Leimert Park Book Fair Celebrates What's Good About Black L.A.

Harmony Bailey, 5, sings along to a children’s song performed for youngsters.

Oscar winner Lou Gossett Jr. is among the celebrities and authors on hand at the fair, which featured fiction, nonfiction, poetry and children's literature by 150 African American writers.

By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times

Strolling down an aisle with hands clasped behind his back at the fourth annual Leimert Park Village Book Fair, Otis Wright noticed significant changes in the event as it unfolded Saturday in a neighborhood known as the cultural heartbeat of black Los Angeles.

Like similar literary festivals across the nation, the fair featured fiction, nonfiction, poetry and children's literature by 150 African American writers, as well as readings, panel discussions and performances by singers, including a Lena Horne impersonator. The thousands of visitors who turned out had plenty of opportunities to meet authors and celebrities such as Oscar winner Lou Gossett Jr.

But Wright, 72, a real estate broker and minister who has lived in the Leimert Park Village area for 55 years, was particularly pleased by what he described as "progress: more people, a younger crowd this year, and lots more children. I like that."

Nearby, 9-year-year-old Jada Salazar was exploring rows of long tables where dozens of independent authors were showing off their self-published efforts.

"It's so inspiring that as soon as I get home I am going to write something about it," said Salazar, vice president of the student body at Saturn Street Elementary School in Los Angeles. "I'm going to write about all the authors selling books and the people singing on stage."

The festival was founded in 2007 by Cynthia E. Exum and Associates in partnership with Los Angeles Councilman Bernard C. Parks, whose district includes the southwest Los Angeles neighborhood rich with Art Deco apartments and office buildings, Afrocentric boutiques and shops such as Eso Won Books.

In a kick-off activity Saturday, Parks presided over the unveiling of a 44-cent U.S. postage stamp honoring Oscar Micheaux, the son of former slaves who went on to write, produce and direct 44 feature-length films between 1919 and 1948.

"This festival can be appreciated on many levels," Parks said. "It is a celebration of the written word and presents role models from famous actors to little-known artists just starting to make their mark. It is also an economic stimulus because the crowds of book-lovers spill over into local shops and restaurants — and it's getting bigger."

Invited authors included Dr. Scot Brown, author of "Fighting for US: Maulana Karenga, the US Organization, and Black Cultural Nationalism," Douglas A. Blackmon, author of "Slavery by Another Name," and fashion consultant Daisy Lewellyn, author of "In Style with the Queen of Effortless Chic."

On a panel about a collection of scholarly essays titled "Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial Realities," Paul Robinson, director of the Medical Geographic Information Systems Laboratory at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, presented a history of Los Angeles from its founding in 1781 by Spaniards of mostly African descent to the first decade of the 2000s, a time when the cultural fabric of American-born blacks is being challenged by new immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa.

These new immigrants share the same living spaces, he said, but have different cultural backgrounds and social identities.

Leimert Park is a microcosm of those changes. Developed in the late 1920s, the neighborhood was restricted to whites and known for its golf courses and several airstrips. Howard Hughes learned to fly there. The area began attracting African American musicians and artists in the wake of the 1965 Watts riots.

The Leimert Park Village shopping district features Jamaican shops and restaurants and Southern-style eateries offering live jazz music. The bustling neighborhood surrounding the intersection of West 43rd Place and Degnan Boulevard celebrates Kwanzaa and Christmas and is the last stop on the annual parade honoring Martin Luther King Jr.


Noted philanthropists Bernard and Shirley Kinsey, whose extensive collection of art, books and manuscripts chronicle the African American experience from 1632 to the present, know the area well.

They are coauthors of "The Kinsey Collection," a 155-page coffee-table edition that Bernard Kinsey said "is more about the African American experience in terms of 'How we overcame' than 'Isn't it awful?' "

Surveying the passersby, many of them with children in tow, Kinsey smiled and said, "I love what I see here today. This is the soul of the African American experience in Los Angeles. We are privileged to be a part of it."

The Smithsonian Institute: October 15, 2010 - May 1, 2011 in Washington, DC

With items dating to 1632, The Kinsey Collection exhibition will spotlight moments in African American history through rare books, sculptures, paintings, manuscripts and vintage photographs. Among the featured art will be works by such major African American artists as Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Artis Lane, Jacob Lawrence, and Henry O. Tanner. From rare slave holder documents to glimpses into private 18th- and 19th-century lives, The Kinsey Collection reflects the richness of the African American experience.

Organized by the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Technology Has Already Changed How We Pay Bills, Read, Watch TV And Listen To Music - Are You Scared Yet???

THE FUTURE - RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!

Stop fighting the Internet black people, resistance is futile. Digital efficiency is the new world order, so bragging about how you are not computer savvy, or how you don't "do" email or social networking just confirms your stupidity. Don't believe us?

Well, what we've listed a few things for you to consider - under the hood.

1. The Post Office: Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

2. The Check: Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the check.

This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business.

3. The Newspaper: The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man.

As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.

4. The Book: You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music.

The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. The price is less than half that of a real book. And, think of the convenience once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book; you find that you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a book.

5. The Land Line Telephone: Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes.

6. Music: This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who like to hear it.

Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalog items," meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with; older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit.

To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary "Before the Music Dies."

7. Television: Revenues to the networks are down dramatically; not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV.

Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing. Commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix, or pay a dollar and rent from Redbox.

8. The "Things" That You Own: Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services." That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system.

So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device.

That's the good news. But, will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?" Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.

9. Privacy: If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. It's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. You can be sure that 24/7 "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google "Street View".

If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits. And "They" will try to get you to buy something else: again and again.

All we will have that can't be changed are Memories.

Leimert Park Book Festival Coming Saturday June 26th

The Kinsey Collection - A Family Affair!

The Kinsey Collection: Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey, Where Art and History Intersect will be one of the many books that will be autographed and available for purchase this weekend in Los Angeles at the Leimert Park Book Festival.

This event runs from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday June 26 and admission is free. With all activities open to the public, it promises to be a great event for the entire family!

The Kinsey Collection Comes To The LA Times Festival of Books Event at UCLA April 24-25

Philanthropists Bernard and Shirley Pooler Kinsey continue to spread their message of the importance of Black art, culture and historical document in a new book The Kinsey Collection: Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey, Where Art and History Intersect. Get all the details under the hood.

The 155-page gem is a wonderful coffee table book that showcases the couple's incredible art collection, reflecting a rich cultural and historical heritage that the Kinseys are preserving for future generations. It includes works by African American artists such as Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Sam Gilliam, and Jacob Lawrence, as well as documents and artifacts related to figures such as Frederick Douglas, Phillis Wheatley, Alain Locke, and many others.

As the Kinseys prepare for their showing at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC later this year, they are making personal appearances and autographing their book to throngs of art enthusiasts all over the country. According to Bernard, "It has been nothing but a labor of love."

All proceeds are going to the The Kinsey Foundation, to promote the teaching of African American history through art in education systems across the nation.

Sharing a booth with the Huntington Libray, the book will be available for purchase April 24-25 at UCLA for the annual LA Times Festival of Books event. The booth is #342 on the main quad between Royce Hall and Powell Library.

The Kinsey have developed quite a following on Facebook with hopes that individuals from around the world will be exposed to these phenomenal works.

They both look forward to seeing you there.

IS MY SISTER AN UNDERCOVER HATER... SIBLING RIVALRY

The publishing world was shocked to learn that the gang-life memoir “Love and Consequences” was a fake. But even more startling was how that came to light.
The author, Margaret Seltzer, was exposed by her own sister.
While it isn’t clear why Ms. Seltzer’s older sister, Cyndi Hoffman, took on the role of whistleblower (neither sister returned phone calls), the incident throws a spotlight on society’s conflicted expectations of sisterhood. Even while criticizing Ms. Seltzer for her fabrication, some blog writers turned their ire on Ms. Hoffman, calling her a “tattletale” and speculating that she must have been jealous of her sister’s success.

“People were almost as fascinated by the fact that it was her sister as they were with the whole story,” said Marcia Millman, a sociology professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the author of “The Perfect Sister: What Draws Us Together, What Drives Us Apart.”

“We have powerful expectations of loyalty from a sister,” she added. “But along with the idealized image of sisters, that they are always close, there is a stereotype that sisters are very competitive. It’s the two extremes.”
Read the rest of the story, see Tara Parker Pope THE NEW YORK TIMES