Reading Matters

to talk to some kids about reading matters. I think that that is an excellent title for this episode, four teen Reading Matters. And I asked them that they like reading, and they were frankly honest and candid about whether they like reading. And I'm gonna share that conversation I had with these kids, these youths at a school. We went out and wats Also part of this episode is an interview I was blessed to do with a new author

who wrote a book called Black Joy. Her name is Tracy Michelle Louis Digit and I got an opportunity to interview her. So I'm gonna share that interview on this episode. My book review for this episode is by an award winning Grammy winner. I believe fifteen Grammys she has won. She sold over sixty five million albums, and she's an activist. So I'm gonna share that new book review by Alicia Keys new book Girl on Fire. So sit back, relax. Episode fourteen, Reading Matters. So I like to read? Okay,

you don't like to read? You like to read. You gotta learn to like what you don't like. Tell you something, there's no advancement in this society and in this world without reading. Even if you don't like it, you gotta do it, and so you might as well learn to like it because reading reads. Opportunity to reading allows you to be able to open a whole new world and become what you want to become. You can't do unless you're reading books. You go to college, you gotta read.

You go to high school, you gotta read. Whether it's reading book with the chapter or textbooks. Point is, you gotta read. My suggestion, learn to like what you don't like, Learn to appreciate what you don't like. Trust me, learn the like reading because reading is gonna be a part of your life for a while. To be are young? This middle school? Right? How you read? Welcome to Malik Books. This is Malik's book mobile. We don't tend to too when we're on Instagram, follow us. Yes, you do fash

out everything. So let me ask you what kind of books on your bookshell at home? Um? I have to hate your kids, ghost boys this and I have some other black um, wonderful one. What about you know what books on your bookshall at home? Um? Dog man and captain under me? Okay, okay, but I see you found some books here. I appreciate that. And what school we are now? Charter the charter? All right, we'll grade you

in almost ready five school? You follow me? Alright, I'm on Instagram, I'm onna TikTok, We're on Facebook and we have Twitter. All Beligue Books. You cannot be what you want to be on the sideline, fair will stagnatu period. Just get out of your own way. You keep pushing

and I'm a pro. Welcome to Maligue Books. The Belak books was something that I think can served not only my family and me, but also the community because I want to make a difference in the change in the community by using books, because books changed me for the better. Malak books give voice to the voiceless. My grandma walked the streets night and day. When I went to USC and that was only money I had once a month she sent me by selling Sweet Pay the Pies and

Katie D's. Every time I would see her or talk to her, even on the phone, I would cry, it's just words of wisdom that that comes out. She has so many kids that love her because you just had a soul then was so loving that kind of gave birth to the crusade or praise Scotts Scholarship funk. I was a sprinter, so I've had junior Olympic champions I've set national records in track and field. Also was a former Olympian. Whether it was track, whether it was maleik books,

they all kind of coincide with each other. I just love helping people where African, very independent bookstore that we carry in a very large, diverse and cultural children book selection because here at Malie we believe children all one hundred percent of our future and we know that self esteem grow from here, not here, and that's very important.

You can find a whole different Worling books today there's not that many bookstore so people thank us for being an independent bookstore in the community and taking a chance where the Crusader Praise Scholarship front is giving over in the last five years eighteen scholarships the freshman in College and the purpose of the scholarship fund is just to help serve those in needs. Belie Books is just an

extension of our community. Will brings me joy is to see someone feel joy from the work that we're doing. I would like to introduce you to our major guest tonight, whose new book Like Joy The Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restorate by Tracy Michelle Lewis. Digit She is Professor of English and Black Studies at the Community College of Philadelphia and the founder of heart Space, a healing community created to serve those who experienced trauma of any kind

through the use of storytelling and art. As a writer, Tracy has published fifteen books, including several collaborations with numerous high profile authors. Also forthcoming is her dynamic book that We're gonna be talking about the Day Black Joy The Story of Resistance, Resilience and Restoration. I came across uh. I think it was j Rogers. I think he wrote something to the effect that said, you know, many books

have been written that wow, you know doing it. This was during the time, you know, we've been in America and he in. Many psychiologrists and people wrote books saying how do Black people find joy and all the trauma that they've been experience through slavery, oppression, and so forth.

And they was like, and they studying us because they because we like the same we like to dance, we like the shot, we still find time to find joy, and they don't understand that because the condition that we've been in has been a fight, has been resistance, it's been resilting, it's been restoration. So you know, it's they study us because we are loving people, we are forgiving people, and we still find joy. M hmm, yeah, yeah, I agree.

So can you separate trauma from black joy though, because you know, mental health is a major issue all across the nation. Yeah. I think this book was written to counter the prevailing narrative that's out there of that we have low self esteem or that we are you know, um how um struggling because of something that is inherent to us and not necessarily the way these systems have you know, the positions that this these systems have put

us in. And so my my goal with this book wasn't to center anyone else or any other you know, narrative about us, but just to focus on I opened the introduction of the book talking about our joys rooted and self compassion and empathy because I think it's about the way we see ourselves and the way we see and treat each other that really is more defining, right, because these these trauma, the rest of the the white supremacy and all the stuff that we we've dealt with,

the trauma hasn't gone anywhere, right, it is, It is here, and it has been here. What has changed, maybe to your point, Malik, is maybe the way that we see

ourselves in it Um. I I attribute some of that to yes, mental health challenges maybe, but also UM retired, right, And so part of that exhaustion is what I said earlier about allowing that righteous rage and that despair to become all consuming in this container that we have, right and not being able to tap into our access the joy that our ancestors always the thing that drove them, that drove them to migrate from Kentucky to someone you know,

like like. I think I think that's the piece. I think it's important for me to not focus on um the narrative of who black people are, but how we treat each other, I think, and how we see ourselves, and there is no way to please everybody, you know, you we have to have an agenda that focuses on our real issues, and if we don't, then those issues are never addressed. And I think that you pointed out that we can learn from the past. That's the point.

That's the most important thing from yesterday is to learn from it so that we can try to pass out in the future. We know it don't work, so we have to apply with will work. And if that exhausting that you talked about is real, because like I used to beat that drum all the time about this and about that, and it was nothing but talking about the problem. But I have no solution, and that's what typically goes on today. We can talk about the problem, but we

need to come up with solutions. And that's where I'm at right now because I'm exhausted about beating that drum about the problem. We don't know what's going on the last hundred years. Much hasn't changed, but we gotta figure out what steps we need to make to make a real difference, to create a generation of change. And so it starts now. I think your book is a great contribution because it is addressing um we are resisting, resistance, resilience,

and restoration. We have overcome a lot, but we got a long way to go and we can do it. We got listen and Tracy, you know, you use it all you experience in your life. You're reading fifteen books. You are talking a issue that is real trauma, but yet celebrating the good that came out of it. Black Joy. So I think that you know me personally, I personally think that we need to unite, pull some money together, by some land and build a new future right there

to date. Yeah, I I mean the global pandemic kind of pushed me into it, but like really having to sit with myself and ask where do I want to be, where do I want my child to be? And and really thinking about land. That's important and we cannot discount that that that matters, and that we have to have a base. No foreigners come over here, they create a base and they in a hub and a home in a community. You know, say, we have to do the same thing. It's a belonging, it's a calling. It's just natural,

you know, it's a connection. And so we're trying to build our roots and we can do it right here, right here, and we should because we are so important in this country. We have embellished this because we're just in the country is great because of persevere. Because of them three words. Resistance results in restoring. Because of them three words. This is why this country has become one

of the greatest of all time in modern world. One of the things that I read in your book and that you talked about trade she was the influence did Efty had And I ask you about you know, I want to ask you about because you know the hip hop community, rappers in the very influential and so what part did that play in your life and how you became a career writer? M hm question, Now that is a good question. I'm amazed at how many times forty

has come up in mind conversations last couple of weeks. Honestly, and writing that piece, I did not think that it would be like the thing that people gravitate. I think what I was trying to do in that piece was really just talking about the role that hip hop and music in general played in my identity and how I how I saw myself. Um, and it wasn't you know, a lot of times people talk about music. Even in the there's another piece called the Healing Power of Prince Um.

I love that. Yeah, yeah, you know, like a lot of times people think of music as escaped, especially if you have a traumatic childhood. You think, um that it is a way for you know, you to escape into the music. Right. We hear that language a lot, and I guess there's some truth to it. But for me, it allowed me to see a version of myself that

had not been reality but could have been. Right. So when I was in the Burger King dancing with the mob to Mary J. Blige, and I saw Mary J. Blige like like I saw a version of myself that was confident, that was you know, you know, comfortable in her skin that you know, and there were there were all of it. I could envision It was like a visualization. I could have envisioned myself being loved, loving all of

these things. And so the music for me listening to E forty and the Click was really just about the turn of a phrase, the language. Oh I can do that, I can I can write in metaphors, I can speak, you know like I can do those kinds of things, And it excited me right, and it informed who I would later become. Right, But it was really about like not escape, but just who you know, I don't have to limit myself as to be this brown this little

brown girl from Kentucky. Um. I my parents and my family always said that I was the big dreamer, like you know I was. You know, I took my three hundred dollars in my budget Rentald Van and I drove myself to Chicago, to the South Side, to the little studio market on the Lake and that's where and I'm gonna do my thing right, and you know all that came with that. So the music just kind of helped me dream. I guess is a is the best way

to say it, I said earlier. I have a podcast called Leech's Bookshelf, bringing a world together to books, culture and community. My question, what is on your bookshelf and what was the most significant book that you have read the impacted your life. I'm looking at my bookshelves now and I'm like, there there is no way that I could do because they all speak to a different part of me, a different space and time. When I read it or whether I teached it, I teached it, taught it.

Um or anything you like, I could went on the one hand saying their eyes were watching God. On the other hand, I can say Sula and the other guy I can say, you know, Breathe or you know Heavy or any of these other books. But they are all have equal value because they all and like informed me. Right. It would be like saying, which one do you like your you know, your arm or your leg? Well, they kind of, I mean, they serve different purposes, but they're

kind of both useful and and scessary. And that's how I feel like about most like black literature. Um, you know what you guys are doing at Malik Books, and it's necessary because those children that are walking in and they're picking up those books on that massive I don't even know you guys have that that massive you know, children's bookshelf. Like is I remember going to the library. I remember like that feeling. I get it to this day.

My husband like like cracks up because I can go into a bookstore a library and I'm just like, wait a minute, now, I didn't do that, you know, Like I just get like this feeling of like and it's almost overwhelmed because I can't read them all, Like I just I want to read them all, so I don't know. I can't give you one. But because Malik's bookshelf is all about it's like I got a bookshelf. You know, I'm do book review, but I got my own personal bookshelf.

But we all do. We all like certain books, and certain books have opened us up and created and charted a path for us, and we inspired us and where this has been fun. This has been fun and I really enjoyed our conversation. Um, it was very enlightening. I appreciate this opportunity Malik Books to host you, Tracy, thank you, and maliek Books look forward to y'all selling a million and them books best. My book review for this episode

is a new book schedule for March first. Now. The author of this book, it's a Grammy Award winner as well as an activist and she has written books in the path, but this is a new book. This targeting youth, is targeting the young, and it's a graphic novel. And the author who sold over sixty five million is Alicia Keys.

Her new book title Girl on Fire Now. What's interesting about that that title was a song that she wrote called Girl on Fire Now I'm not a singer, and but if I could, you know, singing a little bit, I would, But hey, I would just cause you to turn off this podcast. Now what this graphic novel is all about. It's about this young girl who discovers when she was put under pressure and that's when you find

the strengthen you. When she was puting under pressure because her brother was arrested by the police and being concerned that he might be harmed, she discovered she had this ability that came from her mind and the fire within her brought this power to help free her brother. But in so doing, the people who are feelains in the community discovered that she had this ability and put her in the corner to try to manipulate and use her

to the adventage. Sound familiar, that's how the society sometimes works. So this is a realistic book. It is relatable, it is a graphic novel, it is entertaining, and it's by someone who sold sixty five million albums, a Grammy Award winner an activists Alicia Keys, who is a woman herself and can relate to what I used. And our community needs to inspire to read, to elevate and to find that fire within you, because where your gifts are they

within you. And sometimes you have to go under pressure in order to find that true gift, to find who you are. And so the car the Girl on Fire, that's how she discovered her abilities which came from within and came from her mind. So this new graphic novel by Alicia Key, Girl on Fire, this is a great book. A lot of kids love graphic novels. Is graphic novels is one of the hottest Johnary of books today. It's a good young reader book. So go out to get

your copy today. That's my book with you for today, Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys. Thanks for listening to Malik's Bookshelf where topics on the Shelf, our books, culture and communities. Be sure to subscribe and leave me a review. Check out my Instagram at Belik Books. See you next time.