's commercial strip, gerrymandering along the freeway to Chihuahita on the Southeast side, ironically bordering tony San Marino.

Any number of raza, black, asian, persian, armenian familias live within walking distance of Octavia's Bookshelf, but this being Califas, most will drive to the  corner here, stop at Rite-Aid and buy a donut while there. Now Domino's Pizza customers can call in a pick-up order and stop by Octavia's Bookshelf for something to read while dining. 

Octavia's Bookshelf fills a storefront two doors north of the incredibly popular--it's the only sit-down eatery within miles--Millie's breakfast all day Café. Foot traffic should provide nice cash flow, if not from literature then the paper ephemera and other stuff booksellers offer nowadays.

"you can support my bookstore by coming to visit and purchase books often. You can support me and the bookstore and the work that we're doing here by talking to your friends about the bookstore and encouraging them to come and take a visit. You can support me by sharing information about the store on your social media accounts, and I truly do have books for everybody"

People want to see themselves in their books and when there's a dearth of that, people watch teevee and complain about lack of representation there. Those people need what Octavia's Bookshelf stocks, verdad?

The neighbors, mostly unmasked these days, lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, standing for an hour inching forward toward the door.

Octavia's Bookshelf •   (626) 392-4068

1361 N Hill Ave, Pasadena, CA 91104

I am going to have author signings. I'm going to have book signings. I'm going to have Meet the Author events. I'm doing some private events for organizations and churches and other local groups to come in and have private shopping events. I'm also connected with the Octavia E. Butler Magnet School.  

"Resist!" still is the watchword of the day across the nation. 

A bookstore like Octavia's Bookshelf is resistance. Nikki High isn't raising any barriers nor barricades, she's opening doors and welcoming book buyers who'll find in one place books that most booksellers tell you are "hard to sell" or "hard to find." 

Resist that caca and head out to my neighborhood to Octavia's Bookshelf. Órale, look both ways before you J-walk to Octavia's Bookshelf. People around here are diverse and generally nice y todo, but they drive like crap around bicyclists and pedestrians.