This Saturday, September 7, marks the 26th anniversary of the Harlem Book Fair, the United States’ most famous African-American book festival. Held every year in the Harlem neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City, New York, the book fair gathers Black authors, publishers, artists, and more and attracts thousands of readers in a celebration of African-American literature and the long literary history of Harlem.
This year’s event is especially important because it marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement within the city that made many Black authors, artists, musicians, and other creators cultural icons whose legacies are still felt today. Let’s dive into the history of the Harlem Renaissance and the Harlem Book Fair and look at the literary wonders this year’s event will bring.
The Harlem Renaissance
The major cultural and creative movement known as the Harlem Renaissance resulted in part from the Great Migration. Between the end of the Civil War and the 1940s, millions of African Americans moving from the South to industrial cities all across the North to escape oppressive Jim Crow laws and seek economic opportunities. Over 175,000 African Americans moved to Harlem by the time the 1900s began, making the neighborhood the place with the highest concentration of Black people anywhere in the world.
Harlem attracted African-Americans from all backgrounds, from unskilled laborers to scholars to artists in every medium. The artists responsible for the Harlem Renaissance, which lasted from the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression, shared some common goals in their creative works. They wanted their art to accurately represent what it meant to be Black in the United States, they wanted to push more strongly for African-American civil and political rights, and they wanted to turn social disillusionment about the country’s terrible treatment of Black citizens into pride for their race.
On the literary front, the Harlem Renaissance produced some of the most famous Black writers of both their time and today, including poet Langston Hughes, novelist Zora Neale Hurston, and essayist W.E.B. DuBois. In their works, these three and other writers challenged long-held stereotypes about Black people and instead showed the truth and value of Black experiences. Though the Harlem Renaissance ended mostly due to the Great Depression, its legacy and influence stretched far beyond the 1920s.
The History Of The Harlem Book Fair
Decades after the Harlem Renaissance ended, Max Rodriguez, an avid reader, was well aware that the book industry was underserving both Black authors and Black readers. In an interview with New York Amsterdam News this August, Rodriguez explained that in 1996, he started the Quarterly Black Book Review, which focuses on “writers and stories written about the Diaspora experience,” after seeing that major book review publications like The New York Times Book Review rarely covered “books that looked like me.”
Likewise, when Rodriguez moved to Harlem, he realized to his surprise that despite the neighborhood’s rich Black literary history, there was no festival that celebrated the great writers of the Harlem Renaissance or the Black writers and stories of today. Once again inspired to correct this, Rodriguez founded the Harlem Book Fair in July 1998. Both Rodriguez and Yona Deshommes, the co-producer of 2024’s event, say that one of the event’s goals is to continue the Harlem Renaissance’s legacy of “bringing literature and culture to the Harlem community.” The fair also aims to connect Black authors to traditional publishers and Black readers so they can share personally and culturally resonant stories to wider audiences.
In the 25 years the event has been running, the book fair has featured a wide range of events designed to celebrate Black literary culture and connect Black authors with publishers and readers to share their stories. The event regularly includes live readings from celebrity authors and panels about the state of Black publishing; music and entertainment; and vendors and exhibitors of African-American food, arts & crafts, books, and more.
This Year’s Harlem Book Fair
This year’s Harlem Book Fair will take place on Saturday, September 7, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. State Building Plaza at 163 W. 125th St. in Harlem. As 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance, this year’s theme will be Literary Rɛvəˈluʃən (spelling revolution phonetically as a sign of “cultural and creative resilience”), focusing on what makes reading and literature revolutionary, both at the time of the Harlem Renaissance and today.
The panel discussions will include one on the revolutionary nature of Black history with authors Mike Africa, Jr. and Kellie Carter Jackson; one about revolutionary calls to action with author Ijeoma Oluo, journalist and podcaster Reagan Jackson, and ABC News contributor Brian Buckmire; and one on memoirs with authors Jonathan Conyers and Karen Taylor Bass and CNN political analyst Natasha S. Alford. The fair will also feature established authors like Roxane Gay, Ibi Ziboi, and Edwidge Danticat and up-and-coming authors like Mildred Antenor, Francesca Momplaisir, and Dr. Solanges Viven.
For the first time, the Harlem Book Fair is pairing with the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute to highlight Haiti’s rich literary and artistic traditions. Fittingly given the theme of revolution, Haiti was the site of history’s most successful slave rebellion, leading to the end of French colonial rule and the establishment of the Haitian Republic. The fair will feature Haitian authors like Danticat, books by Haitian literary authors and thought leaders, and an exhibit of Haitian art called “Lakay Se Lakay,” meaning “Home is Home.” The presence of Haitian authors and Haitian literature will fulfill another of Rodriguez’s goals for the fair: to highlight the voices of Black diasporic authors from all over the world.
Final Thoughts
Just as the Harlem Renaissance represented an explosion of African-American creative output in the 1920s, the Harlem Book Fair has been spreading the word about great Black authors speaking about real and resonant Black experiences for the past 26 years. This year’s Harlem Book Fair looks to continue that tradition wonderfully, especially with the addition of Haitian authors, artists, and works. If you’re interested in great literature by Black authors, it’s worth checking out the Harlem Book Fair at least once if you’re in Harlem or making a donation to the organization to help them continue building and supporting a vibrant community of readers and writers.
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