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Break the 'Street Lit' Habit
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Posted By:
Aprjoy at 02/27/2008 8:29:42 PM
Comment:
Actually, I think "African American" literature sections should be abolished altogether. They don't provide readers any useful information: indeed, the only thing that unites Zane and Edward P. Jones is the color of both authors' skin. This isn't because Jones' work is "literary" and Zane's work isn't; that's up for individual readers to judge, not bookstores or publishers. It's because Zane's work belongs to an entirely different genre than Jones'.
While I agree that publishers should do a better job of cultivating a wider range of black authorship, it's unnecessary for them to distinguish "literary" from "non-literary" authors. Neither should authors be concerned with these labels -- they should be concerned with their own craft, and if they wish, networking with and mentoring other authors they admire. Again, "literary" and "non-literary" need not come into play. The only people preoccupied with these labels are academics, and they don't have much sway over which new titles hit the bestsellers list.
One last point: this article starts off by noting the Video Vixen books and also mentions The Known World. Interestingly enough, both books were published under the same imprint, Amistad -- which only drives home the point about facilitating a range of black authorship without making quality judgments as a seller.
--April Joyner -
Posted By:
sandra'screator at 02/23/2008 2:23:28 AM
Comment:
posted By:
Sandra's creator 02/22/08
Baby Eagle: Read it and see if it redefines contemporary African-American lit, which has fallen into a pit of cookie cutter-write what he writes-write what she writes-word crumbs. -
Posted By:
sadiekate at 02/14/2008 9:48:22 PM
Comment:
These books would sell even more copies if publishers could figure out how to add those shimmery reflectors on front so that, when you tilt it back and forth it appears that the woman is actually swivelling her neck. O-KAAAAY? *Sigh* Surely the schools, book groups or or sites like yours can help educate the young 'uns as to what good writing is about. It could change their lives. Good article. Thanks. -
Posted By:
mikepanula at 02/14/2008 4:52:22 PM
Comment:
Er, what is black lit? Is there a white lit, or a yellow lit I can look up at the library? Or is it just another tiny-readership niche to keep sub-par academics in a job, and reinforce racial divides and the payola of the professional black circuit?
When in human history did we say that certain books only 'worked' for a certain audience - 'the rest of you guys wouldn't be interested' If you're writing a book based on your experience, and it's good, it'll be read, whether you're black, green or Venusian. Why ghettoise? -
Posted By:
Stephen at 02/13/2008 5:13:02 PM
Comment:
Is street lit, the african anerican romance novel? Romance novels are in great demand across the racial divide, albeit a disproportionate share in the black community. Like the Barack Obama phenomena it need not stay that way. In fact, it is incumbent upon us to explore the universal character of humankind, which literary works attempt, to reach our full potential as individuals and as a people. Buy literary books by african american writers and the publishing industry will supply this demand. -
Posted By:
TracyinCT at 02/13/2008 11:31:22 AM
Comment:
Amen! I applaud your commentary on this issue. Through the years I recall many discussions like this among members of the national organization The Go On Girl Book Club. From the onset, the other two co-founders and I decided we would read a variety of genres by authors of the African diaspora and we would keep the quality level high. Through the years, our more than 300 members in more than 30 chapters across the country have voted in what we'd call popular fiction, but it has never been more than 1 or 2 of the 12 titles the club reads annually. Recently the organization has adopted the tagline, Celebrating a Legacy of Black Literature in honor of its members' passion for quality works by our authors. And from the very beginning we've paid tribute to our talented writers by honoring them annually at our traveling awards ceremony. We've had nearly 20 years of exciting author awards galas, in which the winners were honored to appear in person to accept their awards--everyone from Gloria Naylor and Bebe Moore Campbell to Pearl Cleage to Tannanarive Due. In fact, we awarded this column's author as our 2004 New Author of the Year. This tagline, the reading selections we make, the awards we confer, the readings we attend are all an effort by the members to show the publishers and booksellers we desire quality works by our authors. Great to see this line of thinking getting a forum. For more information on great works by our authors, please visit the club's website at www.goongirl.org. You'll find the reading lists since the club's inception, information on the next awards event (in Toronto in May), a list of award winners through the years and information on starting or joining a GOG book club. In GOG you will find sisters who are passionate about quality literature from our talented authors! -
Posted By:
TracyinCT at 02/13/2008 11:13:14 AM
Comment:
Your column really hits the mark. I recall so many discussions like this among the women in our national book club through the years. The Go On Girl! Book Club (www.goongirl.org) has made a point of celebrating OUR literature for nearly 20 years. From the onset, the two other co-founders and I decided we'd read a variety of genres and keep the quality level high. Through the years, the more than 300 members in more than 30 chapters across the country have voted in titles we consider popular fiction, but it is rarely ever more than one or two of the 12 titles we read each year. Recently the club adopted the tagline Celebrating the Legacy of Black Literature in honor of our respect for the truly literary works of our authors. And from the very beginning we have paid tribute to our talented authors by awarding them in person at a traveling awards event, including this column's author as our 2004 New Author of the Year winner. GOG will celebrate this year's winners in Toronto in May. GOG is doing its part to keep the publishers and booksellers aware of our desire and interest in quality literature by our authors. Great to see this point of view getting a forum. For more information on good literature by our talented writers in a variety of genres, please check out www.goongirl.org. Every reading list since the club's inception in '90/'91 is featured. We also denote our award winners, share information on the annual awards events and how to join or start a chapter. In GOG you will find sisters who are passionate about reading and discussing great black literature. -
Posted By:
acwalker at 02/13/2008 2:29:34 AM
Comment:
Not all black people grew up in urban areas. I for one cannot relate to the type of urban lit that sits on bookstores shelves or is promoted in popular black culture magazines. It is narrow-minded for us as black people to think that all of us can relate to 'street lit' or even find it interesting. Let us encourage ourselves, raise our stands and aim at reading and promoting the better written books by black authors. -
Posted By:
mosaicmagazine at 02/12/2008 8:45:18 PM
Comment:
This street/urban lit discussion is becoming a sad commentary. Not on the state of writing, booksellers, literary magazine, or mega-chains but on the entrenched sense of privilege writers who deem themselves "literary" have. To blame anyone but yourselves is unfair. As a publisher of a literary magazine, Mosaic, and founder of a commercial site, MosaicBooks.com, I walk the not-so fine line between both worlds. I know one thing, commercial writers hustle as if every meal their children will eat depends on a book sale. Winter or summer, day or night urban authors are looking for new ways to sell books. They???ve flipped the Harlem Book Fair on its head, mastered the art of self promotion, and have made it almost dangerous for me to identify myself as someone who operates a potential marketing vehicle. Writing is not viewed as an art form but as a means to a financial end. And at the end of the day that's all that matters. Sell more books and your publisher will print more, sell more and bookstores will move you to the front of the shelf, sell more and you will break through the three-book glass ceiling.
One of the problems is our love for the Black Renaissance of the 20s and 30s and for the Black Arts Movement of the 60s and 70s. These glory days informed many of the classic literary writers we hold in high esteem --Hurston, Hughes, Brooks, Wright, Baldwin. Even during the 60s and 70s, for the most part, there were only books for entertainment or to gain knowledge. Those days are dead. Books are no longer the only game in town. Today there's the internet, 100 cable channels, ipods, and video games among many other distractions. These are the competitors. Not other writers.
There no dumbing down. There are more Black literary writers being published than ever before. But what's dumb is the idea that literary books will sell themselves; writers on a tenure track no longer have to do book readings and signings outside of the city (or university campus) in which they reside. What's dumb is not taking the Relentless Aaron model dissecting it and flipping it to work for literary writers. The continued barrage of urban lit criticism is almost pathological in it absolution of literary writers to participate fully in what it takes to sell a book in 2008.
It's my hope that ringShout, a new organization formed to support literary writing, of which Bridgett Davis is a founding member, was not set up to solely hate and deride hard working people, but as a modern means to support what they believe in while treating all outside its sphere with benign respect.
Black literature is strong. There are just a group of writers who see this for what it is a numbers game. Publishing more literary writers won't change the outcome. Publishing writers who believe so deeply in their work that they're will to alter their life will. -
Posted By:
mosaicmagazine at 02/12/2008 8:29:17 PM
Comment:
This street/urban lit discussion is becoming a sad commentary. Not on the state of writing, booksellers, literary magazine, or mega-chains but on the entrenched sense of privilege writers who deem themselves "literary" have. To blame anyone but yourselves is unfair. As a publisher of a literary magazine, Mosaic, and founder of a commercial site, MosaicBooks.com, I walk the not-so fine line between both worlds. I know one thing, commercial writers hustle as if every meal their children will eat depends on a book sale. Winter or summer, day or night urban authors are looking for new ways to sell books. They???ve flipped the Harlem Book Fair on its head, mastered the art of self promotion, and have made it almost dangerous for me to identify myself as someone who operates a potential marketing vehicle. Writing is not viewed as an art form but as a means to a financial end. And at the end of the day that's all that matters. Sell more books and your publisher will print more, sell more and bookstores will move you to the front of the shelf, sell more and you will break through the three-book glass ceiling.
One of the problems is our love for the Black Renaissance of the 20s and 30s and for the Black Arts Movement of the 60s and 70s. These glory days informed many of the classic literary writers we hold in high esteem --Hurston, Hughes, Brooks, Wright, Baldwin. Even during the 60s and 70s, for the most part, there were only books for entertainment or to gain knowledge. Those days are dead. Books are no longer the only game in town. Today there's the internet, 100 cable channels, ipods, and video games among many other distractions. These are the competitors. Not other writers.
There no dumbing down. There are more Black literary writers being published than ever before. But what's dumb is the idea that literary books will sell themselves; writers on a tenure track no longer have to do book readings and signings outside of the city (or university campus) in which they reside. What's dumb is not taking the Relentless Aaron model dissecting it and flipping it to work for literary writers. The continued barrage of urban lit criticism is almost pathological in it absolution of literary writers to participate fully in what it takes to sell a book in 2008.
It's my hope that ringShout, a new organization formed to support literary writing, of which Bridgett Davis is a founding member, was not set up to solely hate and deride hard working people, but as a modern means to support what they believe in while treating all outside its sphere with benign respect.
Black literature is strong. There are just a group of writers who see this for what it is a numbers game. Publishing more literary writers won't change the outcome. Publishing writers who believe so deeply in their work that they're will to alter their life will. -
Posted By:
jbgmama at 02/12/2008 8:14:33 PM
Comment:
Thank you. That's all I can say. -
Posted By:
bklyngirl at 02/12/2008 4:54:00 PM
Comment:
So you're blaming black book stores while giving a pass to the publishing industry and super stores that have left a casualty of independent stores shuttered in their wake? I don't sell street lit in my store and I have many colleagues who don't either. Where's our mention? Is the cultural institution that is the "black bookstore" not under enough attack and financial pressure? What would compel you to be so narrow in your assessment of the state of our industry that you would ignore the millions of dollars invested by publishers in creating trash imprints? Or how could you ignore the marketing dollars set aside for some authors and not those with a more literary bent? Are you serious in saying that the small stores struggling to keep their doors open have created a multi-million dollar cash cow? -
Posted By:
bklyngirl at 02/12/2008 4:51:33 PM
Comment:
So you blame black book stores while giving a pass to the publishing industry and super stores that have left a casualty of independent stores closed in their wake? I don't sell street lit in my store and I have many colleagues that don't sell it as well. Where's our mention? Is the cultural institution that is the "black bookstore" not under enough attack and financial pressure? What would compel you to be so narrow in your assessment of the state of our industry that you would ignore the millions of dollars invested by publishers in creating trash imprints? Or how could you ignore the marketing dollars set aside for some authors and not those with a more literary bent? Are you serious in saying that the small stores struggling to keep their doors open have created a multi-million dollar cash cow? -
Posted By:
bklyngirl at 02/12/2008 4:42:23 PM
Comment:
I'm very surprised to read that black bookstores are being blamed for the proliferation of street-lit, while our mainstream competitors and large publishers get a pass. Are you kidding me? Black bookstores are at the bottom of the list of influence in this industry. Big publishers have given millions to create imprints for street-lit and their marketing departments have thrown tens of thousands behind getting these books on their shelves. Most big-box stores and the internet have left a casualty of small-independent bookstores dead in their wake and you have the nerve to blame the little guy. I don't sell street lit in my store and I know many other black-owned stores that have also stopped selling these harmful tomes. As a writer whose books have been on my shelves I'm disappointed that you would join the attack against one of the most important of cultural institutions. -
Posted By:
onmymind at 02/12/2008 4:38:14 PM
Comment:
After years of rejection from the publishing industry, I have finally stumbled upon a discussion of my true dilemma: I don't want to be a street lit writer. "You're too literary," my husband says each time another of my stories is rejected. I've always thought being literary -- not pretensious or unreadable -- was a real writer's goal. While a few of my essays have beern anthologized, my fiction languishes on my computer hard drive. In despair, I've almost succumbed to outside forces and sacrificed my personal desire to write books that will stand-the-test-of-time in favor of getting published. Today, I resurrect my resolve to plod on. Someone once told me that my books will be published after I'm dead. If that's how it has to be, so be it. Thank you Ms. Davis for opening an important discussion. -
Posted By:
joanbiased at 02/12/2008 3:26:21 PM
Comment:
I just want to weigh in here from a library (and hopefully complementary) perspective. Street lit/urban lit can also function as a gateway for youth who otherwise have not enjoyed reading. I have worked with African American youth in both academic and detention settings, and urban novels flew off the library shelves. The act of reading - regardless of content - helps build literacy. If the quality of the literature is low, then it stands to reason that once people begin to develop reading interests, they'll thirst for something more satisfying.
I recognize that this article was written with a focus on booksellers. Just wanted to say that libraries care about access to quality literature too. Black literature survives and thrives in libraries from coast to coast. -
Posted By:
Dolphinfan65 at 02/12/2008 2:16:27 PM
Comment:
It's a sign of the times. Not only has Reading, being dominated, by Black gangster, and the hoes that love them. But, lets be real, people are buying, what we have been told, is exceptable. And sadly enough, it seems like it is mimic-ing. What the reader are hoping will happen, to them. you know, "find the ruff- neck and change him or HER, into something, promissing, even if you should lose them in the end. Sounds fimiliar, join the church, have children, with somebody else and then, you meet again........you get the picture.
Like everything else, we need to stop complaining, and buy books, that first!!!of course entertain, then support other artist, who do the same. One gangster book, isn't bad, but nothing but this type of book is preety bad.
I dated a sister, who only read Murder books, about women, who did bad things to men, who hurt them. LOTS OF THEM!!!. I asked her, why she read them, because I know people who only read certain types of books, because, they just like the style, of writting. I love self help and Science fiction books. She told me: why you ask, scared??? I said nothing else, we broke up a few months later (trust issues).
I believe, you read, what best, reflexs, your inner-self, and of course fun or interesting.
These books, reflex, what(mostly women in the black community) really want, or taught to want about blackmen. White women have there white KNIGHTS, we have GANGSTERS, and other under achievers.
AGAIN, I blame US!!.
They have to eat(writers), just like Beyonc'e, has to show skin, on stage. Mary J Blige, has to sing angry songs about growth, through pain. Pick your poison.
I read Dr. Cornell West, I read, other Black books, like Success runs in our Race, mixed in with books I like.
I don't buy Streets books, because they don't address, any of my true needs as a reader. I like poetry too, but buy the time, I find a black writer, I like, I've probably seen his or her work, soo much, through, other venues, I pass it up.
Like Alicia Keys, love her albums.period, but never brought one or even downloaded one, because, the stations overplayed them.
Tony Morrison, she can, write.......WELL, but not my type of book reading.
Micheal Dyson, smart.Hell brillient, but he dosen't speak to me.
And of course, the miriad of black writers, who are famous, and want you to find out how they got to that point.
Not to mention, the miriad of preachers anbd female ones, who do the same.
My point, by the time, you find a black writer who write about what you like, you have moved on to something new, or a style, that just more appealing.
Street lit, is read buy alot of black women, if they want a new sourse of books, I would suggest, writting a publisher and or complaing about the lack of suitable reading.
THE AGAIN, when they do this, will we support it???? -
Posted By:
dbell at 02/12/2008 12:37:17 PM
Comment:
Thank you so very much for your observation of this growing problem in the literary world. I am an avid reader, and I discovered about two years ago this growing trend towards "street Lit". I feel that the majority of these novels subject matter is trash. The writing is often filled with grammatical errors. I really enjoy real literature. There is definitely a growing problem in the 'dumbing down' of literature. If we are not careful, we will have a whole generation only reading "street Lit". There are so many other literary masterpieces out there that are in danger of being an endangered species. I agree with you on solution to the crisis. To do my part, I will support authors who write with real substance. I will research information about authors before purchasing their works.-
Posted By:
Nubiangyrl at 02/12/2008 8:03:23 PM
Comment:
well said dbell!
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Posted By:
Anaiah at 02/12/2008 11:25:56 AM
Comment:
b/c people overwhelmingly prefer street lit to real literature, i was booted out of my book club ("girl, you always want to read that hard stuff") and have since turned down several requests to join others for fear that my beloved toni morrison (pardon the pun), edward jones, and chinua achebe will fall prey to eric jerome dickey and zane. no offense to dickey and zane, they have their place, but they can't be the main players -- like fast food, these "genres" don't satisfy nearly as long or as well. i'm totally over the harry potter viewpoint that as long as people are reading, it's a good thing. what people are reading matters a great deal as well. -
Posted By:
PAPerry at 02/12/2008 11:07:43 AM
Comment:
Thank you, Bridgett, for taking this on. I am an African-American fiction writer who aspires to the "literary" label. Finding support has been both challenging and discouraging. Black buyers did not support my books in large numbers, and white buyers think that I have nothing to say to them. So while my work has found favor with critics, the books themselves don't have a large audience. Part of this is certainly due to the publisher not knowing how to market me. They were, as you indicated, trying to interpret marketing trends among book buyers, and I didn't fit any hard and fast marketing categories. The people who DO know and support my work, however, are enthusiastic and loyal.
Thanks again. I'll be checking out your Web Site. -
Posted By:
PAPerry at 02/12/2008 11:00:55 AM
Comment:
Thanks a lot, Bridgett, for taking this on. I am an African-American fiction writer who aspires to the "literary" label (and I'm proud of it), and finding support and encouragement for my efforts has been both challenging and discouraging. experience to find support and encouragement. -
Posted By:
anndewiit at 02/12/2008 8:54:42 AM
Comment:
In the publishing industry there is no genre titled "Street Lit." It's dubbed "Street Lit" because the stories are centered on people who are tied somehow to "the streets." Also, not all Urban Fiction/Street Fiction/Hip Hop Fiction authors' novels are written poorly. There is a new author on the scene, Kevin M. Weeks, whose goal is to bridge the gap between Urban Fiction and General Fiction readers. Weeks won a 2007 New York Book Festival Award for his debut novel "The Street Life Series: Is It Suicide or Murder?" His sophomore novel, "The Street Life Series: Is It Passion or Revenge?" just came out in January 2008 and is listed in the Library Journal's first ever Street Lit" Book Review column. For those who enjoy a great mystery novel, check out Weeks' book titled "Is It Passion or Revenge?" The Library Journal column is posted here: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6530172.html?industryid=47118 -
Posted By:
Nubiangyrl at 02/11/2008 10:49:37 PM
Comment:
It's important to develop strong reading habits as a child. A person who was exposed to quality literature as a child will continue to gravitate to quality work as an adult. Check us out at www.permello.org to see what we're doing to address this problem. -
Posted By:
blessinggirl at 02/11/2008 10:28:58 PM
Comment:
Thank you, Ms. Davis. I just fly by the lurid covers. I joyfully purchased and devoured Edwidge Danticat's memoir to her dad and uncle, "Brother, I'm Dying," and snapped up a hardcover Walter Mosely on sale. There's a difference between quality and quantity, as there was when I was growing up. We just need more writers--maybe even me! -
Posted By:
Nubiangyrl at 02/11/2008 8:12:40 PM
Comment:
Check out this site. Looks like they are trying to fill this void early on. If you expose kids to quality books, hopefully as adults they will continue to search out quality literature. www.permello.org -
Posted By:
Jaddadalos at 02/11/2008 6:11:37 PM
Comment:
This is a conversation that needs to take place and I am glad that Davis is bringing attention to it. I am a teacher and have students of a fairly young age that are hooked on these stories and think that adults should be satisfied that they are reading SOMETHING. Outside of school reading requirements, they are not being steered toward stories with diverse plot lines, complex dialogue, and characters that demonstrate diversity among Black people. To be sure, every time I see one of my girls whip out a title, she knows I am going to make her give it to me so I can read the summary. They think I am only concerned about the explicit sex. I try to explain that it is more than that. "What new words are you learning? How is this plot different from the one in the book you brought in last week?" There is clearly room for urban lit and the stories being told within this genre, but the categories and priorities need to be examined if this one-sided view is what is being portrayed as the extent of what "African-American Literature" is. -
Posted By:
Jaddadalos at 02/11/2008 6:11:15 PM
Comment:
This is a conversation that needs to take place and I am glad that Davis is bringing attention to it. I am a high school teacher and have students of a fairly young age that are hooked on these stories and think that adults should be satisfied that they are reading SOMETHING. Outside of school reading requirements, they are not being steered toward stories with diverse plot lines, complex dialogue, and characters that demonstrate diversity among Black people. To be sure, every time I see one of my girls whip out a title, she knows I am going to make her give it to me so I can read the summary. They think I am only concerned about the explicit sex. I try to explain that it is more than that. "What new words are you learning? How is this plot different from the one in the book you brought in last week?" There is clearly room for urban lit and the stories being told within this genre, but the categories and priorities need to be examined if this one-sided view is what is being portrayed as the extent of what "African-American Literature" is. -
Posted By:
tstwine at 02/11/2008 11:59:29 AM
Comment:
Two of my favorite writers seems to drift toward the "street Lit" I have no use for it. If African American authors cant find better subjects of better experience to write about , I feel compelled to purchase books by other authors. If we are going to support each other, offer a product thats worth me spending my money on. I dont need cheap sexual prowess to waste my money and time on. Bring on more Known Worlds. -
Posted By:
nazir ahmad bhat at 02/11/2008 11:07:14 AM
Comment:
i have already commented which has not appeared -
Posted By:
nazir ahmad bhat at 02/11/2008 11:01:12 AM
Comment:
i had an opportunity to gothrough your site "the root"it is an interesting site and has of course some valued writings probably by the authors of the repute.i can understandthat the principal crux of the site is that our black brothern where ever placed can also render valuable services in this world irrespective of their being black.since i am muslim it is quite open that islam does not believe in any kind of discrimination on the basis of creed color; caste or geography.it has universal appeal and any person of emancipating thought can also think in the liberal terms as quoted by me.thus; to define litrature; science; history or any kind of human adventure within the particular sect would mean something good but not very good.i trust my comment may not look hard.thanks.
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