    
Yvettep
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 664
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 15, 2005 - 10:12 pm: | 
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I know this is kinda beating a dead horse, but...
Even within street fiction -- a literary genre written by, for and about African-Americans, defined by its blunt honesty, aggression and flamboyance -- author and publisher Teri Woods stands out as a hard case.
On growing up in a tough neighborhood: "I didn't work until I was 25. I lived with a drug dealer. And that was before crack."
On reparations and reservations: "See, the Indians don't pay taxes. The Indians get checks cut to them every month because their land was stolen from them. We don't get diamonds. De Beers doesn't ship everybody a friggin' diamond."
On her role as a publishing pioneer: "There was no one out here doing what I did. Selling books out of my car. Selling on the streets of New York. Standing under the Apollo sign. If I left a blueprint for other people to follow behind me in independent publishing, then I accept that. Bow down to that shit."
While writers like Woods are beginning to taste mainstream success -- their books are filtering into megastores and some are being courted by major publishing houses -- most street fiction is still moved on actual city sidewalks. The scene in downtown Brooklyn's Fulton Mall echoes that of urban centers all over the United States. Two middle-aged black women work a table of books, attracting passersby. Potential buyers browse the table's 70 or 80 titles as though it were a single rogue aisle escaped from a neighborhood bookstore.
The volumes that line the table six deep and 12 across are assembled from the elemental building blocks of drama: sex, death, conflict, hatred, redemption, forgiveness and betrayal. The Bible, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" sit side-by-side with street fiction titles such as "Harlem Girl Lost," "Block Party," "South Side Dreams" and "Homo Thug," as well as Woods' "Dutch: The First of a Trilogy." The cover is black, dominated by red type that rings out in a hard sans-serif font. Below the title is a photo of a hundred-dollar bill, soaked and spattered by blood.
It's undeniable that this is a genre of work that could be thought of as dangerous, glorifying violence and criminality. Its heroes are often pimps, prostitutes and/or drug dealers; the three things most commonly exchanged by its characters are profanities, gunfire and bodily fluids. And beyond questions of content, others worry about street fiction's creeping acceptance into the black community -- especially in schools. Says Gloria Wade Gayles, an author, professor and teacher of literature at Spelman College in Atlanta, "I don't think we're introducing young people to some of the major African-American writers. It's very, very, very problematic, that urban literature is replacing other literature -- literature that is part of the African-American history of literary accomplishments."
More:
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2005/08/15/street_fiction/index.html
(I think you may have to view an ad in order to get a day pass to the site if you're not already a subscriber. to Salon.com) |
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