It is Tuesday night, but Michael Eric Dyson is holding forth as if it were Sunday morning.

The author, professor and minister strikes the podium at Eso Won Bookstore like a pulpit to emphasize points extracted from "Making Malcolm," his new book on the cultural impact of Malcolm X. As he slips easily from philosophizing to scat singing to a credible impression of gangsta rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg, laughter ripples across an audience that numbers about 40 and includes teen-agers, senior citizens, a young woman cradling an infant in her lap.

"Let's be straight-- Malcolm as a Muslim was oppressing Betty even as he preached as a black public moralist," Dyson intones. "As (T.S.) Eliot said, 'Between the idea and reality falls the shadow.' "

And between the ideas of a thousand black authors and the reality of black Los Angeles lies the Eso Won Bookstore, which has emerged in the past few years as a hub of activity for African Americans, from literati to casual book browsers.

From behind the cash register, store owners Tom Hamilton and James Fugate listen to Dyson and join in the murmurs of agreement, doubt and outright dissent.

Eso Won, at La Brea and Plymouth avenues in Inglewood, has become a place where dialogue and ideas flower, where sparks fly but rarely combust in the crown jewel of a Southwest L.A. neighborhood populated by exceptional black bookstores--among them, Grassroots on Slauson Avenue and Dawah on

Crenshaw Boulevard.

Smaller than the average mall bookstore, Eso Won is as dense and neatly sectioned as a library, though bright splashes of African decor and strains of jazz considerably soften the austerity. On the wall behind the counter hangs a large board advertising a busy schedule of upcoming events.

"I didn't know how much was here," said first-time customer and sports enthusiast Jerry Washington, leafing through a biography on controversial baseball star Dick Allen. "This (store) has the biggest selection of black books that I've seen."

Eso Won, which means "water over rocks" in the Amharic language of Ethiopia, indeed has it all--from history to fiction to self-help volumes. In addition, the store is known for regularly hosting readings and signings with authors just as diverse: trumpet virtuoso Wynton Marsalis, soul music \o7 meister \f7 Berry Gordy, poet Nikki Giovanni and home-grown novelist Jervey Tervalon all recently rolled through. Simply put, Eso Won has become \o7 the \f7 Los Angeles stop for black authors on tour, said Wendy Werris, representative for Oxford University Press.