Black 'Street' Literature Comes of Age in U.S.

[karyn]

from yahoo

By Diane Bartz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After years in the literary underground, "street lit" -- a sort of hip hop black literature that is often self published and sold on U.S. street corners -- may finally hit the big time.

Street lit stories are rough in every sense -- the language, the violence, the explicit descriptions of sex and the determination of the characters to escape desolate inner city neighborhoods.

Religion, obsession with brand names and explicit struggles between right and wrong play a large role in the books, making them a combination of morality tales, Mario Puzo's most violent Mafia novels and chick-lit shopping fiction.

"It wasn't really a phenomena at first," said Simba Sana, who co-owns the small Karibu book chain in suburban Washington, D.C. "They basically appealed to dudes who were just out of prison."

Sister Souljah's novel "The Coldest Winter Ever" has sold a million copies since it came out five years ago and still sells well. She and writers like Nikki Turner have been picked up by big publishers partially because of loyal women readers.

"What really broke it open was Sister Souljah," said Sana "It was a book about a black girl.... It broke it open for Nikki Turner."

At any given time, seven or eight of Karibu's best-selling paperbacks are street lit novels, said Sana.

But it could go farther. The same middle-class white people who read Ha Jin because of an interest in China or Mario Vargas Llosa to get an inside glimpse of Latin America might read Solomon Jones' gripping "The Bridge" to learn about ghettos in their own city.

Tony Medina, who teaches literature and writing at Howard University, would prefer to see bookstores stock better written books about street life -- works like "Daddy was a Number Runner" by Louise Meriweather or "Down these Mean Streets" by Piri Thomas.

"I come from the projects. I come from the 'hood. It's like any place, you have beauty and ugly side by side. Why celebrate the ugly?" he said. "I think it (street lit) causes a problem. ... It romanticizes hustlers and pimps."

"There's a whole wealth of literature out there that's more challenging, more redemptive," he said. "People are saying, 'At least they're reading.' That's garbage. That's a cop-out."

Malaika Adero, a senior editor at the Atria division of Simon and Schuster which publishes Sister Souljah and four other street-lit authors, disagrees.

"It is a portrayal of what is urban America and what goes on in marginalized societies," she said. "The readers of these books are satisfied to see the world as they know it, to see language as they hear it or speak it. They see characters that they know."


ORIGINS IN THE 1960S

Street lit's fathers were Iceberg Slim, whose real name was Robert Beck, and Donald Goines, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Both had been to prison and wrote about prostitution, drugs and the streets from a first-hand view. Slim's best known book was "Pimp: The Story of My Life" while Goines' most popular book was "Black Girl Lost."

These were authors without creative writing degrees, agents, publishers or appearances on television talk shows. Authors would often pay to have books published, and they would be sold on street corners and out of the back of vans.

Despite the grittiness of Nikki Turner's novels, she was raised by her grandparents to be a good girl. Her background is middle class and conservative.

"Basically I read 'Coldest Winter Ever' by Sister Souljah and when I put that book down there were no more books. At the time, I was a travel agent. I said, 'I'm gonna write a book,"' said Turner, 30. "I was always intrigued by that lifestyle but I couldn't have joined it. My grandparents would have killed me."

Turner's first two books, "A Hustler's Wife" and "A Project Chick," sold a combined total of 150,000 copies, said her manager, Marc Gerald.

Turner has been signed by Ballantine Books as their first street lit writer. Her third book, "The Glamorous Life: A Novel," comes out in April.

Borders bookstores has caught on to the books' popularity and are including street lit writers like Vicky Stringer in their African American fiction along with classics like James Baldwin's "Go Tell It on the Mountain."

Sana seemed frustrated with the quality of some of the books. Four of the most popular novels are riddled with errors. In one, two characters' names are switched after one dies. In all four, slang is sometimes incomprehensible, grammatical errors common, moral characters tend to be made of cardboard and the writing often repetitious. But all are fast-moving and hard to put down.

"It's been good and bad. You got people who are making some money. You have more people reading," said Sana, who said that he would push customers interested in street lit toward Malcolm X. But those same people would never read Toni Morrison, he said. "That's too much of a jump."

[tinstar]

All of these books are huge sellers at my store. Goines and Iceberg Slim are way behind more modern writers like Nikki Turner. Toni Morrison and James Baldwin sell slowly but steadily, and mainly to students, not the average reader. It is a strange thing. I'm not black, so I sort of find it hard to understand why black people would want an African-American Literature section. Most of the books in AA Lit are about gangs, drugs, pimps/hos, all sorts of (as the article put it so politically correctly) "marginalized" people. Is that really supposed to be representative of black people? And if so, should we have a separate African-American Philosophy section? And an African-American Political Science section? And of course, since African-Americans, who belong to marginalized societies such as street gangs, clearly have different medical concerns such as gunshot wounds, overdoses, and unwanted pregnancy, how about an African-American Medical Reference section? And because they are all in street gangs, they don't even need a African-American Career Guides section! Better yet, let's just give them their own bookstore. It could be in the same building as the "regular" store, except with a separate door marked "Colored Entrance!"

Hehe, I dunno, just rambling sarcastically. I know that there are many reasons why black people would want a specific section - use of slang is a big one, as would be any descriptions of sex. It stands to reason that black people would have an appetite for trashy romance novels as much as white people, and that they would want the content to more closely reflect people and attitudes that they identify with.

I guess the question I am asking is, "Is all this 'target marketing' really such a great thing?" The article is dead on regarding the production of these books, as well. They are BADLY edited and shabbily produced compared to even the Mass Market Romance and Mystery sections. Why is it that Baldwin and Morrison and Maya Angelou get "marginalized" by being thrown in with the trashy stuff? Have they not earned their place? Is their writing not equal to that of Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway or even (shudder) Sophie Kinsella (writer of such Literary classics as "Confessions of a Shopaholic")? Is it somehow below Charles Bukowski, Kerouac & Burroughs, Anne Rice, or even good old Henry Rollins, who practically has his own shelf? Does this mean that we will soon see a section of Romance novels that includes Henry Miller and Anais Nin? They write about white people having sex too, right?

Like I said, I know I am giving in to hyperbole, but my reasoning isn't so far from reality. Any thoughts? Any solutions? Any script suggestions for including this topic in the next "Chapelle's Show?"

the valley of death we are free
your father's your prison you see
And I see all the young believers
Your target audience
I see all the old deceivers
we all just sing their song
-Marilyn Manson

[Nudemuse]

I'm really torn on this issue. On one hand I am staunchly against publishing drivel because it's popular. I'm not a huge fan of chick lit and have yet to delve into 'Street' literature and the like.

I understand the want and need for it. Regardless of quality most peopl e like to see books, media, magazines that they can relate to in terms of the things they see, culture etc. Also considering the popularity of all things 'street' it's not an unforseeable move on the part of the mass market publishers.

On the other hand this sort of thing really bothers me. Mainly because it's not as if there aren't already plenty of negative associations to just being black, I can forsee a large group of people deciding how bad black people must be- look at 'their' literature. It's unfortunate but lots of people are sheep and instead of finding out for themselves form their opinions based on television and the things they read in magazines.

Also it bothers me because a lot of these books are just crap. Some mystery person spitting out ebonics and regurgitating every rap song and stereotype they can think of and feeding it to the public. I don't like that. I don't like literature being dragged through the mud in the name of making money.

It's sad to me that so much very good literature is just passed up because it doesn't sell like hotcakes.

As for sectioning off books in the store there are reasons for it to be done.

On the plus side it feels like a smallish victory to see that your (as in relating to you- at least to me) culture is represented. The history, the current events, philosophy etc. I'll give an example that actually happened to me. I went into a fairly large bookstore (nationwide chain) and scoured the American History section for a few books. I went to the help desk to ask for information about Brown V. the Board of Education. Not only did none of the clerks have any idea what I was talking about there was absolutely no information.

I don't feel like explaining what that is for those who don't know (hence the link above) but, that was a major historical and political event. But because it is deemed a black issue, it just wasn't there. I went to three other bookstores and had similar experiences. For that reason I'd love to see sections devoted to black history, philosophy, art, poetry etc.

However, what is more important to me is simple inclusion. I don't care for the sectioning off for each group (black, asian blablabla you get the picture). It's really a matter of representation.

American's in particular are taught from a young age that 'black history' and American history and philosophy are two different things. Books pertaining to black culture is seperate because that is how America has grown to make it.

Look at it this way, America in particular most people are marginalized. A book store is a good example. In most of the book stores I've been in anything having to do with gay people is crammed in one section. Relationship advice books right alongside the erotica. America at large is uncomfortable with supposedly vastly different people coming together.

I believe it's important for people to start purposefully and constantly questioning the unspoken rules of culture. Once people start to understand that in truth they aren't so entirely different from everyone else, the invisible lines between people will start to go away.

I think the solution Tinstar isn't so complicated. Difficult for a lot of people but not complicated. I think once people start showing an interest in each other, in the things that make up cultures outside their own, eventually it won't be necessary to segregate things. I hope, that there comes a point when nobody will have to say African American this, Asian American that. And just be able to say American.

I think it would go a long way towards healing a lot of the hate and misunderstanding in this country.

PS. The site linked above most of the articles are very good resources to read about integration if you don't know much about it.

[Amelia G]

I certainly agree with Nudemuse that it would be nice if more people were interested in people outside of their very limited scope of experience and association.

But sometimes I wish there were a literary term for whatever it is I am, so I could have an easier time hunting for books I want to read. I like some Gary Phillips stuff and Walter Mosley if he counts. But what I like is the marginalized aspect of many of the characters. Kind of the same thing I like about Jay McInerney or William Gibson novels. The characters have the possibility of grasping the brass ring, but they are in some measure disenfranchised and searching. They travel between the mundane and the exotic, the pampered and the dangerous, not wholly belonging to any one arena.

What I enjoy most are certain very specific themes and the way genres are chopped up makes it difficult to search for what I really want to read. Most bookstores don't have a punk lit section and those that do generally only stock Henry Rollins and half a dozen spoken word performers from San Francisco. I feel like Michelle Tea and Tama Janowitz and George Alec Effinger have a lot in common from a literary perspective, but one is likely to be shelved in gay/lesbian and one in chick lit and the last in sf/fantasy, while those genre associations are not at all what speaks to me about their work.

One of the things that actually keeps me from committing to writing a novel instead of short stories is that I don't know where anyone would shelve a novel written about my real life experiences.