Reading Belongs to the Masses

Bringing authors and books free to live audiences is an act of literary heroism. Yes, libraries are critical. Yes, bookstores are important. Still, books and authors need to be brought to public spaces if reading is to remain part of culture—especially for us black and brown folk. Reading competes with other sit-down leisure choices as on-demand film streaming, music, gaming, videos, maker-ing, and social media. And reading CAN compete with these other leisure choices, even in the most unlikely zip codes, IF books and authors are in your face the way the other choices are.?

Last Saturday, outside, in The Bronx Fordham Road?Plaza?shoulder to shoulder foot traffic, amidst vendors and glorious grunge smells, a small open tent brought books and authors to that world. A giant sound system, that had to out-sound a corner minister with a mic, beckoned whosoever-will to come and hear a panel of Bronx born?or resident?authors.

Andrea Navedo?(https://bit.ly/3DpTDPA)

John Manuel Arias?(https://bit.ly/3ud8Mmg)

Clarence A. Haynes (https://bit.ly/47smy2q)

Mercy Tullis-Bukhari (https://bit.ly/4689zSF / https://gfbpublishing.org/)

Jonathan Conyers?(https://bit.ly/3QSlUG3)

Kay Bell?(https://bit.ly/49rSl5z)

Expertly hosted by?Saraciea J. Fennell?these accomplished?Bronx?authors?returned to their roots andactually drew an audience, with all the urban street competition. People will choose books and authors when given a choice!

When I arrived the space was empty except for unhoused wanderers. I worried they might disrupt this upcoming “literary” event. By the end of the program,??stage-facing chairs were pandemic-distanced full. The unhoused were attentively seated in close by built-ins of the public space.?

A shopper and her three-generational family had quite loudly recognized “OMG! The star from Jane the Virgin!” and joined the audience. So had many other passersby. Even the minister with the mic, ended her street sermon out of respect for the outdoor book/author event.

No one had to be asked to turn off their ringer or to look up from film streaming on their phone or to turn down their music or to stop gaming or to pull away from their social media. Folk. Were. Listening. To the authors. The unhoused I had worried might disrupt, were seated, listening, engaged.

When the enrapt audience learned, near the end of the program, that books by the authors would be free and could be autographed, they gleefully lined up.?

Two key differences between Authors & Writers Out Loud, a program of The Bronx Is Reading and the zillions of book events I’ve attended in my two-score years in the book industry are:

1) It brought books to where people are, to awaken the love of reading in them, rather than expecting them to already be book lovers and get to where books are sold or borrowed.

2) No cash or credit cards were expected. The program is funded by depts of NYC gov. THIS is why I pay taxes!

This program reminded me that reaching people outside, on?byways—the street on Fordham Road in The Bronx—is why we do this publishing work. It is why reading will belong to the masses.?

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