The coffee table book “The Shop: Where Culture Shapes Up” by Ernest Wilkins gives fans a behind-the-scenes look at the HBO hit show while showing key highlights of the series.
NBA all-time leading scorer LeBron James wrote the foreword for the book. Along with vivid photos of the countless public figures who were featured on the show, the book includes an essay about the role of the barbershop in the Black community.
It also includes an oral history of the inception of “The Shop,” told by show co-creators Randy Mims and Paul Rivera along with executive producer Maverick Carter.
Wilkins was sought out to create the book. With a journalism background that included writing for Rolling Stone, GQ, and Pitchfork, Wilkins crafted essays throughout the book. The essays touch upon the various walks of life the guest stars come from, touching on topics like politics, music, entrepreneurship, and sports.
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“This show, to me has always been a fascinating totem of a time that I think we take for granted,” Wilkins said. “Before every athlete and their mom had a podcast, “The Shop” was the first time you hear some of these athletes actually talk about things.”
“The Shop: Where Culture Shapes Up” not only features a variety of candid and posed shots of the guest stars but also quotes from their discussions on the show.
“My writing, I try to keep up with the artwork that they do,” Wilkins said. “But my whole point was make it as visual as possible. You want to see this and you want to feel this experience of being this fly on the wall for this conversation.”
Wilkins, who is a fan of “The Shop,” watched every episode at least six times to compile quotes and complete the book. One book that helped him provide more information about the Black barbershop in America was “Barbershops, Bibles, and B.E.T.” by Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry.
“The barbershop culture that they try to create on the show, if you don’t understand what that is, it’s going to be hard to get the rest of it,” Wilkins said. “To me, it was really important to tell that story, it’s the central framework that then is used to be the platform in which we tell the story.”
For Wilkins, a highlight of the book is the “Free Game” chapter which is filled with advice.
“This book gives you a lot of stuff disguised as a cool book about celebrities,” Wilkins said. “There’s a lot in here that’s worth paying attention to and will hopefully serve as motivation to somebody else to go do something.”
