The Bronx Book Festival Just Happened for the Seventh Time — and Maybe Its Last

The Bronx Book Festival just celebrated its seventh year, which organizers say may be its last if they can’t obtain more sponsorships to boost funding.

About 1,000 people registered to attend the event, which ran from June 5 through June 8 at multiple locations in the borough.

The festival packed its days with panels featuring Bronx authors like Alyssa Reynoso Morris, Janelle Harper and Robert Samuels. It also included storytime readings, book and arts and crafts giveaways, an on-site bookstore, and food vendors.

The Bronx lags behind its peers in literacy and communal reading spaces. Among Bronx public school students in grades 3 through 8 who take the standardized English Language Arts exam, 37% performed at or above grade level last year, compared to 52% citywide .

Mott Haven’s The Lit Bar remains the borough’s only bookstore , filling the gap after Barnes and Noble shut down its only Bronx location in Co-op City in 2017. Edokia Bookstore, also in Mott Haven, recently shut down. The borough is home to 35 New York Public Library branches , three of which — Melrose, Honeywell and Hunts Point — are currently closed for renovations.

NYPL spokesperson Leah Drayton told THE CITY that the West Farms branch is a project under the Department of Design and Construction “slated to open in the coming months,” while the Melrose and Hunts Point branches “are nearing completion of their renovations.”

“We do not have reopening dates for Melrose and Hunts Point and are awaiting news on the city budget to determine when they will be able to be opened,” said Drayton.

Saraciea Fennell, a publicist, author, creator of Honduran Garifuna Writers and founder of The Bronx is Reading , which spearheads the festival, told THE CITY on Saturday that prospective supporters from the corporate and publishing worlds have not seen its value.

“A lot of sponsors have just said no because they don’t believe that there are readers in The Bronx. They don’t believe that people are going to attend the book festival. They don’t see the value in it. And then this year, the excuse was ‘we’re short-staffed’ — which, I’m short-staffed,” said Fennell, also noting that there were no Bronx elected officials in attendance. “You have a whole company of employees. Are you really short-staffed? Or is it that you didn’t want to pay your workers to come out and work in an area where you feel like the payoff wouldn’t be right? That’s really what it is.”

The Bronx Book Festival raised $25,000 this year, including $3,000 from individual donations and the rest coming from sponsorships from over 20 organizations, including Fordham University. But that’s half the funding needed, she said, to help cover such resources as an accessibility ramp, sign language interpretation and event tents. The shortfall this year led the festival to turn its kids’ “stages” into a kids’ corner, with panelists speaking at the same level as their young audience, without a platform.

Another Bronx author who attended the festival is Denise Adusei, who is the chief executive officer of the Bronx Children’s Museum and writes books for young readers.

“We have to change the narrative about The Bronx. I mean when people think The Bronx isn’t interested in reading, they’re not going to sponsor it, but how do we promote literacy if the children can’t have access to book ownership?” said Adusei. “And so, if 70% of the kids in The Bronx are not reading at age level, there’s a reason why – it’s not the kids.”

Kamilah Cole, author of “So Let Them Burn,” a young adult fantasy published by Little, Brown Young Readers, grew up in Wakefield and attests to how impactful that early book ownership can be.

“I’m probably like the weepiest person who will talk to you here but I had a really great time. I’d love to come back,” Cole told THE CITY at the festival Saturday. “Being able to give this to a community I think is really important. I grew up in and around The Bronx and just being able to know there’s this festival here — I don’t have to go five miles into the city to get to meet the authors that I love. I think that’s always going to be incredibly important.”

Ron Kavanaugh, executive director of the Literary Freedom Project, told THE CITY that securing funding for literary programming in The Bronx can be challenging.

The Literary Freedom Project uplifts cultural narratives of Bronxites, particularly those of African and Latin descent, said Kavanaugh, through hosting conversations in community spaces. One of those is a weekly book club called OneBookOneBronx . The organization has an annual budget of $90,000, about a third of which comes from city and state funding, and it receives book donations from publishers.

“We’re all underfunded and we’re all under-recognized for the work that we’re doing,” he said. “You know, if that festival was in Brooklyn or Manhattan, it’d be much more popular. Politicians would be reaching out to us. And instead, we have to beg them just for the minimal amount of funding.”

Kate, an English Language Arts tutor who lives in Allerton and declined to share her last name, said the festival is important because there needs to be “authors who look like you or stories that are relevant to you. It’s so important, especially in this community.”

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