This is an issue that’s close to my heart because I enjoy my family of authors, writers and poets no matter where they’re from. However, every once in a while I have to appeal to the massive reading public about our events. This is one of those posts.
For literary venues such as the Black Writers on Tour, Leimert Park Village Book Fair, L.A. Black Book Expo and West Coast Educational and Cultural Black Writers Festival, we each face challenges in producing our events. We don’t possess the financial security as the bigger community affairs like the L.A. Black Business Expo, African Marketplace and Taste of Soul, yet we find a way to keep these book fairs going.
California in general has a wealth of literary talent and in my years as a published author, I’ve seen a few of my colleagues live the dream, others experiencing it for the moment with their one and only novel or self-help book, while the rest feel cheated by unpaid royalties or discouraged when their dream isn’t what they had hoped. Not only that, but among the other challenges they have to face; a shrinking number of independent bookstores, a growing number of online buyers and a generation that doesn’t read as much. We always discuss how literature is important to our community and young people, yet we fail support it. There’s a reason why our children are doing so poorly in reading and writing comprehension, and why corporations are so eager to assist them even though there’s a profit to be made.
Now you may think I’m off base with this, but think for a minute. We have wonderful children’s book authors, writers who have experienced the harsh life of the streets but have turned it around and are doing positive things with their lives. There are stories of mothers who had a drug addicted life and would have gone down a tragic path had it not been for their inner strength reminding them they had everything to live for, a young man who was deemed a ‘special child’ but showed his school he is indeed ‘special’ in his own way.
Yes, we have stories. Each of us living has a story inside us and the authors who pursue those dreams of releasing them should be credited and applauded for having the courage to face criticism, ridicule and doubt from the public. It takes a lot of courage to talk about your life story, to lay it all out page after page. It takes a tremendous bravery to write a children’s tale of AIDS to help those who may have children understand why they have the illness or someone they know deal with the same situation. The major chains do not have enough of these books in stock. I’m sorry, but chances are you won’t find them there. You’ll find plenty of erotica, urban lit and a few Christian books on display. For a volume written by those who have gone though the hard times of life, chances are you’ll see them at the aforementioned festivals or in one of the few independent stores operating.
But everything that’s been said sounds and looks nice. Only one thing missing, and that’s money. This is where you, the reading public comes in. You see, we can’t produce these events without operating costs for advertising, space, tent and booth rental and let’s not get started on insurance. When you attend the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at UCLA every year, you see the famous celebrity authors, the hundreds of exhibitors in attendance, the panels, workshops, programs and long lines from book lovers who stand for half an hour or more to receive an autograph from that movie star or diplomat who wrote a book. The Festival of Books also averages around 150,000 a year and in 2009 I didn’t see a drop off in attendance at all. It all comes down to a literary culture who enjoys reading, writing, while embracing the art instead of treating it as uncool or boring. It is worth noting the Festival of Books is well funded by a few corporate sponsors who have a vested interest in the annual gala. When it comes to the flip side, i.e. the community based writing fairs….very thin in comparison. If we’re serious about improving our standing in the literary world, this has to be the time we truly support each other instead of saying it.
So here’s the challenge I propose to you, the reader. For the price of a week’s high caloric meal filled with artery clogging cholesterol and high sodium, you can help improve the health of our book events by simply donating just five dollars a week. Yes, $5.00. No more, no less, that’s it. Just think this out; if you donated $5.00 a week to any book venue of your choice, in a year’s time (52 weeks), you would have given $260 to that event. Let’s say one hundred people either in your church or job give the same amount at the same time. The book event would receive $26,000. That is more than enough to cover cost and would help with promotion, advertising, etc. If 150 people donated just $5.00, we’re talking $39,000.
With the Power of Five, a lot can be done to keep our community based literary festivals alive and well – with your help. You see, the organizers, staff and volunteers can’t do it alone and we certainly can’t expand to other cities and places dying for an event of their own, such as the first annual North Bay Book…. oops! Almost let that cat out of the bag…again. But you get the point.
Either way, you have the challenge and the power of maintaining book fairs, expos and summits through your small but helpful donations. The alternative? Well you’ve seen what happens when we don’t have venues to support. The Black Family Reunion? Remember that in the early 1990’s when we had it in L.A.’s Exposition Park? That, along with past (and sadly present) local affairs are long gone or on the verge meaning as a collective, we’re losing venues to call our own and there’s a need to keep them going or else they’ll also be a memory to the few who do remember when they were in existence.
Please help out anyway you can. Again, just $5.00 a week is a big help and although I can’t speak for all organizers, your assistance is definitely noted and deeply appreciated. Our independent bookstores shouldn’t have to fade away and neither do our communal celebrations of literacy.
This time, it’s all up to you.
Charles L. Chatmon
Executive Director
Los Angeles Black Book Expo
Black Writers on Tour
Leimert Park Village Book Fair
Los Angeles Black Book Expo
Cameron's Literacy Celebration
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