The Narrative's 7053 Profile: Asha Grant
"THERE ARE BLACK PEOPLE IN THE FUTURE" reads a billboard with text work by Alisha B. Wormsley. This recently viral piece of art is a crucial reminder of something we often forget. That in spite of circumstance we have always maintained a stunning resilience. There have always been those who have committed themselves to doing the work that moves us forward.
What remains imperative is keeping a record of the ways in which people today are progressing the black narrative. One such person is Asha Grant, an LA native who is the Director of The Free Black Women's Library Los Angeles. The library, originated by OlaRonke Akinmowo in NYC, is a pop-up library that allows people to read and trade books written by Black Women. They host events such as book swaps and poetry readings at black & brown owned spaces in Los Angeles like Reparations Club and Hilltop Coffee.
Asha began running the LA chapter earlier this year, after moving back to her hometown from Harlem, where she attended Grad School. Since then, LA has been supremely nourished by the presence of the library. It's a radical space for anyone interested in joining the effort to amplify the literary voices of Black women, and we thank Asha Grant for bringing it to us!
Cara: Tell me about yourself (age, hometown, pronouns, etc).
Asha: I’m Asha Grant, a 26 year old cis, queer Black girl in Los Angeles. I like bringing Black folks together in real life.
Cara: How are you rewriting the narrative of black people with your work?
Asha: This is an interesting question for me...I’m a classic millenial with a few different gigs, but I think my role as a digital content producer is super interesting. I’m not sure if folks think Black people are behind the art and text they see online, but I design graphics and manage social media platforms for POC run organizations and I love knowing that every day my Black self is literally writing a new narrative. I also feel like my work with The Free Black Women’s Library - L.A. does a really great job of centering Black women in a literary world determined to keep us out. Definitely not something new - but I love feeling a part of a legacy of Black women taking back what’s ours - words.
Cara: As an LA native who has moved away for a period of time and returned, how has your perspective of your community shifted/evolved since you were growing up?
Asha: Leaving LA was one of the best decisions of my young ass life. It was so important for me to explore myself and my relationship to Blackness in spaces that were historically and culturally Black. I feel like I left LA and literally moved to some of the Blackest cities--Atlanta, Harlem, and Kumasi, in Ghana. It helped me to connect the dots of my personal history in ways I simply couldn’t do in Los Angeles alone. I can remember teaching in Kumasi and eating black eyed peas, greens, yams, and chicken and immediately understanding my family through a diasporic lense. It triggered a lot of ancestral memories I didn’t know I had and brought to light experiences I hadn’t faced head on - the range of privileges I carry, embarrassment that English was my first and only language, feelings of deep belonging and these scattered pangs of disconnection.
Truthfully moving away from LA, it made moving back a difficult and complicated experience.. Finding Black nightlife felt impossible after experiencing the ease of sliding through Angel of Harlem or reggae joint in Brooklyn. It felt like I had to work so hard to find where I fit in, even in a place I had grown up in. I had built so much of my understanding of self outside of LA that returning required a serious reckoning of my past I didn’t feel prepared for.
Cara: How did your time at Spelman prepare you to build TFBWLLA?
Asha: Going to Spelman saved my life. I know that’s not quite what you asked, but I just had to say it. The world teaches you that whiteness is a framework through which we all live and exist. Spelman gave me the confidence and tools I needed to build my own. It provided me an opportunity to interrogate a world with me at the center. This had never happened to me before. I always say Spelman did too good of a job, because very quickly my friends and I formed the Women Against Violence Brigade and began critiquing the hell out of Spelman in our campus activism, pushing us to do better by Black women in all ways. Long story short, Spelman gave me the courage to say “yes” to Black women and I feel so honored to to carry out the legacy Olaronke Akinmowo created with The Free Black Women’s Library here in Los Angeles. Each time we have an event, we’re saying yes to ourselves. That feels really, really incredible.
Cara: How do you take care of yourself?
Asha: I try really hard to take breaks from social media. My freelance work requires me to remain checked in online, but I try to log off my personal account for the majority of each day because the shit will drive you crazy. The internet will really have you out here thinking you’re not cute! It’s criminal.
Cara: What’s your favorite spot to hang out and read in LA?
Asha: I really love reading on my grandmother’s porch. The house is on a hill and at dusk I feel like I’m floating over LA. I also love reading outside of cafes at the little tables and umbrellas. It makes me feel like I’m in a movie and like I’ve got my stuff figured out, clearly.
Follow the library's Los Angeles chapter on Instagram @thefreeblackwomenslibrary_la, and/or head to their website to read about events, local writers, and donate to the org. Stay tuned for more on what's happening in Black LA.
