Miami Book Fair shines with many famous black authors

Black authors, including popular novelist Walter Mosley, Miami-based Haitian author Edwidge Danticat and Pulitzer Prize journalist Eugene Robinson will be appearing at the upcoming Miami Book Fair International.

Celebrating its 27th anniversary, the fair begins Sunday, Nov. 14 and goes through Nov. 21 at the Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami.

Fort Lauderdale resident Milca Esdaille, 50, a former board member of the Harlem Book Fair, applauded the Miami book fair for its inclusion of black authors.

“This is my favorite event in Miami,” said Esdaille, who attended a recent community event that presented the highlights of this year’s festival. “Anytime I get to see authors that I am curious about or follow is inspiring.”

Black authors, representing prominent and bourgeoning writers from the United States, Caribbean and Africa, appear throughout the weeklong festival of author presentations, panel discussions and events for children and teens.

“I get to see Latino and Dominican authors; it’s incredible,” Esdaille said.

“The strength of Miami’s community is its diversity,” said Mitchell Kaplan, founder of Books & Books and the Miami Book Fair International. Kaplan, who also serves as the book fair’s chairman, organized the Nov. 4 book fair preview held at Books & Books in Coral Gables.

“The Miami Book Fair has something for everyone,” he added. “And the beautiful thing about it is seeing the Miami community come together to experience literature.”

Book fair events of interest to black audiences begin at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 15, with a live telecast of hip-hop icon Jay-Z in conversation with Princeton professor and author Cornel West. The discussion will focus on Jay-Z’s first book, Decoded, which offers a firsthand account of the 10-time Grammy Award winner. The free event will be streamed from the New York Public Library. Book fair audiences can see the discussion in the auditorium, Building 1, Second Floor, Room 1261.

On Thursday, Robinson of the Washington Post is a featured speaker in the book fair’s “An Evening With…” series. His newest book, Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America, explores 140 years of black history in America and discusses the current bifurcation of black America community into four distinct groups: a small elite, an abandoned minority, a mainstream middle-class majority and an emerging group of immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean. His presentation begins at 6 p.m. in the Chapman Conference Center, Building 3, Second Floor, Room 3210. Cost is $10.

Several workshops and panels will be Saturday, Nov. 20, including a presentation by Mosley, who has authored more than 30 books, most of which are crime fiction accounts of Easy Rawlins, the black private investigator. Mosley’s latest novel, The Last Days of Ptolemy Gray, centers on the life of a 91-year-old man forgotten by his loved ones and suffering from dementia. The presentation begins at 10 a.m. in the auditorium, Building 1, Second Floor, Room 1261.

A panel on Caribbean authors include Michele Voltair Marcelin, Lost and Found; Ruth-Miriam Garnett, Chole’s Grief; Diana McCaulay, Dog-Heart; and Mervyn Talylor, No Back Door. The presentation takes place at 10:30 a.m., Building 3, Third Floor, Room 3314.

The panel continues with a new set of authors from Trinidad, including Merle Hodge, For the Life of Laetiatia; Lasana Kwesi, Poems of Rebellion; Raoul Pantin, Days of Wrath; and Earl Lovelace, Is’ Just a Movie. Journalist Winston Maynard moderates the panel, which begins at 11:30 a.m. in Building 3, Third Floor, Room 3314.

A panel of African authors will be presenting “Stories of the African Diaspora.” The panel is framed around the history of three African nations as presented in their literature. Authors are Chenjeral Hove of Zimbabwe, who wrote Miami: A City of Refuge; Okey Ndibe of Nigeria, whose work is Arrows of Rain; and Doreen Baingana of Uganda, who authored Tropical Fish: Stories from Entebbe. The presentation begins at 2 p.m. in Building 3, Third Floor, Room 3315.

Haitian author Edwidge Danticat will present her latest book, Create Dangerously: Immigrant Artists at Work. Her presentatation is with Kenyan Ngugi Wa Thiongo, author of Dreams in a Time of War; and Cuban Carlos Eire, author of Learning to Die in Miami. The presentation takes place at 3:30 p.m., Building 3, Second Floor, Chapman Room 3210.

On Sunday, Danticat, along with authors M.J. Fievre, Mark Kurlansky and Les Standiford will host the panel discussion, “Haiti Noir,” a compilation of stories written by Haitians in the aftermath of the January earthquake. The panel convenes 2 p.m. in the Presentation Pavilion A at Northeast Third Street and First Avenue.

The Miami Book Fair International also has something for children. In the Happily Ever After Stage in the Children’s Alley, storyteller Gerald Hausman will be narrating Caribbean, Native American and old Florida tales. Hausman is the author of Drum Talk, a collection of Jamaican tales, songs and music. Along with Cedella Marley, Hausman has put together a collection of Bob Marley’s sayings and poems in 56 Thoughts from 56 Hope Road. The event is 10:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 19; 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20; and 2:15 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 21) in the Children’s Alley.

For young adults and teens, Tigertail Productions presents “WordSpeak,” a spoken word presentation. WordSpeak is an ongoing spoken word project for teens, which includes workshops in writing and performing, and public events such as open mikes, poetry slams and readings. The program begins at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 20, at the Teen Student Life Patio Stage, Building 2, First Floor, at the corner of First Avenue and Kyrakides Plaza.