We first discovered Reparations Club through our friends, Brady and Katy of Wall For Apricots, who, in the middle of last year, were deep in the midst of conceptualizing and designing the new Rep Club location with the visionary force that is Jazzi, Rep Club’s founder. A Black woman-owned bookshop, Rep Club — as Jazzi so perfectly articulated to us — sits at the confluence of so many factors that defined 2020 and early 2021, from powerful conversations around racism and allyship to a deepened call to support small and woman-owned businesses, and the simple fact of more time at home and – consequently – more time to read. It has been a joy to watch as Rep Club has grown and thrived over the past months, offering, in many ways, answers to the myriad of questions that we all were collectively facing - and we were so thrilled when Jazzi agreed to join forces for a pop-up in our Brentwood Shop this April!

Borne out of Jazzi’s desire to create an antidote to the many spaces in which she felt uncomfortable or even at times unwelcome, Rep Club is – as they put it – curated by Blackness, with every inch of the space overflowing with books, records, and goods dreamt up and designed by Black and brown creatives. Riotous and unmistakably joyful, Rep Club’s space is truly a haven of acceptance and inspiration - filled with intimate and personal touches from the records collected by Jazzi’s music-loving dad who DJed in LA in his youth, to the family photos that line the borders of a big mirror and the countless books written by friends and collaborators; a space, and a community, that embraces you as you enter.

We were lucky enough to spend a recent spring morning with Jazzi at Rep Club's new location on Victoria Ave - see below for a few photos from our time together, and for a closer look at a few of the Black woman authored books that Jazzi so thoughtfully curated for our Brentwood shop -- all available at Brentwood through the end of the month, as well as on the Rep Club site! PS for those of you in LA, you can stop by to visit Rep Club yourself from Wed-Sat 11am - 6pm and Sun 12-5pm!

Women, Race & Class by Angela Davis

"This book was my introduction to Black feminist theory. I found a copy at a thrift store in high school and it cracked my brain wide open, and gave me the language to articulate so much of what I was seeing, experiencing and thinking about as a young Black woman from South Central, steeped in a predominantly white private school. Angela Davis has been a guiding light ever since."

Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall

"Mikki Kendall cut right to the core with this one. She really captured feminism in the everyday interactions, family, and community structures amongst Black women, and the shortcomings of any practices and theory masquerading as 'feminism' that do not include Black women and an intersectional approach."

How We Get Free: Black Feminism & the Combahee River Collective by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

"I'm actually reading this right now for a book club but have read the Combahee River Collecetive's statement that necessitates that: 'If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression.' Their defining and refining of their feminist politic has helped shape the minds of some of the most radical feminists in my own life, so I'm excited to really dive in."

Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women & Queer Radicals

"As a wayward, riotous, queer woman living her own beautiful experiment at this very moment, this is an edless source of inspiration and histories of the radicals who paved a path for me to be weird and experimental in every facet of my life and work."

– Jazzi