FUNNY Notes: First Stop on the FUNNY Tour - HueMan Bookstore, Harlem

Reading at HueMan, or eating something, I dunno. Photo by Bernard Tarver, 2004.

Well. Monday night was a hoot and half. 5:45 pm: I sauntered over to HueMan Bookstore, which is about five minutes from my house, and was greeted by the wonderful Christopher David, and the irrepressible Bernie Tarver. This fellow named Ajamu (who I think was initially responsible for setting up the panel) and I talk about the evening's activities. It’s all yours, he says, and I am like, cool. The program started a tad late. I introduced Laurence Pinkney, Executive Director of Black Pride NYC, and he greeted everyone, and gave an overview of Black Pride NYC’s activities. Check out their webpage for a full description of the programs, most of which are free. Just as I began to talk about the program, the bookstore’s co-owner and manager, Clara Villarosa, interrupted me to make a spiel about the bookstore, and darts off to await the next time she can interject herself into the evening’s reading.

Christopher David was the first writer to speak, and he offered some background about how he came to writing, and shares a bit of his first novel, I’m On My Way. Follwing him was activist, writer and performer, Imani Henry, treats the audience to a snippet of her new joint, Living in the Light, a multimedia piece that examines the effects of the Transatlantic Slave Trade on Caribbean people of African descent. Both writers were eloquent and humble, and were well-received. As I readied myself to share a little of FUNNY with the audience, guess which Ms had something to say (why, its Ms Villarosa!). She explained to the audience that there was a mix-up in the programming an dthat we have to close in ten minutes (just after she tells Ajamu that we have to close in ten minutes, who tells me, which means I have to cut my reading in half). She scheduled the reading for 6-8pm, and “they” scheduled the reading from 7-9pm. Oooo-kay. I volunteer to simply read my table of contents, which drew giggles, but then, really, I swear, Ms Villarosa came barreling back over to talk again, and really, by this time I am growing impatient. You see, Bill Clinton’s got everybody losing their fucking minds (he appears at HueMan at tomorrow to sign his book), and since we panelists were never president, we were treated like an impediments, and promptly shuffled off the stage. Clinton’s gonna make this sister some cash. I could actually see $$$ spinning in her cataracts.

I’m like, geez lady, let me read, damn. So I do. I frame this reading with quotes from Lorraine Hansberry and Malidoma Patrice Some.

I quoted one of Hansberry's characters, from the last play she produced before she died, The Sign in Sidney Brunstein’s Window because I live these words:

I am a fool who believes that death is waste and love is sweet and that the earth turns and men change every day and that rivers run and that people want to be better than they are, and that flowers smell good, and that I hurt terribly today, but that hurt is desperation and desperation is energy—and energy can move things.

Malidoma Patrice Some’s seminal work Of Water and the Spirit, offers these poignant lines:

“As long as we are not ourselves, we will try to be what other people are. The problems I had became resolved as I entered into my own true nature.”

These two quotes encircled my consciousness prior to the reading, and I decided to share those thoughts with the audience before I launched into my own work. I am glad I did.

After I read the introduction to FUNNY, I felt a rush of love. What an experience that was. I felt connected to the audience. I think that they knew what I was trying to communicate. What a feeling. As we closed the panel, folks milled about and I head outside because that is where I can sell my books (Note: HueMan wouldn’t sell FUNNY. Said it was too late to have my title stocked. To be fair, my books were delivered last week, and there was a slight mix up with one of the organizers in connecting with the manager of the store.)

Me outside the bookstore signing books and trying to remember how to spell my own name. Fuller? Foward? Full of shit? Photo by Bernard Tarver, 2004.

While I was signing and selling books and laughing and feeling quite excited and humbled and blessed and giddy, one of HueMan’s employees comes out and tells me that they want to sell my book. Come in, she said. I told her, sure, okay, I’ll be in a minute. Let me explain this to you so you know what HueMan was asking me to do: walk back in the store that just threw us all out, and give us 40% of your net profit. You already know what I did.

After the reading, a few of us Harlemites, Philippe, Donald, Niki and I went to eat and talk about the night’s activities, black people and international politics. There is this cute little restaurant named DEN, which happens to be right down the street from my house. Aside from all of the snobs, jerks and entertainment types hanging about, the place was beautiful and the food was decent. I got a little schnopped and luckily for me the apartment was only a stumbling, crooked walk up the way.

Stay tuned from more tales from the road….

Tuesday, June 22, 2004 @ 08:58 AM