A Recap of UCLA, Leimert and the BEA/LABBX Reception

It’s a new week which means Book Expo America must be over, every participant is going back to their respective homes wherever they may be and suddenly, the excitement building up to the conference is long gone. Everyone’s getting ready for next year.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend this year due to preparing for the L.A. Black Book Expo coming up in two weeks and I along with fellow Mixed Matters co-host Chandra Adams, had a speaking engagement at UCLA with a few high school students preparing for college. We were part of the Bruin Speaker Series as panelists discussing the ‘The World of the Arts’. A representative from the California African-American Museum sharing our experiences of what advantages our craft has allowed us to have and the challenges it presents, joined us. Ms. Julette Sanders, the moderator and coordinator of the panel did a great job asking us questions that hopefully the students in the room benefited by our answers. The reactions from the parents and students after our panel had concluded assured us they were impressed. I would say there was one young man named Malcolm who at age eighteen has his own Production Company and LLC. Honestly, he had more wisdom in his lips than any adult I know at his age. He spoke of sacrifices such as paying for less expensive shoes or a pack of gum. I believe if we all had a mindset like Malcolm in our growing years, we would be better off right now.

Our next stop was the Leimert Park Book Fair. Once again, festival coordinator Cynthia Exum and her staff did an outstanding job. They had more authors this year and the book fair had more vendors as well. Already in its second year, the book fair is living up to its promise of becoming one of the well-known community venues in the city and state. Because of time constraints, we couldn’t stay too long but I’ll write more on Leimert in another blog featuring events like this.

Finally, we hosted a Book Expo America/L.A. Black Book Expo reception. We had to start thirty minutes later than scheduled due to our staff facing traffic and I personally had to make a couple of stops myself. We passed through the convention center and watched as a crowd strolled across Figueroa with bags in hand and badges, obviously Book Expo America was over for the day. Once we had everything set up, we had a few BEA participants stroll on through including Ms. Adrienne Ingrum, the co-founder of the African-American Pavilion. The other co-founder Tony Rose entered and greeted me with a warm handshake as we met and introduced ourselves. Founder and former LABBX executive director Itibari M. Zulu joined us and briefly spoke on the history of the expo. Max Rodriguez, the founder of the Harlem Book Fair also stopped by as we handed awards to Mr. Rose and Ms. Ingrum for a well-deserved job well done.

We concluded the evening’s events with a ‘He Said, She Said’ relationship forum with the two panelists who started it all; authors Larry Ukali Johnson-Redd and Pearl Jr. Na’Kisha Crawford was the moderator for the panel and she did an excellent job in overseeing the discussion. No punches were thrown, so I guess we made it through civilized, lol. Not only did our reception impress those in attendance but Mr. Rose and I agreed to work together for next year’s black book expo, which I felt was the best news of the evening.

I have to commend the rest of the committee as this was a team effort, we all contributed. They did a great job and I’m proud of what we’re building for LABBX not only this year but in the years to come. It’s my hope that the excitement every participant in Book Expo America felt, the anticipation and the networking will be just the same for our expo as well.

Thanks once again for those who attended. I hope you enjoyed yourselves.

Charles Chatmon
Executive Director
Los Angeles Black Book Expo