Richard Mabion, Kansas City, Kan., Branch NAACP president, is busy preparing for a unique event here, a cross-cultural literacy program Oct. 24 at the Reardon Convention Center.
The Harlem Book Fair event, a free public event, is unusual in that it is cosponsored by two groups, the NAACP representing the African-American community, and El Centro Inc., representing the Hispanic community in the Kansas City, Kan., area. Mabion and Irene Caudillo, executive director of El Centro, are working behind the scenes to bring the Book Fair to the community.
Mabion said he really likes that the event seems to be expanding beyond the two organizations, to start becoming a community event. Several organizations have expressed interest in having informational displays at the event, he added. He and Caudillo have been meeting with different organizations in the community about the upcoming event.
“I just see it as more than an individual thing between NAACP and El Centro, and am seeing it as a citywide project, and enjoying that happen,” Mabion said.
The Harlem Book Fair promotes literacy and cross-cultural dialogue through this event, and as part of the effort, free books are being distributed throughout the Kansas City area in advance, he said.
At the Harlem Book Fair, scheduled from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 24 at the center at 5th and Minnesota Avenue, there will be writers and artists who will engage in storytelling, readings from their works, music and art presentations.
Mabion said visitors to the event can expect to see an African village and a Hispanic village with storytellers. The villages are currently being put together by volunteers.
Poetry competitions for students were held in September conjunction with the event, and the final poetry competition is scheduled Oct. 23 at the Vision Building, 1017 N. 6th St., Kansas City, Kan.
“The Book Fair is the catalyst for the literacy education that we want to see occurring in our community,” Mabion said.
At the Harlem Book Fair, residents may see what other resources are available in the metropolitan area, he said. There is also some discussion currently about following up with other community events, he added.
Increasing literacy among the youth in the community is a challenge.
“I’m finding kids read for assignments, not for the love of reading,” Mabion remarked. “That’s the group I want to encourage to start loving to read.”
Literacy and reading leads youth to more educational opportunities, and then to more career opportunities, the event’s organizers believe.
Some youth today are spending more of their free time playing games than reading. Mabion said he recently met a computer science educator in Lawrence who wants to write programs to teach young people to take the computer skills past the games and into some productive activity and money-making activity.
“Right now, kids are on electronic devices, but they’re playing games,” he said. He’d like them to be able to use those skills to go to the next level, he added.
Mabion said he started reading books written in the Harlem Renaissance, and gradually, reading became a way of life for him.
One of the Harlem Renaissance authors, Claude McKay, a Jamaican-American writer who died in 1948, had some Kansas ties, Mabion said, having studied agriculture at Kansas State. He was famous for the novel, “Home to Harlem.”
Mabion has visited some community groups, delivering books to students from First Books Company, and promoting the upcoming Harlem Book Fair.
The Harlem Book Fair will also be a good opportunity for young authors who have written books, he said. There will be a publishing company represented, along with some authors. Two authors of children’s books are among those who will be attending, he added.
One of the authors who is scheduled to attend is Sarah Washington O’Neal Rush, the great-granddaughter of Booker T. Washington, who plans to discuss her recent book, “Rising Up from the Blood.”