The Next Chapter: The 14th Annual Harlem Book Fair
Harlem has a rich literary history. After all, it has been the base for writers like Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, and Zora Neale Hurston. The next generation of writers can readily be found each year at the Harlem Book Fair.
The book fair started 14 years ago in the plaza of the Powell State Building on 125th Street. Within a few years the event had outgrown the original location, so organizers moved it north to 135th Street where it occupies two city blocks stretching from Lenox to Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Panel discussions take place in both the Schomburg Center and the Countee Cullen Library located around the corner. This year's panelists included a range of respected names like Cornel West, Sonia Sanchez, Ellis Cose, Sapphire, and Dr. Jeff Gardere, as well as up-and-coming authors.
Back out on 135th Street, authors hawked their books and vendors sold their wares. While it didn't seem that a large volume of books were being sold, some authors were mostly interested in the exposure that the book fair offers. Authors like Harlem-born Karen E. Quinones Miller handed out advanced excerpts of her forthcoming book, An Angry-Ass Black Woman, being published by Simon & Schuster in October. The story tells a fictionalized version of Quinones Miller's childhood growing up on every street from 115th to 119th on the "black side" of Harlem. The author's stories are gritty, engaging, and unapologetic.
While Quinones Mlller received some flack from her publisher about the title of the book, some of the self-published books had titles that could be classified in the not safe for work category. Past years have seen a proliferation of these types of books that have been categorized as "ghetto-lit" or "urban fiction. News outlets from NPR to the Wall Street Journal have been pondering the appeal of street lit for most of this decade. This year there were noticeably fewer booths pushing street lit and a wider variety of topics seemed to be available.
Started in 1998 by Max Rodriguez of QBR, the Harlem Book Fair has extended its reach to other urban cities like Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Newark, New Jersey. At a time when many brick and mortar bookstores are closing, it is good to see that the Harlem Book Fair continues to hold on as it approaches its 15 year anniversary.
Read the article at The Examiner
