2024--To Stravinsky and Garvey

All my to-be-published in 2024?Broadleaf Books are now in production! The last manuscript--a collection on the importance of Marcus Garvey and a call to action for his posthumous exoneration?(https://bit.ly/3tl2kcH)?curated by his very determined nonagenarian son Julius Garvey?(https://bit.ly/3GJgW8U)--is now in the capable hands of the?1517 Media?production team.

A shout out to Production editors. They are ever-patient and detail oriented. Next month a superstar Adrienne Samuels will join this able Production team.

It feels great to close out the year having all my forthcoming 2024 books edited. Yes, there is always much still to be done during production, which spans book gestation from copyediting to printing/binding/shipping, but completion high still remains.?

Yet with the editing phase of my 2024 publishing list complete, the nail biting began as I wondered how the books will be received by their reading audiences. I’m delighted that two of my forthcoming 2024 books are already off to a strong start. The Publishers Weekly Spring 2024 round up included THE SOCIAL JUSTICE INVESTOR (https://bit.ly/3PxQpPK) by?Andrea Longton and MY DIVINE NATURAL HAIR?(https://bit.ly/3tj2xwY) by?Shelia Burlock and her two amazing daughters?Melissa G. Burlock?and?Sylvia Burlock.

Oddly, attending two Igor Stravinsky events recently got my mind right, eased my worry about how my 2024 books will be received. Stravinsky’s "Rite of Spring" (which I first fell in love with in the 1970s via the Hubert Laws album) was boo-ed by many when it was first performed in 1913. And look at it now, in 2023!

Not since I first saw Ailey, my freshman year of college, have I been so transported by movement and music as I was at The Rite of Spring dance performance by a specially assembled company of 36 dancers from 14 African countries--Cote D'Ivoire, Benin, Togo, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Cabo Verde, Mali, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya and Madagascar--at the Park Avenue Armory? (https://bit.ly/3TkwK9y).

At Carnegie Hall?(https://bit.ly/4ajGeIc), The Gateways Chamber Players introduced me to one of Stravinsky’s chamber works "The Soldier’s Tale." Per the program: "Wynton Marsalis re-imagined it, taking Stravinsky’s early jazz ingredients further, melding jazz and classical idioms together." I sat 20 feet away from the amazing Phylicia Rashad who read an updated narrative interspersed with the music. (Only God could give me that seat! Thank YOU, Lord.)

Mulling over these two Stravinsky events shifted my thinking. Not to compare in even the slightest way to this avant-garde genius, but from worry about how these forthcoming 2024 books will be received, I now anticipate how they will endure, who they will touch, what influence they will have on the future.

It's a privilege to end the year working on Julius Garvey's book to posthumously exonerate his father. Marcus Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League in 1914. (Note: Stravinksy "Rite of Spring" 1913, Garvey UNIA/ACL 1914.) At its height, membership in the Garvey organization is variously estimated at between 6 and 11 million, with 1200 divisions in 40 countries from the Americas to Zambia. Garvey's influence endures and can still be heard musically in "Halftime" by Nas; "Malcolm, Garvey, Huey" by Dead Prez; "The Blacker the Berry" and "HiiiPo WeR" by Kendrick Lamar; "Exhibit C" by Jay Electronica.

Yes, I hope the books I publish in 2024 will continue to get review attention like the early press mentioned above for THE SOCIAL JUSTICE INVESTOR and MY DIVINE NATURAL HAIR. But my inner aim is that each book and author--Michelle Rapkin, Nhi Tran, Tiffanie Darke, Dwayne Ashley, Keith Strickland, Lucas L. Johnson and all the contributors who are collaborating with Julius Garvey--will have a lasting impact.

Here’s to 2024 and long live the books that will be published next year.

#books #publishing #2024goals #impact