Yes, this young lady Marley is a media darling right now.  I find it intriguing how some gain media attention and others don't.  The answer simply isn't having a great publicist.

I can provide many examples of entities or individuals that deserve coverage but don't get it, while others get plenty of coverage.

Over the years I've watched a few people "blow up" seemingly overnight.  Each one of these people have been grinding for years, but just made it big one day.

The one common factor was what we've come to call as the exclusive "white co-sign."  Now the white cosign alone is not sufficient, but it is required whenever you see a Black person blow up.

As a result of this, I believe many authors who are trying to make it bg or have already made it big begin to marginalize Black institutions in favor of white ones.  This tends to bolster the white ones while weakening the Black ones.

Case in point; some black writers will do anything to attend AWP (which will be in Oregon in 2019) They hold in it high regard.  While the National Black Writers Conference (NBWC), held every two years in Brooklyn, is treated like the red-headed step child. 

I say this because each year at least one, usually more top author, will accept an invitation to be honored and then cancel their appearance at the last minute!  You know, after books have been orders, programs have been printed, flyers mailed, press releases issued, etc.

I can think of at least two who cancelled at the last minute but attended AWP with bells on.  This year AWP was the week before, two years ago AWP conflicted with the NBWC.  The year it conflicted a couple of writers reneged on the attending and went to AWP instead.

Disclaimer: These thoughts are Troy Johnson's. In no way are intended to represent the sentiments of the NBWC or it's organizers.

I can think of many similar examples.  What does this have to do with Marley?  Black people did not choose to elevate Marley (as far as I can tell), over the other young people to work to encourage literacy.  This is not to say that Marley is not deserving of attention, it is that we don't seem to be driving who does.

Of course part of the reason is that we don't many platforms that are greatly respected, which point the nature of the problem I just described a death spiral ensues--one problem reinforces the other.

At some point, we have to elevate our own institutions or we will never control our narrative. 

Look, if Marley can get it done, so can we.

I actually read Kwames book Cross Over in a bookstore and was really impressed. 

Kwame actually put me on the first panel discussion that I ever sat on back in 1998.  This was during one of the best poetry festivals in the last 30 years, 360° A Revolution of Black Poets.  Kwame as the executive producer.

Thanks Mel.

Keep me posted on efforts with your book. I'm still working on an affiliate program to allow readers/fans to direct sales to an author's site in exchange for a commision .  Did I ever mention that to you?

I mention both in the newsletter I mailed yesterday: https://madmimi.com/s/841d1b  

Cool.  I have not been taking advantage of those lately.  I used to use them to generate tweets of me, but cut that out a couple of years ago.  Had you heard about the MahoganyBooks bookstore opening in SE DC?  

No I did NOT know about it until you posted it here.  I just now, added the store to my database. 

Yeah it is odd that they did not reach out to me.  Again they talked about the database as it was mentioned in the article.  Amazingly it i did not occur to anyone to mention it to me  I guess they just took it for granted that I would learn about it--which I did thanks to you.

How did you learn about the store?

Good Looking out Mel.  I just added this store to my database: https://aalbc.com/bookstores/store.php?store_name=Uncle  

Interestingly the article discussed my bookstore database and no one even bothered to send me information about this new store.  It was have also been nice if they linked to the website. 

In any event this is great news and I'll checking out the store soon.  Interestingly I just spend the last 4 days in the area, but the store just opened today.

 thanks @richardmurray that was generous, kind, and uplifiting. I'll add patience to my vocabulary. 

Third World is a good example.  They were struggling as a business and are now a not-for-profit.  Haki has been give about a bazillion awards and honors, but we needed to be figuring out a way for the press to become a publishing powerhouse reaping the benefit of publishing bestselling authors.

Man I must be an a bad mood.... seems I can only find the negative in things lately...I guess I'm just tired of us being so marginalized and weak....

I hear you Richard, but it is not a matter of creating an alternative; we have an alternative; we are simply not taking advantage of it.  What I'm trying to do is to get folks to take advantage of it before our alternatives dry up.  Yes it will take a village (Black folks collectively) to make this happen.

@richardmurray, on this site unless an author gives me an alternative link to direct visitors to purchase a book I generally link to AbeBooks (owned by Amazon), Amazon, BarnesandNoble, Books-a-million, IndieBound, and the Library (as shown in the graphic below).  I also have hundreds of books link to the publisher sites, or go to authors sites and a few I sell myself.  Despite the option the vast majority of books I sell are sold through Amazon.

I have, at various times, I've offered books for sale that were autographed and priced less than Amazon's and still the sale went to Amazon!  This was not always true but it is true today.

Amazon completely owns the online sales of Black books!

Amazon also owns our eBook market too. For an increasing number of Black authors, Amazon is the ONLY place you can buy their books and their Amazon's author page is the primary web presence. For authors like this @richardmurray, there is no immediate alternative.

However for consumers I can provide alternative options for buying books.  This of course will hurt authors who are "all in" with Amazon, as they will continue to push Amazon to the exclusion of all other booksellers-because that is the only place their book is available.

In fact it will also hurt me, because my online sales will completely evaporate if people do not take advantage of the alternative methods. 

For years I have considered my role in promoting Amazon.  Before the most recent upgrade all of my website's pages were hard coded, typed like a Word document and all of my links went to Amazon.  It was not possible to remove or replace my links to Amazon.  Today however I can very easily remove the AbeBooks and Amazon options--site wide.

I need to get others to do the same and help spread the word on why we are ding it.  But unless I can get the "elusive white co-sign" I'm afraid my little effort to promote a boycott of Amazon will go nowhere.  But I will try it nonetheless.  

Hi @Mel Hopkins I our course looked as well.  Yes if you see it on his site please let me know.  I'll reach out to Kwame as well.

Kwame is my man and we go way back. If the show were on his website, I would be all over it.  If it were on youtube I would promote it. but I will not direct people to Facebook.  Now if Facebook paid that me I'd consider it, but I'd be damned if I promote anything on Facebook for free.

While we are on the topic of being dominated by monopolies.  I'm seriously considering a campaign to get folks to stop buying books from Amazon.  I'm also considering dropping all of my Amazon links to encourage the change.  Would any of you be interested in joining the effort to boycott Amazon's books?  I'm going to run a survey to see what folks think. 

Thanks. I'd read the article. It appears in the same issue as one in which Ta-nehisi Coates was featured above the fold on the cover of the Arts section.  If I had the resources I would have attended the 50th Anniversary celebration.

It is a good thing that the New York Times covered the milestone, check out The Chicago Crusader's coverge: https://chicagocrusader.com/hundreds-gather-to-celebrate-50th-anniversary-of-third-world-press-foundation/#comment-9705

I'll only have a day for the trip planned in July, but I visit DC enough where I can take in more of the museum. I'll save room for the food.

Yes, I plan to go in July.Was it crowded when you went?

I recall some very prominent actor, I wanna say Don Cheadle, said a Black person can not green light a movie, but I don't know enough about the industry to know if this is true or not...

I don't think there is one.

Back at you Mel.  When we connect I wanna hear more about your NDE Sounds like a tragic accident became an enlightening experience. @VL Towler I don't recall.  Have we ever talked about your Wheatley award experience?  Did you attend? So far every book I encountered was positively reviewed--it looks like a good reading list...

Hi all I reposted the review here: https://aalbc.com/books/bookreview.php?isbn13=9780996877213 I linked back to the original review on your Blog post Mel.