It could have rained on the parade throughout Whole Fairness Now’s (TEN’s) eleventh Annual Literacy Throughout Harlem March on Saturday, Oct. 7, however greater than 60 intergenerational, literacy-loving group members carried Ziploc-bag-covered books by the streets of Harlem to advertise studying and writing, present their enthusiasm for Black and brown literature, and share TEN’s imaginative and prescient of common literacy.
The occasion started with separate pre-march rallies hosted by El Museo del Barrio on the East Facet and Sister’s Uptown Bookstore & Cultural Middle on the West Facet. El Museo del Barrio educator Edwin Gonzalez highlighted the museum’s origins and its longstanding dedication to instructional programming as an accessible car for visible and literary arts. Sister’s Uptown president and founder Janifer Wilson, who opened her bookstore 23 years in the past, spoke about her imaginative and prescient for her retailer and the importance of the march.
“We’re a folks, Black and Brown folks particularly, of tales. A few of these tales we share within the written phrase and a few of them we’ve got shared by our oral traditions, “ mentioned TEN Founder and Government Director Joe Rogers, who kicked off the occasion with a livestream from Marcus Garvey Park’s amphitheater. “Every one in all these raindrops, to me, represents a strong story of our historical past, of our tradition, of our future, of our imaginative and prescient for what we all know and anticipate our group will grow to be and what we’re constructing right here right this moment by the Literacy Throughout Harlem March.”
TEN dedicates annually’s march to the reminiscence of Harlem literary superstars Pura Belpré, an Afro-Puerto Rican writer and storyteller who served because the New York Public Library’s first Latina librarian, and New York Occasions bestselling writer Walter Dean Myers, raised in Harlem and recognized for penning greater than 100 youngsters’s and young-adult books, many set in Harlem.
TEN leaders guided two teams of marchers—one on the East Facet and one on the West Facet—to inspiring literary landmarks, together with author and social activist Langston Hughes’s home on 127th Road; P.S. 24, the elementary college attended by author James Baldwin, which right this moment homes Harlem Renaissance Excessive College; the Aguilar Library, the place Belpré labored; and the First Spanish United Methodist Church, also referred to as “the Individuals’s Church,” a historic landmark featured in The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano, the East Harlem-centered coming-of-age novel by Sonia Manzano, who was recognized for taking part in the function of “Maria” on Sesame Road.
The march additionally included particular stops on the Schomburg Middle for Analysis in Black Tradition and the Middle for Puerto Rican Research.
The occasion culminated with the marching teams getting into Marcus Garvey Park from reverse sides, harmonizing their reading-related chants, and carrying gift-quality books to donate to youngsters in Harlem-based homeless shelters. TEN volunteer and educator Oceana James poured libations as she inspired contributors to name out the names of Black and brown literary ancestors. Neighborhood members loved listening to 3 poets: 16-year-old Chassidy Lucas of the Brotherhood Sister Sol; filmmaker, writer, and media entrepreneur Kimberly Singleton, who learn an excerpt from her 2023 book-length poem I Love My Individuals; and nine-year previous New York State poet laureate Kayden Hern, the youngest member of the Harlem Bomb Shelter. Individuals additionally performed literacy trivia video games and broke into intergenerational studying circles to learn to one another from the books they carried alongside the march route.
