Celebrating Black History Month With Nikki High

Feb 19, 2025 at 08:00 AM

Eric Smith

Editorial Director

As part of the celebration of Black History Month, the Chargers organization is focusing on the town of Altadena, a community that stands as a symbol of resilience, progress, and unity. As we honor its rich history and significance in Black culture, we also recognize that Altadena needs the support of the greater Los Angeles community now more than ever.

Nikki High knew it was time to pay Altadena back.

High experienced her community's love and support two years ago when she opened Octavia's Bookshelf, a Black-owned bookstore with a focus on Black, indigenous and other authors of color.

But when the Eaton Fire ravaged through High's hometown last month, she stepped up and turned her bookstore into a safe and welcoming hub for her community.

"I feel like I did what anyone would have done," High said. "And also I am recognizing that this community that I was able to serve is the same community that stood in a three-hour line for me on opening day.

"It's the same community that orders books for their classrooms. The community that helped support me. It did feel like a full-circle moment," High continued.

"I'm so full of emotions but I just wanted everybody to be able to get what they need," High added. "And there's something about experiencing a loss but the same loss at the same time and to do it together. So, there's this horrible tragedy but there is something beautiful."

High recently recalled the traumatic few days in January.

"These are these are times and dates that I feel like will be etched in my memory forever," High said.

Octavia's Bookshelf is closed on Mondays — which included January 6 — a day when news reports started about upcoming heavy Santa Ana winds.

High decided to close the bookstore on Tuesday out of safety and hunkered down at home to ride out the weather.

But High was forced to evacuate Tuesday night as she grabbed a few essentials.

"I assumed that we would be back in the morning," High said. "And as I'm pulling out of the driveway, I can see the fire behind my house."

High's house did not burn down, one of only a handful on her street that remains standing. The residence is currently uninhabitable due to severe smoke damage and part of the roof caving in.

Her next priority was her bookstore, which was filled with dirt and leaves from the heavy winds.

But the structure was not damaged. And when High realized she had both power and WiFi, she sent out a welcoming message offering people to stop by.

High's original goal was to provide some water and food for people who were in need of a boost.

"Before I knew it, we had about 75 cases of water. And folks just started to come in and look for masks and maybe a toothbrush and toothpaste and we just started getting donations in," High said.

"Our bookstore manager looked at me and said, 'I think we have an operation here. ' And I said, 'I think you're right.' And so I made the decision to just take all the books off of the shelf," High added. "I packed them up, and then we started to put health and hygiene supplies on the shelves because I wanted to provide for my community."

Donations poured in from around Southern California and the nation. High said she even received a package from someone in Switzerland.

The books were replaced with food, toiletries, hygiene products, air mattresses, towels, blankets, clothes, makeup and hair care items.

"We were really intentional about giving culturally specific hair care items for people with curly hair," High said.

Octavia's Bookshelf remained a support hub for three weeks, offering supplies but also emotional support for the Altadena community.

High noted she saw everyone from friends, family, former teachers and everyone in between come through her store to get what they needed.

"I wanted to do it with dignity. There's something completely unsettling about sort of going somewhere and you've lost everything and you're digging through stuff and looking for what you need," High said. "And so I wanted to just provide the experience of Octavia's Bookshelf as a store.

"The only difference is that there were no books. But everything was free and then people were able to come in to get what they need," High added.

The biggest request?

High said roughly three out of every five people simply wanted a hug.

High, 50, was born and raised in the Altadena community and said it had a tremendous impact on her upbringing.

The bookstore's namesake — Octavia E. Butler — was a renowned Black author who was born in Pasadena.

"I just thought it was a tragedy that not many people had heard of her or read her work. I wanted to honor our hometown legend," High said.

"She was a brilliant, brilliant writer. She wrote a lot of sci-fi and Afrofuturism, dystopian books," High added. "And for me, reading her work — which I had never read anything quite like what she'd done — it was the fact that she included Black and Brown people in her stories that were set in the far, far future."

High took a risk two years ago by opening the bookstore, which was met by relentless support and enthusiasm from the Altadena community.

She then poured that love right back into people in their greatest time of need.

Octavia's Bookshelf is now back to being a full-time bookstore with an emphasis on grief support and journaling workshops.

An upcoming session is going to focus on writing a love letter to Altadena.

"I wanted the bookstore to be there … because this is the community that raised me," High said. "I just thought that it made the most sense to put this store something this special that celebrates Octavia Butler, and so many other writers, in the heart of my community."

High admitted she feels a sense of guilt that her house, which was built in 1932, remained standing when so many others lost their homes in the fires.

The future of that house remains unclear.

"If we return home, we actually return home to no neighborhood," High said.

But Octavia's Bookshelf is still standing. It's thriving, too, as High said customers recently cleaned her out of books.

The bookstore also now has a deeper connection to Altadena.

Sure, it may look like a bookstore on the outside. But the inside is filled with love, gratitude and strength.

"I think the reason that Octavia's Bookshelf has been so important in the community at large — with such a small timeframe — is because of the transparency and because the community really wanted something like this to exist," High said.

"They're very proud of it. There is this level of ownership that my customers feel about the store, and I love that so much," High added. "I rarely say, 'My bookstore or my challenge or my success.' It's ours … we did it."

Click here to support and donate to Octavia's Bookshelf.