On Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023, Nikki High was preparing to open her Pasadena bookstore, Octavia’s Bookshelf, on Feb. 18, 2023. High spoke about the challenges facing the shop, which focuses on works by BIPOC authors, during a phone call on Sunday, June 30.
“I wrote out an Instagram post, and I was sobbing through the entire process. Like, I let people down; they believed in me,” she says. “I just thought, I’ll just put myself out there and if folks have benefited from Octavia’s Bookshelf’s existence, and they believe in what we’re doing, then hopefully they’ll have the space to help.
“Also, how incredible is it that … we’re all sort of intertwined because of Octavia Butler. I think that speaks to the power of storytelling and who gets to tell those stories, and how those stories impact the lives of people from all different walks of life. And we were able to just really come together because of her,” she says.