One man's view of the 2015 Harlem Book Fair

[Troy]

"...there was Johnnie Bunting Jr., a slim, scarred murderer making a new life for himself after 26 years behind bars. He was hawking two books, “Son of Solomon” and “Enterprise Corruption,” both indictments of the criminal justice system. He wrote his books while in prison, and with his father’s help, published them both. Ironically, his books sold well among his fellow inmates but he’s having problems finding a market now that he is free.

Now a student who spends his days reading and writing, Mr. Bunting hopes for a career in the literary arts. But his resources are limited. He couldn’t afford a booth at the festival, so he carried copies of his two books in a black trash bag. At least that kept them dry." --JAMES ABRAHAM, Special to Florida Weekly

 

I attended the Harlem Book Fair, this past saturday.  Being a Harlem resident and the owner of the largest website dedicated to Black books, one would think that would be a no-brainer, but it is not, and that is a story for another day.

Anyhow, I decided to go to the book fair and speak to all of the street vendors.  I did not leave myself enough time so I only got to about 3/4 of them. One of the people I spoke to, much longer than most, was the author of the article above.  He is in my age range (one of the few on the street that day who was), and he has been involved in the book world for a longtime, so we actually had a lot to talk about.  In fact, he wrote about our conversation in his article.  It is interesting to note: that I had no expectation that our conversation would be fodder for a newspaper article, but in 2015 everything goes huh?  At any rate, it was no big deal and I learned long ago never say or do anything in front of anyone you would not want to read about on the cover of the New York Times (and today see on Facebook).

Here is Johnnie Bunting's book  I did not run into Johnnie during the fair, but he was on the only formerly incarcerated authors on the street that day.  I think books have provide and outlet and an avenue for some of our Brother and Sisters to make a way for themselves.  But all writers they can't do it by themselves and unfortunately there are not many platforms around to help them.

Edited July 25, 2015 by Troy

[Akia]

it's just so wonderful how  people are so motivated to do something despite their circumstance they can find God, and write books it's so inspirational.