FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS (3)

 

By Malcolm Udogwu 

New York - The year 2022 has not changed much since the Covid-19 epidemic. Books are a great source to calm the isolation caused by three years of intense medical episodes and pandemics.
My choice of books evolved from fiction to none fiction, and coffee table books, including do-it-yourself manuscripts as in woodwork projects. There’s a growing demand in photo and coloring books, especially among children narratives.

The Black life Matter movement here in the United States left a trail of directives as young black and white, Latino, Asian Americans joined the crusade to rid systemic racism in America. Those protest signboards, “we shall overcome,” make  great collection if and when they’re bonded in books. The poetry in some of those signs is sobering. They look like postcards sent from a distant journey. You love them or you hate them.
Coffee table books are becoming modern-day family photo albums. Independent filmmakers and documentary photographers, and public participation through personal cell phones captured the murder of George Floyd by a police officer which resulted in street protests by all races in American cities.
So what happens when all is done; when the wailing and yelling calms down, and everyone heads home? With the pandemic trifling world peace, happiness, and self-discovery are more deserving now. That’s where photo books are crucial.
People are discovering new hobbies they believed never existed in their life projections.

I recently picked up a coffee table book titled, Festac’77 (Nigeria, Lagos-Kaduna, 15th January-12 February 1977. The 447-page book is a historical collection, nominal as the second World Black African Festival of Art and Culture.
The book is a testimony of Black consciousness in Africa. The contents are mostly in black and white, and in newsprint formation, a project of its time. Incidentally, I picked up this book in New York Independent Booksellers’ sales disposition. The book begs and wonders whatever happened to African Solidarity since those formative years of Black Power. The book brings to mind the relevance of arts and culture in an emerging new world community. Yet, it leaves us questioning the unforeseeable dead-end of the African Festival of Arts.

Here in the States, there is an ongoing clamor to disband certain books in schools and libraries by some parent groups. These are essential historical and cultural books of the American society before and after the civil rights era. The books range from civil rights, sexuality and gender and emotions. Children photo books are not exempted either. For those who are history buffs, I dare ask; what constitute a national history at a time when there’re deplorable lack of diversity, race and cultural books in public schools and in libraries?
I implore you to take a look at pictorial essay books, most of which are basic introductions to children as they explore their community past and present.

February reading book for my young grandsons: “LIFE DOSEN’t FRIGHTEN ME.” By Maya Angelou, and illustrated by Jean-Michell Basquiat.

Happy reading/2022.

Malcolm Udogwu is a writer, painter, and documentary photographer based in New York.

Cover Page: A historic coffee table book.