A juice bar inspired Grassrootz, Phoenix’s only brick-and-mortar Black-owned bookstore

Eastlake Park is one of the few historically Black neighborhoods in Phoenix. In pre-Civil Rights era Phoenix, Black families weren’t allowed north of Van Buren Street. They were kept to segregated schools in south Phoenix and redlined into properties in the area. It’s where the Black community here gathered during the Civil Rights movement and where Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations are still held today.

And, it’s where you can find Phoenix’s only brick-and-mortar Black-owned bookstore, Grassrootz.

The store was founded by Ali Nervis in 2019, in a hallway of the Afri-Soul Marketplace, a Black business incubator and shop. Today, it’s a bookstore, juice bar and co-working space that’s full of life.

Nervis joined The Show to talk more about it and why he started it.

Full conversation

ALI NERVIS: It was two very distinct audiences that I was trying to create this space for. I had been an entrepreneur before and I had been an organizer, I was an organizer at the time, which is where the name Grassrootz came from, and I saw a disconnect between the business community and those who were creating something from nothing with, you know, these incredible ideas and all this talent on creating wealth and, and those who were on the front lines who are organizing, who were, you know, really working and sacrificing so much to make changes and improvements in our society and and really look out for the least among us.

And I just felt that if, if those two groups could get together and build relationships, right, it would, it would mean more sustainability for organizations, it would mean more connectedness for business people and I just saw a lot of benefits to you know creating a space like that. And so really that was, that was one of the goals was to create the space where entrepreneurs and business people could come and work on their ideas and organizers could come and do the same thing but also be in community together, right?

And then the second one was selfishly, I have two young daughters who were. who were much younger then. And there was a business that was located on Indian School [Road] that we used to always go to as a Black-owned business, and we would go get smoothies and that was like one of our favorite pastimes. And they shut down and we tried to do everything we could to, you know, help them stay around but they weren’t able to make it.

So selfishly I wanted a place for myself and my daughters, but I knew, you know, other parents, other families, you know, would value a space like this because there’s not a lot of spaces in Phoenix where you can come and sit down and read and your children can see themselves reflected in the pages. And at the same time get some healthy food, smoothies, all natural juices and things like that.

LAUREN GILGER: Tell me a little bit about the books on the shelves here. I mean, there are a lot, but I can tell you’ve got a wide variety of genres, right? Like there’s a whole kids’ corner there, right?

NERVIS: Yes, yes, and it did not start that way. So it did not start that way. So that brown shelf that’s right on the other side, up against the wall, that’s that was the bookshelf that we started with.

And it was a Christian bookstore that was closing down, so we went, picked it up, brought it here and loaded it up again, like I said, books from my house, books I was able to find, and they were all really sad, history, social commentary, social justice, like the stuff that I was reading because again I was organizing, the stuff that I was studying.

And my wife was like, you know, people don’t want to read those sad books.

GILGER: Too heavy. 

NERVIS: Yeah, my wife, she’s a fiction reader. Like she, she’ll read a fiction book in a day. And, and so she was like, yeah, you gotta get some fiction, you gotta get some other stuff, you know, it’s gonna appeal to more people than just people who are like, think like you or looking to read books that, that you’re looking for. And so now, you know, our fiction section is, is just as big as our non-fiction, if not bigger. Our children’s section is the most popular section in the whole store.

GILGER: Tell me about the, the community that’s been coming. Because you created the space for it, right? Like it’s almost as simple as that sometimes it seems.

NERVIS: Yeah, absolutely. You know, it’s a beautiful thing because the things that we wanted to see, the reasons why we created this is really starting to take root, right? We see people coming to, you know, just sit and work, right, and work on their ideas or have meetings. And it’s a beautiful thing because that’s why it’s here, it’s not here to make, you know, all these profits or make all this revenue or anything like that, it’s really here for community.

GILGER: I want to ask you about this neighborhood because you’re in East Lake Park, which is one of the few kind of historically black areas of Phoenix. There’s not a giant Black community here, as you know, I’m sure. What does it mean to you to be here? Was this done on purpose?

NERVIS: It was, it was absolutely done on purpose. I’m not a Phoenix native. I’m, I’m a military brat, so I was originally from Alabama and lived in Texas for a while. But just being a student of history when I moved here, you know, I started to understand the history of Phoenix and the history of East Lake Park and I was very inspired by it.

And so when this opportunity came about and it was happened to be in East Lake Park, I knew it was, I knew it was meant to be. And so for us, you know, it’s it’s a it’s a great feeling and a great honor to be continuing the legacy of East Lake Park where so many Black-owned businesses were located, where so much culture was fostered and so much, you know, so much community was built and so you know we’re proud and that’s why we wear the badge proudly because a lot of people don’t know, know about East Lake Park even still, and so we make it a, a strong part of our brand to say, you know, we’re located in East Lake Park.

GILGER: What do you see your role in the, in the broader kind of Black community here, which seems to be trying to find its voice in a way.

I was just down at the Carver Center talking to the, the guy who’s running that now and all the initiatives he’s trying to start and create something real there and and really be able to give a voice to this community that’s been, ou know, kind of not the big story in Phoenix for a long time. How do you see your, your role in that?

NERVIS: Really, we just want to be a part of the fabric. There’s so many incredible things that are happening in Phoenix right now. Again, I’m not from here, so I don’t, I wasn’t a part of prior efforts, prior initiatives that happened, but from what I’ve seen from my vantage point now in 2025, I see so much activity, I see so much work and and collaboration as well and so we’re, we’re beneficiaries of that.

Again, we’re, we’re a part of Afro-Soul Marketplace, so Afro-Soul Marketplace led the charge to secure this whole location and, you know, and provided a space for not just us, but so many other businesses to have a home. And so we try to, we try to continue that tradition, right?

We have businesses, products that are, that we sell here, we have local authors that we highlight, we want to serve and provide a benefit, right? And, and uplift and encourage those who’ve been marginalized for a really long time and so that’s, that’s the role that we, that we want.

GILGER: Last question for you. What do your daughters think?

NERVIS: They like it. They hang out a lot. They love it. They, when they’re here, they don’t read as much as I would like them to do. They, they try to play their iPads when they’re here, but no, it’s, it’s a great feeling.

My oldest, she actually is doing a Black history presentation at her school today. And so she asked for my business card so she could tell all her classmates about the bookstore. So it’s, yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s a great feeling.