Hank’s Mini Market will be reopening this weekend, six months after the death of its founder, Henry D. Jackson Jr., also known as Mr. Hank.
Jackson died Oct. 13, just two days after his 85th birthday, and his family decided to quietly close the South LA mini market.
Now, Jackson’s family will host a community memorial and grand reopening this Saturday, starting at 12 p.m. and ending at 4 p.m. The event will include a community altar, art installations and music.
Kelli Jackson, Mr. Hank’s daughter, sees the grand reopening as a way to honor her father’s legacy and reintroduce the store to the community.
“I just felt like this would be a great opportunity for us to return and to give my dad his flowers with the community,” she said.
Jackson says the ceremony will begin with words from their family. From there, they’ll officially reopen the store doors to the community with opportunities to leave mementos and voice messages on a rotary phone.
“We’ll have a few friends that are artists in the community… that will be having a small arts installation, sharing my dad’s image and story through the arts,” she said. “It’s just a simple way of just bringing together the community to come celebrate my dad and support us and know that we’re back.”
Amy Jackson, another of Mr. Hank’s daughters, sees the ceremony less as a reinvention and more of a reintroduction.
“I think [there will be] a lot of reclaiming and reestablishing, sort of getting back into the fold of things, but maybe in a bigger, better way,” she said.
Mr. Hank founded the eponymous Hank’s Mini Market in 1997, just five years after the uprisings over police brutality decimated much of South LA. The corner store stood out in the community as a family-run third space for snacks, fresh produce and nutrition workshops.
Kelli Jackson took over operations in 2018 after his retirement after having worked in and around the store since her childhood. She and her sister Amy Jackson worked there together as children and saw the impact it had on the local community.
“It’s been a steady part of our lives for so long, and I think that’s a testament to my dad and my mom and their hard work,” said Amy Jackson. “The nice thing about celebrations like this is that you get to hear what someone that you love meant to everybody else… And so I hope to be able to hear things about him, and just hear people’s love for him and memories.”
The store will be open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Kelli Jackson says the store’s new iteration will still be committed to the Hank’s Mini Market mission of providing access to art, healthy food options and a safe space.
“We have the things that you would find in a regular corner store in our space, still, but we also know that people should be able to find other options in their community versus having to go out of the community,” said Kelli Jackson.
The store will continue to have fruits and vegetables, pantry items, gift items, kombucha, and “[things] you wouldn’t really find in the corner stores in our neighborhoods,” Jackson said.
“That’s the call out. Just coming and celebrating my dad and supporting us in this moment of moving into the other side of… a bittersweet new chapter,” said Kelli Jackson.
