Tonight I'm going to take part in the First Person Arts Festival here in Philadelphia. The festival and the organization is all about celebrating memoirs and documentaries, which is so right up my alley. Rather than doing a straight reading from my book, Kinky Gazpacho:Life, Love & Spain, I think I'm going to use my fifteen minutes of fame to talk about the variations of Black Identity in America, because really that's what I tried to do with my memoir. I wanted to show the world that Black people come in all different flavors and combos and yet, we're all authentically Black.
When I come home after the festival, I'm going to pack my suitcase because tomorrow morning I'm off to Miami to participate in the famous Miami Book Fair. This book fair is purported to be one of the nation's largest and attracts a large international, mostly Hispanic, audience. I am so excited to see how this crowd engages with my story.
One time I gave a reading in New York City and a man from Barcelona was offended because he thought I implied that Spanish men think all Black women are whores. The conversation got a little dicey but I really appreciated hearing his opinion. In Washington, DC a Black woman from Venezuela, married to a Black American man, practically had tears in her eyes when she came up to me to tell me how much my life mirrored her own growing up as a chica de color in Venezuela. I love hearing these stories and hope to hear more when I get to Miami.
Here's to everyone having a very Kinky weekend!
Peace/Paz!
3 comments:
Looking forward to hearing how your readings went.
Carleen,
Fantabulous. Miami Book Fair by far the best book fair I've been to this year. Of course the 80 degree weather helped seal the deal!
I hope you had fun at the First Person Festival! It was great to hear you read and talk about your experiences abroad. You turned out a great crowd. I hope you were happy with it!
Andrew
Post a Comment