Things to Do: Harlem Book Fair 2009

As much money as I give to Barnes & Nobles and Borders, it is time for me to find one good book and give the money directly to the author. Although I almost sold my book at the 2006 Harlem Book Fair (I was there, but the publisher did not have the books...long story), I cannot speak much about it. It was the rainy weather and the drama with the book, plus the vending tables were screwed up. However, I recommend this event.

This reminds me of the summers, my mother would take us to the library and we would get books to read. To this day, I am ususally strapped with something to read and can read a 300 page book in 24 hours. Oh well, let us see what we can find. See you there.

The 10th
HARLEM BOOK FAIR
Anniversary Celebration & Gala
Harlem, New York
in association with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Events from July 18 - 20, 2008
West 135th Street from Malcolm X Blvd. to Frederick Douglass Blvd.

Here are my panel picks...
SATURDAY, JULY 19
SCHOMBURG CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN BLACK CULTURE
LANGSTON HUGHES AUDITORIUM
515 Malcolm X Blvd., corner of West 135th Street

11:15a - 12:30p 40 YEARS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN PUBLISHING
Moderator: Max Rodriguez (QBR The Black Book Review)
Panelists: W. Paul Coates (Black Classic Press); Kassahun Checole (Africa World Press); Cheryl Willis Hudson and Wade Hudson (Just Us Books); Tony Rose (Amber Books)
Long before the advent and success of contemporary urban-based writers, these publishers nurtured and primed the African American reader to the multi-million dollar market that it is today. They will discuss their histories, their vision for the reader market, and what they must do to thrive within a quickly evolving publishing and generational revolution.

2:15p - 3:15p BEVERLEY MANLEY: LIFE WITH MICHAEL MANLEY(The Manley Memoirs)
Interviewer: Cliff Hughes (Commentator, Nationwide Radio, Jamaica WI) with Beverley Manley As a young girl, starved of her mother's love because she was darker than her siblings, and forced to do housework while her sisters relaxed, Beverley was a modern-day Cinderella. Told incessantly that she was good for nothing, she defied her mother's prophecy by becoming a household name in local radio, television, and on stage. It was her path at the then Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation that lead her to Michael Manley and to the Jamaica House. Marriage to Michael also leads to her political awakening. Not content with being the docile wife, Beverley assumed an activist role in the governing Peoples National Party (PNP), becoming embroiled in the ideological politics of the 1970s that would eventually lead to her estrangement from Michael, the destruction of their marriage, her flight into the arms of a rival lover and finally to a self-imposed exile in the US, where she took refuge from the ire of the Jamaican elite for daring to walk out on one of their own.

4:45p - 6:00p FROM THE DOOR OF NO RETURN: THE BICENTENNIAL OF THE ABOLITION OF THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE TO THE U.S.
Moderator: Howard Dodson (Ideology, Identity, and Assumptions)
Panelists: Rosanne Marion Adderley (New Negroes from Africa: Slave Trade Abolition and Free African Settlement in the Nineteenth-century Caribbean); Sylviane A. Diouf (Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Last Africans Brought to America); David Eltis (Extending the Frontiers: Essays on the New Transatlantic Slave Trade Database); Thomas Norman DeWolf (Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History). Although it went unnoticed, the year 2008 marks the bicentennial of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade to the United States. This American amnesia stands in stark contrast to the yearlong commemorations - costing $40 million-that took place in Great Britain in 2007 to commemorate the bicentennial of the British abolition. This missed opportunity perpetuates the general ignorance about a central aspect of American history. This panel will provide the audience with the latest scholarship on the transatlantic slave trade and its abolition, including numbers and ethnicities. It will explore the little-known illegal slave trade to the United States that continued for half a century after 1808; the re-Africanization of the Caribbean with the arrival of Africans liberated from the slave ships; and the northern involvement in the trade. This will be an extraordinary opportunity to bring to the public the latest information on and analysis of this fundamental
part of U.S. history that still has immense resonance today.

HBF FINANCIAL PAVILION
SCHOMBURG CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN BLACK CULTURE
AMERICAN NEGRO THEATRE
515 Malcolm X Blvd., corner of West 135th Street
SATURDAY, JULY 19

2:00pm - 3:00pm CHANGING THE MINDSET FOR WEALTH
Edgar J. Ridley, Author and President, Edgar J. Ridley Associates
Black peoples almost uncontrollable appetite for the latest fashionable lifestyle ranks us as America's biggest consumer group. Because of our must have it now mentality, we have a negative attitude towards creating wealth for our children and ourselves. What does the future hold for a people living under such condition? Edgar J. Ridley, author of Symbolism Revisited and The Golden Apple, heads a multi disciplinary team of organizational and behavior development specialists that help corporations and governments develop more efficient operations.

4:45p - 6:00p THE LONG RISE AND HARD FALL OF BLACK RADIO
Moderator: Sabrina Lamb
Kristal Brent Zook (I See Black People: Interviews with African American Owners of Radio and Television), Sanford Moore - KISS-FM Week In Review Co-Host. Bob Law - Veteran Broadcaster, Film Producer "History of Black Radio" Black radio has long provided an unadulterated perspective of the Black American experience. Mergers, conglomerates, audience diversification and the high costs of maintenance have caused many smaller stations to fold, while other rely on exaggeration and caricature to survive – all at the expense of providing the type of critical, hard-edged analysis a community requires to stay armed and informed. This panel discusses black media’s demise and future.

1:45 - 2:30p YOU CAN'T BOX ME IN: The (R)Evolution of Spoken Word Poetry
Moderator: Jameel Adams (Harlem 1-2-5)
Panelists: Tantra (Sacred), J. Ivy (HBO Def Poetry Jam), Helena D. Lewis (Call Me Crazy), Vanessa Hidary (Culture Bandit). These acclaimed artists recognize poetry as the first element of hip-hop. They have successfully translated their poetry into new platforms of performance theatre, music, and the visual arts. These poet-visionaries discuss their art and the evolving direction of leading edge spoken word.

2:45 - 3:30p SINS OF THE FATHER: HOW FATHERS IMPACT DAUGHTERS RELATIONSHIPS
Moderated by The Flow (Marc Collins, Angelo Hunt, Roy Frank)
Panelists: Jonetta Rose Barras (Whatever Happened to Daddy's Little Girl?: The Impact of Fatherlessness on Black Women); Randy Williams (Filmmaker, Fathers and their Impact on Daughters Relationships); Grace Cornish (You Deserve Healthy Love, Sis!: The Seven Steps to Getting the Relationship You Want); June Cross (Secret Daughter: A Mixed-Race Daughter and the Mother Who Gave Her Away); D. E. Brown (Fatherless). How much of a woman's relationship choices are influenced by their father? How do fathers impact daughter's definitions of womanhood, intimacy and self esteem. How many women are trying to make up for the absence, abuse or neglect of their fathers their lives, in romantic relationships risking their own authenticity and relationship success? What attitudes do fathers pass on to their daughters regarding male privilege, domination and control, and what do daughters pass on to their sons?

HBF PUBLISHING PAVILION – COUNTEE CULLEN LIBRARY (MEZZANINE)
SATURDAY, JULY 19
1:00 - 2:00pm CONTENT CONTROL PUBLISHING: THE PROS AND CONS OF Room A DIGITAL PUBLISHING (DIY)
Cost effectiveness and immediacy to market have been heralded as major advantages of do-it-yourself publishing. But there are numerous others, many of which are being emulated by majority publishes, which make DIY effective and ideal for entry into the publishing marketplace. This panel of experts explains DIY in detail and offers insider tips on capitalizing on this booming technology. This seminar is sponsored by
HBF Publishing.

2:15 - 3:30pm LOW COST/NO COST MARKETING
Room A Exclusive Seminar by Adrienne Smith, Adhere Network
We live in a progressive and technologically advanced society. Big budget marketers are reaching their customers in ways that we never would have considered years ago. Big budget marketers have just that, Big Budgets! How do you compete when you don't have the budget? You go back to the basics. This presentation will provide affordable concepts to business owners who are interested in promoting their business on a restricted budget. This seminar is sponsored by HBF Publishing.

3:45 - 5:00pm CMS TECHNOLOGY FOR AUTHORS & PUBLISHERS
Room A Exclusive Seminar by Darnell Smith, Business In The Black. This seminar will discuss how using a Content Management System-based website can help authors, journalists and writers build a powerful presence on the web to promote their work. It will introduce the value of Content Management System-based websites; advantages and disadvantages of having a member based website; how Group Level login can increase your bottom line from your internet sales; how to setup Credit Card processing for free using Paypal, 2CheckOut and others; affiliate income online and how to find high yield affiliate partners like Google's Adsense; Viral Marketing (Internet advertising, E- mail marketing, Opt-in and Opt-out laws); using CraigsList and BackPage to boost your sales early in the game; Search Engine tricks to get your website high on the search engines fast... and much, much more. This seminar is sponsored by HBF Publishing.

TMA (THURGOOD MARSHALL ACADEMY)
214 West 135th Street, corner of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd.

PANEL DISCUSSIONS - SATURDAY, JULY 19
1:00 - 2:15pm HEROES AND HEROINES: The Impact of the African GYM American Romance Novel on Street Fiction
Moderator: Donna Hill (Wicked Ways)
Panelists: Gwynne Foster (Getting Some Of Her Own); Nathasha Brooks Harris (Can I Get An Amen); Sandra Kitt (Celluloid Memories); Leslie Esdaille (Better Than). This discussion will provide insight into the genre's longevity and popularity and how its basic structure has provided an "acceptable" medium to mass produce stories about African Americans, build an audience and a marketplace thus providing the platform for the current surge in black fiction. Find out why the genre has remained unshakable, how it has retained and developed its fan base and how black romances,
street fiction and commercial black fiction all tell of the black experience by reflecting the environment from which their heroes and protagonists emerge.

3:45 - 5:00pm CYPRIAN EKWENSI: JAGUA NANA and ONITSHA MARKET GYM LITERATURE
Moderator: Chudi Uwazurike(Uzo Nwanna and the Song of a Thousand Tunes) Panelists: Ernest Emenyonu (The Rise of the Igbo Novel);Kurt Thometz (Life Turns Man Up and Down); Marie Umeh (Flora Nwapa: A Pen and A Press); Olotosin Mustapha; George C. Ekwensi. Cyprian Ekwensi was a contemporary of the much-lauded writer Chinua Achebe. While Things Fall Apart received critical acclaim and government-supported approval, Jagua Nana, Ekwensi's classic street life narrative, was dismissed and even banned from being read. Onitsha Market literature, like today's street fiction, is gritty, violent, and unflattering of societal norms. This panel discusses the impact and success of Jagua Nana and the African street novel.

12:30 - 1:30pm ELEMENTS OF A SUCCESSFUL CHILDREN'S BOOK: ONE ON Room 303 ONE WITH THE EXPERT (PANEL DISCUSSION)
Moderator: Irene Smalls (Little Brown)
Panelists: Linda Trice (Kenya's Word); Troy Johnson (Founder of aalbc.com); Bernette Ford, Publisher ColorBridge Books; Eric Velasquez (Illustrator); Monique Hardin-Cordero (Program Director, Reach Out and Read of Greater NY) An expert panel featuring legal and marketing executives, book agents, illustrators and authors will take you through the world of producing a successful Children's book. The panel will discuss the "NEED TO KNOW" facets of how you produce and present your product for the general market as well as a detailed look into what the industry is looking for in their next best seller. This panel will also discuss a detailed overview of their job description and HOW THAT CAN HELP YOU. At the end of the discussion you'll have an opportunity to ask a question ONE-ON-ONE. This workshop is sponsored by HBF Publishing.

3:15 - 4:15pm COMIC BOOKS: WHAT'S THE STORY WITHIN THE STORY Room 319 (WORKSHOP)
Facilitator: Jerry Craft (Mamasboyz) Learn how to draw comics. What's the story behind Iron Man? What's the story behind The Hulk? Comic books and graphic novels are often the first access to reading for our youth. This workshop creates access to creative self-expression and enhances self-esteem.

3:00 - 4:00pm WRITING FOR THE YA MARKET: ONE ON ONE WITH THE Room 303 EXPERT (PANEL DISCUSSION)
Moderator: Clara Villarosa (Founder Hue-Man Bookstore)
Panelists: Rita Garcia-Williams (No Laughter Here); Jaira Placide (Fresh Girl); Dominic Carter (No Mamma’s Boy) Our children are still reading adult content; can you make a difference? If your product is creative, stimulating, identifies with the Young Adult niche market and is simply a great read this panel is for YOU! The panel will feature expert in the industry who will open the hidden chambers on how to stimulate the YA readers with age appropriate content. At the end have a chance to ask a question ONE-ON-ONE with an expert. This workshop is sponsored by HBF Publishing.

SCHOMBURG CENTER/LANGSTON HUGHES AUDITORIUM
515 Malcolm X Blvd., corner of West 135th Street
PANEL DISCUSSIONS - SUNDAY, JULY 20
The QBR Author Stage

1:00 - 2:30p FROM BARAKA TO BARAK: THE EVOLUTION OF BLACK POLITICAL THOUGHT: A Conversation with Herb Boyd and Amiri Baraka Poet, activist, elder statesman and political gadfly Amiri Baraka has seen his share of art and political movements; in fact, he is credited with sparking the Black Arts movement of the 60's. Author Herb Boyd is a critically acclaimed journalist/activist who has dedicated his life to chronicling the breadth of the black life in America. Together they discuss politics, Barak Obama, and the parting of the Red Sea.