The Harlem Book Fair is an annual tradition for me. This Fair is one of my favorite “only in New York” experiences.
Produced by the Quarterly Black Review (QBR), the festive outdoor-indoor event featured great people-watching and educational opportunities where the most diverse famous and not so famous book lovers gather on two Harlem sidewalks to ogle Black books and authors of every genre. You will be amazed at how many different types of Black books are out there and the people you will recognize! Last year I saw TV1 anchor Cheryl Wills, actor Danny Glover and genealogy rock star Bernice Bennett of the radio show “From National Archives and Beyond.”
Fun day at Harlem Book Fair: new friend, Cornel West, Sonia Sanchez, Dr. Jacqueline Sawyer, nephew, Sylvia Lewis posing outside Schomburg.
This year, I saw Sister Sonia Sanchez, Cornel West, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Schomburg’s new Executive Director and fellow Smith College classmate Dr. Jacqueline Sawyer with her nephew. The Fair is also a great way to make news friends. We can never meet enough new people who love books and words!
The side street of the Schomburg was where most of the venues were set up. Like last year, the Fair featured several performance stages for poetry, music, dance and theater and tents and tables for vendors.
For me the panels inside the Langston Hughes auditorium was a big draw. I wrote about the panel on ‘freedom’ on a separate post. There was a dynamic lineup of speakers including Sonia Sanchez, Cornell West, Ellis Close, George Fraser and Khalil Gibran Muhammad among many others. Of course the panel with Sonia and Cornel was packed and ran late, creating lines for next panel. But, the lines were orderly and friendly.
The topics range from race, Democracy, freedom, art, genius, family, food and more.
Schomburg’s garden provided a nice venue for performances & relaxing at book fair.
The authors’ panels can be seen on C-Span’s Book TV. The Fair scheduled activities for the young readers and parents, author panels, talks in the Langston Hughes Auditorium, Countee Cullen Library, American Negro Theater and scheduled stage performances. This annual event drew visitors from far and near not only for the books but also for shopping for a variety of Afro-centric clothing, crafts and food items. This was a fun and informative stay-cation activity to do!
Harlem’s hat lady and man showed their latest designs at Harlem Book Fair, 2012.Fun earrings to buy at Harlem Book Fair.
Freedom, next stop! Harlem’s 125th street subway station in NYC is adorned by masterpieces on tile by #artist #FaithRinggold.
Freedom should always be our theme. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863), I attended a ‘freedom’ panel at the Harlem Book Fair 2012 in the Langston Hughes Auditorium. Were you lucky enough to catch this panel discussion on C-Span Book TV? Here are highlights:
“What Passes for Freedom” featured moderator, Christopher Paul Moore, (Fighting for America: Black Soldiers -The Unsung Heroes of World War 11) with panelists: Nell Irvin Painter (The History of White People); Obrey Hendricks (The Universe Bends Towards Justice: Radical Reflections on the Bible, the Church, and the Body Politic); Farah Jasmin Griffin (Who Set You Flowin’?: The African-American Migration Narrative); and Tanner Colby (Some of My Best Friends Are Black).
Nell Irvin Painter spoke about freedom from “within and without.” She said that this applies to definitions of who Black people are. In her prelude she said that such oversimplification as lumping all Black people together as one comes from ‘outside’ people. From inside of ourselves, we are infinitely varied individuals, all different, starting with where and when we live, how old we are, what gender, etc. To simplify into ‘Black people,”as one big lump means looking at us from “outside, from without.” Dr. Painter said that our freedom is still circumscribed in important ways, two of which are lack of freedom from bodily harm and freedom from stereotyping. “We may have had out freedom from slavery, but we were not safe from night riders, burning, pillaging and rape. During slavery we were not free from personal violence– who owns you can hurt you. Today, Black people are not free from stereotyping. Black males are stereotyped as criminals, predators; Black women are sexualized. Even in the art world the use of nudes is rarely used in African American art.”
Obrey Hendricks focused on White Christian church’s role during slavery– tolerating and condoning the torture and terrorism of Black people. He also talked about Black churches. “How are Black churches helping to promote the American dream?” He said Black churches were always at the forefront of the freedom movement but that they were not always true to the cause. “There is a lot fun and entertainment, especially at mega and prosperity churches.” What he called “churchianity” — exciting the crowds to get them ready for the next performance. “Churches have moved away from their pastoral role and are squandering their freedoms.” He also said that we might be better off talking about justice, equality and ethical and moral teachings.
Farah Jasmin Griffin spoke about freedom’s elusiveness. “Freedom is an ongoing goal or a process that gives birth to many more un-freedoms.” She spoke of the African American slavery experience– needing a pass from their owners to walk about, free Blacks had to carry free papers, after Emancipation thousands of newly freed slaves were said to be ‘wandering around’ the country when in fact they were searching for their families. This lead White Supremists to develop new laws such as Black Codes, Vagrancy laws and other ways to re-enslave. Dr. Griffin said that once we tried to “practice freedom” by exercising our right to mobility as we did in the Great Migration, we found efforts to further confine us like segregated neighborhoods, restrictive covenants and mass incarceration. ‘Stop and Frisk” is the latest effort to curtail our freedom of mobility.
Tanner Colby, the only White person and maybe the youngest on the panel, talked about the journey of writing his book “Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America” He said that young people take freedom for granted and that more youth should get involved in activism. “Segregation never really died but was simply transformed into strict legal barriers of Jim Crow-like social mores and economic policies that maintain a separate and unequal status quo that keeps the races apart, fueling suspicion between them,” said the native of Birmingham. Alabama, who also lived in Kansas, City, Missouri.
Have you ever attended the Harlem Book Fair? Please share your memories!
