Book News from a BIPOC Perspective: Welcome to My New Lit Column
Where do you go to find out what’s happening in the world of words from a BIPOC perspective? I love LitHub, and of course I read The New York Times Book Review, and I’m always watching the seven-figure book deals with BIPOC authors announced in the trades, like Publisher’s Weekly, but wouldn’t it be nice, if all of the BIPOC book news and publishing related tea could be found all in one place? I think so, that’s why I am starting this regular weekly round-up here on The Reed, Write, & Create blog to bring you news and updates from the book world, but from a BIPOC perspective.
For this week’s round-up, I’m sharing only good news, because Lord knows we need some. And the reality is, as much as it appears that we’re living through a shit storm of epic proportions, good things are still happening.
Community Rallies to Save an Indie, Black-Owned Bookstore
In the great state of New Jersey, the independent, Black woman owned, bookstore, Ida’s Bookshop, was saved from having to close down due to the generosity of book-loving people.
The power of community saved Ida’s Bookshop
On January third, the owner of Ida’s Bookshop, Jeanine Cook, (who also owns Harriet’s bookshop in Philadelphia and created a pop-up bookshop in Paris) posted on Instagram that she was in danger of having to close her shop because the landlord was raising the rent significantly. Cook struck a deal with her landlord where he agreed to raise the rent only slightly, if she paid a whole year in advance. The only problem was, Cook didn’t have the $23,000 needed for her end of the deal. And yet, just one week later, after hosting a ‘Raise the Rent’ party and launching a Go Fund Me campaign, Cook reached her goal, paid off her landlord and Ida’s will be in business for another year, and hopefully many more. Cook wrote on the store’s IG page: “[Making the goal] speaks to something higher in our society —it’s not about the money, it’s about the power of UNITY. Friends, this is why it’s VITAL to bring young people by the bookshops as often as you’re able, so they can advocate for generations to come on the sacredness of this UNIFYING institution in the future.”
Moving forward, Cook says she is looking for a permanent space for the store so rising rents won’t get in her way of providing books by Black women to her grateful customers. To learn more about Ida’s bookshop and her sister store, Harriet’s, visit their website and follow them on Instagram. Also, do yourself a favor and read Cook’s powerful, Ida B. Wells-inspired pamphlet on the importance of the independent bookshop and her future plans for her store.
Terry McMillan’s Exciting Third Act on the Small Screen
What do you to follow up a career as a genre-creating, award-winning, literary superstar? If your name is Terry McMillan, you strike a deal with Lifetime Television to develop new shows for the network. On February 5, 2024, Variety announced that McMillan, 72, has partnered with Lifetime to “to executive produce a slate of new movies under the banner ‘Terry McMillan Presents.’” According to the Variety article, no surprise, these Terry McMillan movies will center the lives and loves of African American women. Shout out to Ms. McMillan for showing us what an impressive third act can look like.
And she seems pretty excited about the opportunity. Just yesterday, on February 13, 2024 she posted on Twitter:” … am I proud and excited about this opportunity? Yes. We are going to rock it hard and make love a verb.”
Quite frankly, I’m super happy for McMillan, and I’m happy for us because we get more delicious Terry McMillan stories to consume.
Langston Hughes Gets Celebrity Status in Cuba
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, then you know around these parts we’ve renamed February, Black Literary History Month because of all of the Black authors born in February, including the late, great, Langston Hughes who was born on February 1.
Langston Hughes gets a statue in Cuba.
Well, on the occasion of what would have been Hughes’ 123rd birthday, the island nation of Cuba unveiled a new statue of Hughes in the courtyard of the Casa de Portia in Havana. Hughes spent a lot of time in Cuba and was close friends with famed Cuban poet and journalist, Nicholas Guillen. (Hughes actually translated much of Guillen’s work in English) And guess who was on hand in Havana to officially unveil the Hughes statue? None other than Alice Walker, who actually knew Langston Hughes and was able to share her memories of the famous writer. (Fun fact, Walker mentioned that Hughes would write her letters, always in green ink, which is something Jabari Asim mentioned in our conversation on the podcast.)
True story, when Hughes died in 1967, his death was felt more acutely and was treated with more fanfare in Latin America than in the United States, because Hughes was so well-regarded as a poet and writer, who also spoke Spanish. I love that for him, but also, shame on the United States for not giving the man the flowers he deserved. To read more about the unveiling of the Hughes statue in Cuba, check out this update from Busboys and Poets.
Share Your BIPOC Book News
That is all for this week. If you have BIPOC book news you want to share, or publishing tea you want to spill, please send me a message at Hello@reedwriteandcreate.com. I want to hear it all.