Brownstone Books and the Medgar Evers College Center for Black Literature hosted a panel I was on last Thursday. Hosted by Dr. Brenda Greene, the conversation focused on Black women’s writing and current trends in Black literature, including street fiction. Martha Southgate, who was also on the panel, was using the discussion as an opportunity for her to research her ideas for a forthcoming New York Times Book Review essay about the experiences of 40-something Black authors.
I was thinking about the impulse on the part of 1920s – 1930s Harlem Renaissance writers and the writers of the 1960s – 1970s Black Arts Movement to honor the African American literary tradition. Where is this impulse today? How many contemporary authors of color even know about these important 20th century cultural movements, much less studied them? How do we reconcile these issues, this knowledge gap, as writers and readers? I know this debate has been raging for years now… I suppose my weekend travels brought all these issues to mind…
Later last week, on Saturday, I spoke at the African American Literature Conference hosted at the University of Maryland College Park Nyumburu Cultural Center. Zane, along with several authors writing under her imprint, Strebor Books, were also in attendance.
I was happy to hear Sister Zane, whom I’d never met before, discussing her attention to story. In fact, she said that during the writing process she first develops the story and inserts the racy sex scenes she has become famous for later. For her, she said, story is most important. I’ve never read her books, but I was happy to hear this sister focus on craft in her presentation. Later, on another panel, she talked about how much she demands from the authors on her list. She said she expects her authors to grow and improve their work from book to book.
I’m not sure folk are thinking about Zane when they talk about street fiction; it seems her genre fiction is somewhat separate from the urban-focused work being mass produced today. I wish more street fiction writers, those who wish to emulate her success, would also emulate her attention to story.
Can we build a bridge between literary fiction and street fiction? Should we even bother? After all, are sales of street fiction still rising, or has the trend started to decline? Will the marketplace, the readership that fueled the surge in urban fiction, also eventually lose interest in poorly written narratives and drive its slow death?
My most urgent questions are these: What will be the legacy of what Kevin Powell calls The New Word Movement of the 1990s -2000s? What tradition will our literary descendants, the ones who come a generation or two from now, have to honor? What will be our gift to them?
Comment(s)
Professor Ulen,
I must say that I am glad that you mentioned this. I thought that perhaps I was being ignorant in thinking and feeling that a lot of today’s black writers are NOT honoring the legacy that our fathers and mothers have left for us.And perhaps that these authors aren’t weighty. It’s funny though, because as an artist, there is still the concern of catering to the masses, and also you only write about what you know.
But like you said, how many of these writers have actually studied the black cultural movements of 20th Century? I myself have even felt ignorant sometimes when if haven’t read a title by Langston Hughes or Zora Neale Hurston and others.
A lot of this street fiction depicts these young women who find themselves in compromising situations and they usually end up falling in love with a man that doesn’t deserve them. And that man is usually involved with some altercation with the law, one way or another.
I guess what makes the street fiction such a turn off to many readers and other writers is that although the author acknowledges the suffering and the trials and tribulations their character faces, the author has them wallowing in all this DRAMA. Everyone has DRAMA, but these stories aren’t compelling. There really isn’t a developed story. On the surface, it could reflect the hardships some blacks and other people of color have to face. But these books don’t challenge the reader, to read deeper. To think. To analyze. Even that rare occasion while you’re washing dishes and the significance of a detail finally comes to you. It doesn’t come. They are entertaining, but are these books written to soothe the soul? Or even to stir it? Do they feed the mind? Or even break the heart? Maybe. But the greater majority don’t provide an invaluable lesson for the reader and ask them to reflect on themselves. Because we all know that a good book or movie usually makes you look at how you fit into all of it, how you would react in a situation like that. We subconsciously identify with characters that are fighting to find their authentic selves, because all people of color have been stripped of that true and unadulterated identity. We identify with characters that fight for acceptance, because we all have taught by this patriarchal society that we can never be good enough.
Some of the stories presented in these street fiction novels are valid…we all know that there are people living in the world today that do depend on illegal substances in order to make it through the day. There are people that break the law in order to survive. But, in total agreement with what you said, there has got to be more that we can offer the next generation of children, readers and authors to reflect on. There has to.
Comment(s)
As I travel around promoting Crystelle Mourning, I often hear folk who are hungry to read literary Black fiction. Unfortunately, they often don’t know what authors to look for. Here are some contemporary, younger U.S. writers who do honor the tradition, and the craft, of Black books. Some are more literary, others are doing genre fiction, and you should try to check out all of them:
Tayari Jones
Bridgett Davis
Martha Southgate
Nelly Rosario
Edwidge Danticat
Marie-Elena John
Erica Simone Turnipseed
Jeffery Renard Allen
Calvin Baker
Colson Whitehead
Carl Hancock Rux
Colin Channer
Michael Thomas
Chris Chambers.
Comment(s)
Zuhairah, you are absolutely right. I think we would have to add names like Danyel Smith to the list. She’s the surrent EIC of Vibe and Vibe Vixen and the auhor of two novels. Indeed, Gwen Pough and Elaine Brown recently co-edited the Hip Hop Anthology Homegirls Make Some Noise, which I contributed to. Gwen teaches Hip Hop at Syracuse and also authors romance novels.
Hip Hop perpetuated the cultural legacy of our ancestors; and, in this turn-of-the-millennium era, provided the opportunites for writers, who in ancient times might have been called Griots, to work as journalists, essayists, and fiction writers. Frankly, I don’t know how most of us would eat without Hip Hop, as it helped create the new entrepreneurs, who provided new opportunities, which allowed us to earn a living doing our writerly thing.
God Bless the Drum.