I Read to See Me

called I Read to See Me. It was a community event then focused on multicultural children books and I got a chance to stomp the ground and talk to so many wonderful authors that attended the event. I also was able to talk to the producer of the event as of as the host, the Cown State University Dean Dr Julianna Marvel, and she put on this event in conjunction with all the ethnic study departments to bring a multi culture event card I Read to See Me because representation matters.

So I'm gonna bring that inspiring conversation with so many different authors as well as the producer and director. Now I'm gonna spread it out over the next two weeks. Also, ain't continuation of the Bomber Shop talk that I started last week. I'm bringing part two of that conversation because it was a very very lefty conversation, but yet very timely, and these brothers had a lot to say, and they spoke in mind. And when I'm interviewing, I'll let you

speak your mind. I'll let you bring your thoughts. I'm not here to um debate you on your position. I just want to year your position. You know. That's what this is all about. It's a dialogue, you know, not a monologue. So I'm here to help other authors speak their truth and so forth. There are times when I speak my truth and what I think. But so, hey, so enjoy this episode. And it's called I Read to

see Me. Okay, I'm with the professor here at Kyle St. L A. The person hosting this event here at cow State l A. Julie and mart vote right, Dr Julian Man of the College of Ethnic Studies here at caw say l A. So, this is a project of the College of Ethnic Studies. We have three departments reporting to us. I have Pan African Studies, to Kindo Latina Studies, and Asian Asian American Studies. And so the purpose of doing a multicultural book fair was again all my departments together

to work on what we have in common. Young people's litter and seen absolutely and this is a wonderful simply of authors. Then I'm witnessing the day and on this podcast you're gonna hear a lot of them because I've been on the stump interviewing them. But I got the dean, the director, the host, so you know, speak on what you hope to accomplish from such an event like this. There are three things that I wanted to do. Number one, I wanted to have more visibility for the College of

Ethnic Seties were only two years old. I'm the inaugural dan. I'm the first dean that started in June of one, so I want people to know about us. Number Two, I want young people to know about us when we talk about education. You know, we often talk about the number of young people who don't go to college. But if we expose of the college, when there's five, six, seven, you see the little ones running around, they go, they go,

I want to go back there. And so even though we're playing to see that might not blossom for ten twelve years, we still want to plant the seed. And if they don't come to say that we want them to go somewhere to somebody's college. And then third, our multicultural authors are important and need to be lifted up

and recognized, and that's why we invited so many. We actually also, as you know, giving out free two books to the first young people who come and they can pick their book based on their age, and they can pick there, but we got a whole table books there for them to pick. So it was really visibility for the college, basically intersectionality and visibility for our authors. How important is representation? Representation is everything? I think back, you know,

I'm of a certain age. Um. Actually, I ain't shy. I turned sixty nine on September twenty two. I tell it because I don't look at. If I looked at I wouldn't tell it. But but but I remember back to elementary school where we didn't have representation. I remember the fifth grade history class where they had two act people in the book Um. One looked like she had escaped from a bunch of mama's box and the other would look like Uncle Ben and uh, the teacher had

the nervo to talk about happy slaves. Um. Blessedly, my parents were both educators, and I read everything we had the house. UM My mom recently passed and I inherited her five thousand books. I have to figure out what to do with all of them. But representation is critical and this I think here's I read to see me. When a young person sees a book that reflects them, it incites them, it inspires them to that I can

do this too. And so representation is so important, always saying when you look at when a person look at the picture, the first thing they look for is themselves exactly, you know. And I think our young people want to be reinforced in their presence in the world. And that's why we're here, and we appreciate all you know. Now, just you've been activists for quite some time, oh your whole life, and you've written some books. Yeah, so tell

us about your landmark book. I believe it's called well, I have several, but my favorite book love their all favorite, but Surviving and Thriving three sixty Facts and Black Economic History. I described it as a love note to my people. We've reissued it with a forward by Roland Martin. Um it'll be out on shelves probably the next month or so, but we reprinted it Uh, the three D sixty five facts have not changed, but our relationship to their house

have not changed. So what we're gonna do about that. We're gonna keep struggling. We gotta keep working. We're gonna keep right. That's all we can do. That's all we can do. Hey, we do not accept and we do not accept the marginalization of black people. We do not accept it. No, never, never give up, never except We're not a pon exactly. Thank you, thank you, thank you, appreciate you and all these you've done and continue to do, and we just love you and keep up with good work.

Malik Books is at a children's festival out here at Coyle Stay l A. That's what's happening in the community. It's gonna be a big celebration of books and people and love and peace in the world of books. We got a lot of books, children books here. We've got a lot of children authors here. And you know what I do best. I get on the stump and I talked to the authors because this is Malik's book show, bringing a world together with books, culture and community. So

we're here and I'm gonna have an opportunity. The first interview I have an author named Zena Plisky say it again, Zena, here you go. Okay, okay, hello, Little One. A modernarch butterfly story. It's a beautiful book about the life of a butterfly. But hey, I got the author, so she gonna tell you all about it. Well, this is a this is a book about intergenerational friendship. It's a book

about the monarch caterpillar. Really, once a friend meets the monarch butterfly in a two week window, in the two weeks that they can actually hang out together because the lifespans of both the very small short um and so they so they the younger. Uh, it's youth meets age and age meets youth and they share what they both their both their life perspectives with each other um and then they move on to the next cycle, the next part of their cycle. This sounds very educational. So we

got a two, got a calipar and a blafly. They both wanted the same the other one just already met meta what's the word metamorphosis? Metamorphosis and the little calipillar hasn't gone through that process yet. So tell us what kids can really learn from reading this book? I think they can learn about about mentors and intergenerational friendship. And it's a life cycle book, and so of course at

the end of life cycles is death. And so it's it's a little bit of a Greek like for your parents that need a book to talk gently about grief and losing an elder um transformation, wormason and also being in the moment right being like each each both of them share with each other, the younger verse, the younger shares with the older, and the older shares with the younger, and it's about that you know the deep respect that two generations can have for each other and learn one wonderful,

wonderful This is an extremely beautiful book, illustrated, wonderfully story written beautifully. Thank you Xena for this opportunity interview you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Mollie. Okay, okay, this event is festive with authors festive and I have busin him now. He wrote a book called Alex Good Fortune, another book called Little Ce and I'm gonna let him tell you about his book. Hi, thank you so much

for having me. Um So alex is Good Fortune is about different ways to celebrate the lunar New Year, and it was inspired by my family growing up and all the little traditions that we do. So everyone celebrates very different a little bit differently. So I hope people that read it will add a little tradition to their lunar celebration. Wonderful, wonderful it is. That's the one called Alex Good Fortune, Okay, And then what does what is Little Seed about? So?

Little Seed I want to talk about how, you know, there's a lot of different ways to show love, a lot of different ways to hug and the book kind of touches upon some people love to be embraced and hugging, some people don't, and that is okay. So it's kind of like touching the baseline of what is paying respect really to each other and having that respect. And that's what Little Seeds about. Are these the only books you

have authored? No? I also have another book called Alex with the Great Kaiju, And so that one is about a little Kaiju. So an example of Kaiju. It's Godzilla and all godzalas we know destroy everything in sight. But Aso's superpower is not a fire of destruction, but of flowers. So how can you destroy using flowers? Or does he

want to? So the idea is that how do you stay true to yourself even though you have this expectations of family and society of to be a true destroyer, but in your heart you actually want to bring joy to your city and not destruction. Three books, three different storylines, very creative. It's I guess you got some more it works. I do thank you for asking. I do have a sequel to ans you the Great Credu called as you the Great Listener, and that one is really about um

in the phase of sadness. Sometimes one of the most important things we can do is to listen to each other and respect each other that way, and that's what that story is about. Well, hey Benson, thank you for sharing with my audience on League Book Show about all of your wonderful books and upcoming Thank you appreciate it. Ashley, you can't bring me no books without being on my

podcast Good Morning Love. So you're gonna have to talk to a straight actually about what is this book on the Boss He is a novel, So talk to me about this Leik's Book Show. Audists want to know good Morning Love. I love it. So Good Morning Love is a story about Carly Hinton. She's an inspiring songwriter. Um, chasing after she's stuck between a job and a dream, right, so, trying to pursue songwriting but working full time in New

York City. Um, she meets Tyle Anderson, who's a rising R and B star, and things get a little choppy. Her calculated world gets thrown into a frenzy when he's a client of her media agency and it's his book one. This is gonna be a sequel. This is book one, is my debut novel. Um, and we'll see. I mean, let's talk to Simon and Schustair about whether we want to hear more about Carly and Tal because I'm sure it's more to it, you know. Now, this is for

all adults. Yeah, so this is an adult book. But I will say that when I was a teenager in high school, I read books like these. But it does land under adult fiction. Um, so it has a you know a little bit more kind of meat, a bit to it. But um, I think that if you trust your older teens, they could probably get into it as wacause we get a lot of teams they come in

and read like it's just a soldier bo coats. Whenever they said I read that in high school and then you know that baby is real graphic, but it's relatable and and it leads generations. And I know that you know, you wrote your book to reach you know, audience, and hopefully yours can reach generations. And I just want to know a little about about you, Ashley, as an upcoming new writer. Sure. So, I mean, for me, I've worked

in plus ures in the music industry. So I'm a director at the Recording Academy which puts on the Grammys, um and also a writer. So this book really chronicles a lot behind the music industry. Um. So it's a great kind of collide of my world because I also freelance, right, so I've written for The Cut and Essence dot Com, etcetera. Um So this is like a good mashup of my two worlds, working in music and also writing. You just listen, you got a little background story here to you. You

can feel the fire as a writer. You aren't starting from the pits as a writer. You're coming from the entertainment world and you have started you in position and so you jumping into the literary world. It seemed like a great fit. So how has it been as a you know, cross sleeping into another industry. Well, I feel like it's been humbling, right because I do have a

very full of robust career with the music. But no one knows you when you're a debut author, right, So it's really still a grind and still just telling people about your work and what you do and trying to get connect with the people who you know will really benefit from reading a book. So absolutely, absolutely thank you Ashley for sharing with Melik's bookshelf audience, and we hope to continue our relationship as you evolved as a writer.

Thank you, thank you. I'm here with Angela Shante. She got a few books she wrote When My Cousin Comes to Town. Okay, that's one her latest coming up, Sunday Dinner, and I got the pleasure of being able to talk to her about her books and her publishing company. I believe it's called Sunday Dinner Publishing. So Shante, welcome to Malik's Book Show. Bringing a world together with books, culture and community. Than wonderful. So I just we're gonna jump

right into to us about your books and your publishing company. Sure, so my books are picture of ugs um that feature highlight, black, joyous, stories, the first one being The Noisy Classroom, which came out in twenty twenty. It's about unruly teacher, unruly classroom and UH school change. It's it's my project. And the second book for that series is coming out next year. It's called When My Cousins Comes Sorry, The Noisy Classroom Goes to the Museum and again all about inquiry based UH

fun times in school UH non traditional learning. Have another book called Sunday Dinner, which is published underneath my publishing company, Sunday Dinner Publishing UM, where we highlight inclusive stories and we work with specifically with bipod creatives in publishing to make sure that they have space and voice and are

getting paid. UM. My last my last book that came out last year, When My Cousins Come to Town, is all about cousin culture, Black cousin culture, UM and how we get our nicknames and it being kind of like a badge of honor. So the little girl in the book, she doesn't have a nickname. She's the only cousin without a nickname, and she UM, she does a couple of like trying on her cousin's nickname and pretending to be in them but really, you know, in black culture, it's

about just being yourself. And so that's how she gets her nickname at the end of the story after they watched The Whiz because you know that's that's my favorite movie. Yeah. Well, most books are written they touched right at home about something about self or things that we like or desire. So that's wonderful, wonderful. So right now, how many books have you published. I've published as an author for titles. One was published was Scholastic. That's a nonfiction book about

the nineteen sixty three civil rights movement. I've published three other titles UM with West Margin Press. UM, and I have four titles soon to be seven titles on the Sunday Dinner Publishing. Our first adult title and first chapter book are coming out next year. UM, and our fairy book just published the beginning of this month. This Carse We're off to find a fairy. Wow. Wow, Wow, you're

doing a big time, you know. And um, you went from being an author to now having your own publishing company and that it is wonderful And so what um inspired you to want to open your own publishing company. Well, I've been in publishing for a while. I used to work as a content writer at educational publishing companies. I

worked as an editor. Now I'm an author, so I've seen the front, the back, the ugly, the good of publishing, and I do know that there are not enough opportunities for marginalized voices and publishing and I wanted to be a part of the solution. So at Sundays in a publishing we specifically seek out inclusive stories, marginalized stories, lgbt Q stories, um and we worked with bipart Creative so that they are being paid fairly and that they have

an avenue for you know, showcasing. There's their voices and their art. So yeah, I started it because there was a need, you know. And that's what I'm doing. Be about it, not talk about it. That's what I'm talking about. Action, speak louder than work. Don't be the problem, be the solution. And I love the fight. Did you stepped up instead

of complaining about the lock of representation. You went out here and started a publishing company and now you're publishing books by yourself and other people to speak voice loudly because we know that Malique book, we give voice to the voice. So hey, I'm with all of that. I'm tired of people talking and complaining, but they gotta step up and do something instead of talking about it. And that's what I love see because you the minute you said that, oh, I got the goat in all that.

I love this energy. I love this energy. Yes. So if you're out there and you want to support us, follow us on Sunday thenner pub on Instagram and Twitter. If you want to follow my journey, I'm author Angela Shawntay on Instagram and Facebook. Yes, just connects. Send me a d M. If you want to work on something cool together. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You heard it. Love at I read to see me children event out here at Cow's Day l A whoa it up on

another one. Her name is Angela Dalton. Her book is Show the World. It's beautiful illustration, beautifully done. But I'm gonna let her talk to you about the book. How y'all doing? Thank you for having me. It is good to finally see you in person. So blessed to see you. Thank you. So. Show the World is my new book

that just came out this year. It is my love letter to the brown and black children of Oakland, California and their creativity and their engineity, ingenuity and all that they put into the world, and to tell them we see you, we appreciate you. Please keep doing and showing us what you can do, because we need to see you. We need to see you out there. And I want

children to know I see you. And that's why I write books, because I see children not just their hair, not just their bodies, but I see their entire selves and I want to celebrate that. And this is not the only book you have. You have another book. Tell us about some of your other books and the No One. They are about to come out in January. Yes, I would love too, So yes, I have two other books.

Ruby's Reuni Day Dinner, which is all about soul food, a love letters to the cooks of my family who made soul food Reunion Day dinners every every year and bringing them all together celebrating family. UM. And I have UM If you Look up to the Sky and if you look at this Guy, is about a grandmother teaching her granddaughter that they will always be connected if they look to this guy for signals and way to connect

with each other. And then one that's coming out next year, which I'm so excited about hope you all will support it in love and remembrance. Is called to boldly go how Michelle Nichols and Star Trek help to advance civil rights. And it is my love letter of homage to Miss Nichols as Lieutenant Ahura, who brought science fiction into my life, who introduced me to Octavia E. Butler, who just enriched my life with technology and and and space and astronomy.

And I will always be and forever indebted to her for what the work that she did only on the show, but just being a beautiful, strong black woman in the world. Well, you know, I'm a track. I didn't watch everything. Hello, I didn't seen every episode, every movie. I love science fiction. I used to read that before I read any other books. You really should, you know what science fiction really is

a mirror of the world. It's a way, a palpable way for us to deal with the wrongs and the rights of the world in a way that brings us all together. That doesn't make it necessarily about race, doesn't necessarily make it about your religious beliefs. It just has to do with that we are all people and we have to learn how to get how to work together, how to get along with each other. And it's possible. It's possible if we treat each other with respect and we see each other for who we are and and

appreciate that we can do that. And that's what science fiction shows us. It's possible. It is possible, but it takes each one of us to do the work to get their imagination and determination. Yes, yeah, that's why I love. It opens my mind, it makes me think outside the box. It gives me new ideas. This has been wonderful. Angela Dalton. Listen. If you don't have a books, go out and Bob Malik books got them and they are soul wherever books

are sold. Thank you for this interview. Appreciate you. Peace. This is a continuation from the Barbershop Talk Part one from last week. This is part two, so enjoy Barbershop Talk Part two. God made naturally the man and the woman to be attracted to each other. That's a natural attraction. So whenever we see beauty in God creation, we are naturally attracted to that. The bad part about it when that beauty is used for manipulation, just to catch somebody

just you know what I'm saying. You want to attract the person's mind, just not the body, because the body is gonna change the pass away. The body gonna change the pass away. We're gonna get older in life. We're not gonna keep this young, strong, night looking body that we have when we was young. Well, why why shouldn't a person who's beautiful use that to the advantage you her beauty, her beauty, her beauty, because she's not attracting a man. Brother, she's not a trap the man buy

his spirit and the soul. She's a trap of the man with the with carnality. See, the flesh is gonna change, They're gonna pass away. You see what I'm saying. So, but you and I both known as men night right both But what gets our attention? You? You and us both know you know, you know that physical attraction is what causes us to bond before we get to know the inside right now, to be like, let's keeping why yeah, look like that spark they step outside the door. Keep

looking at that one like like that spark. Look I like looking at them like whoa. At the same time, I hear you on that, because that the first thing you're gonna see. You don't see the thinking of a person too much. You don't see what's going on there. You see the physical. But if you just stay at the physical and never get into the spiritual, then you're gonna end up in court and that towns aboard court

case and y'all gonna be batting back up. You guys never got to know each other on the spiritual level. It was just that love of it tried should come first, opposite track. You know, you're looking for something and you see it and it attracts you to get to know the person and learn the beauty of the inside. Right. But at the same time, though it depends on that person what he's he or she is, but that if that's your only value is your physical appearance, then I

don't think the relations gonna last too long. You know it won't. It won't because because because beauty can turn ugly. If your ways are ugly, else they're gonna get that physical too. That's right. Let's say they like that person physical more than they like yours. You know, tomorrow you gonna hold different trip because now they don't like this or they don't like that. They just just so they

can get out of this situation quickly. So they're gonna find the next person that they already found you just didn't though, no, no, but I tell you though, Um, you know, as we get older, we got to evolve, we had to get wiser and so you know, when you're young, you know, you're a ball of fire. So as you get wiser than you kind of understand things differently. So initially, yeah, I like that, Smark. We all do. We like that initial spark. But at some point we

want to know the person. We want to know the inside, because the most important beauty is on the inside. But my brother, I want to come back to a point you made earlier. You you mentioned about here at the Bobby shop. It's the Bobby shop talk. A lot of men coming here and sit in your chair, and they have these issues with their spouses of girlfriends because you said that they talk too much or what I say that. Being a barber, brother and being open to you know,

the public, you hear a lot. I get a lot of brother coming here. You know, I'm very busy. I'm very successful at the barber, thank God for that. But at the same time, I hear in this barber chair from the majority of my clients who have marital problems, problems with their girlfriend. I hear the same exact topic and complaints coming from the brothers, and none of these

brothers are rehearsing this among themselves. Or let's get in front of the barber and let's say this, say that to know the the brothers come in at the end of a different times and they got good profession and good profession, good brothers, good dudes, good fathers, good husband. But they but but but I hear, man, my wife don't respect. She talks above me, she over talks me. You know what I'm saying. She don't know how to show me respect and don't how to show my man.

Talks to me like I'm a child. She done whatever she wants to do. She tell me she ain't gonna good, she ain't gonna do this, She ain't gonn do that. You know what I'm saying. And I even heard that from the sisters in here. When when we have to yeah, yeah, you don't have to do Yeah, it's a new day and age. It's two thousand two, Like God put that in the Bible. Oh, in two thousand twenty two, you can just stop doing whatever the hell it is. I said, dude,

because it's a new day in age. So do whatever you want to do. So when we got to go answer to him at the end of the day, guess what you're gonna say. I never said do what you want to do, but hey, let us tell it. We could do whatever we want because we got freedom whatever. Stay tuned next week for part three of Barbershop Talk. Thanks for listening to Malik's Bookshelf with topics on the shelf, our books, culture, and communities. Be sure to subscribe and

leave me a review. Check out my Instagram at Milik Books. See you next time.