- Just ahead.

We've got a great edition of American Black Journal for you this week.

Metro Detroit's largest used book and media sale is back to raise funds for literacy and education projects.

We're gonna get the details on this year's book stock.

Plus, we'll meet the Detroit artists whose work is part of a new exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.

Don't go away.

American Black Journal starts right now.

- [Announcer 1] From Delta faucets, to bear paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco serving Michigan communities since 1929.

- [Announcer 2] Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford fund for journalism at Detroit Public TV.

- [Announcer 3] The DTE foundation proudly supports 50 years of American Black Journal.

In covering African American history, culture and politics.

The DTE foundation and American Black Journal partners in presenting African American perspectives about our communities and in our world.

- [Announcer 4] Also brought to you by Nissan Foundation.

And viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to American Black Journal.

I'm Stephen Henderson.

It's time one of Metro Detroit's largest used book and media sales is back after a two year hiatus because of the COVID 19 pandemic.

Bookstock is gonna take place May 15.

Through the 22nd at Laurel Park Place in Livonia.

More than 300,000 gently used books, DVDs, CDs, books on tape and vinyl records are gonna be on sale at really great bargain prices.

Now this event is organized by several nonprofits and the money raised goes to support literacy and education projects here.

All over Metro Detroit.

I got all of the details from Bookstock Honorary Chairperson Neal Rubin of the Detroit Free Press.

Honorary Chancellor, Alycia Meriweather of the Detroit Public Schools Community District and fourth grade teacher, Kenya Austin Posey of Davison Elementary and Middle school in Detroit.

So I'm really excited that Bookstock is back after two year hiatus because of COVID-19.

Neil, tell me how excited you are.

I know how deeply you love this event, how much time you put into it.

This has got to feel really good.

- I am a complete Bookstock geek.

And we've only got two years of pent up Geekdom.

We have boatloads of books and media to sell for this great cause.

We have more than 400,000 use books and various forms of other media at Laurel Place May 15 through 22nd.

I'll probably repeat myself with this but we can't possibly put all that out at once.

So hey, come early, come often, come every night.

(Stephen laughing) - And talk about the return tilt to life.

This idea that we haven't been able to do this in person.

The idea of everybody getting together for a cause like this.

And for the attraction to literature, to words and ideas, and sound and video.

That's also pretty exciting for me, Neil.

- It is.

And just one note, we will once again snake the entire length of Laurel Park Place Mall.

We will also have a tent outside by the Dunham's entrance for people who prefer to do their shopping outside.

But I feel really strongly and I know you do to, that Bookstock along in a basement, they belong in people's laps.

And that's what bookstore does, along with all the great things.

We support literacy education so much with schools.

We get books read, which is what they're intended to do.

And it's been frustrating, the last couple of years not being able to do that.

- Alycia, the money for that comes out of Bookstocks, of course goes for literacy and education programs all over Metro Detroit.

Give us an idea of some of the ways that money gets spent.

- Well, there's lots of ways.

One of the beautiful things about Bookstock is that the funding it comes into the district and I assume other initiatives.

Is really left up to the recipient of how to use that, how to make the best use of those funds, which I think is just another piece of the beauty of the relationship with Bookstock is, the focus is literacy.

The focus is getting books into the hands of students and whoever else.

But they also are very respectful about, like, we're not gonna tell you what to do with this funding.

The purpose should be around literacy, and should be around making sure that students have access to books.

What does that look like?

It's really up to you.

It's up to the school, it's up to the district.

And so it can go along many different ranges.

So it could be classroom library that's purchased, it could be set of take home books, take home library that's purchased, it can be paying for tutoring, it can be anything that makes sense at that moment.

Which for the district is completely appreciated.

And it's just another added bonus of us being partners with Bookstock.

- Talk about the struggle, and I guess some of the triumph really that we're experiencing around the literacy question in Detroit and Detroit schools.

It's obviously an issue that we've had to work on for a really long time.

In the city but I know that there has been better news in recent years.

And I'd like to think that the programs like Bookstock, have made a difference.

- I think any program that focuses on literacy, and there are many, but definitely putting the issue of literacy to the forefront, is one of the first elements that I would lift up about Bookstock, is it's bringing books back to the forefront and saying looks matter, reading matters, literacy matters.

And in the city, when you're looking at the literacy rates among adults even you know, there is, to your point, Stephen, there is a long history of some pretty challenging numbers here.

And what are we doing about that.

And so, one on the adult level, if I could say this for just a moment The district operates in adult education program.

And with over 90,000 adults in the city without their GED or high school diploma.

We have a lot of work to do there.

And we are really pushing into the adult space as well around literacy and proficiency.

We're seeing the most graduates we've seen in a long time this year.

Part of that is on the online access, which came out of the pandemic.

And it's something I think that we'll stay around.

For young people in our schools.

You know, the pandemic, those two years when Neil talks about Bookstock has been on hiatus for two years from in person, school was on hiatus in terms of in person.

And we're really trying to push in on closing those gaps.

And I think we are seeing progress through small group instruction, pretty serious interventions with some of very strategic partners.

And I hope that after like our summer school programming this year, and then coming into next year, with pretty intentional tier two and tier three intervention.

That small group and individual intervention, we're gonna continue to see those gaps close.

But to act as though the pandemic didn't impact everything, including literacy progress that we were making, would be insincere and it would be inaccurate.

I think where we are now is let's attack this.

In person matters, reading matters, interventions matter and working with partners, with champions like Neil with teachers, with principals, with parents, all of that is part of the plan to address this literacy issue.

It's not just one thing.

Bookstock is one of those components, community involvement and support.

- I think it's a good time also to talk about the role that consistency plays in this issue and to pick up on specifically something you just said that, before the pandemic, it felt like we were establishing more of that consistency in the public schools in Detroit and the disruption of the pandemic of course, broke that consistency.

The trick now is to get back to that space and be able to do things all the time.

That needs to be done in order to to raise literacy levels and awareness and all of those things in the schools.

And so you guys have a real challenge.

And it's so disappointing that, you know, we finally got to that point, and then the pandemic really knocked us off our game a little.

- A little bit, Stephen, if I could just say this, that which is a silver lining.

Bookstock has been a consistent partner for years and years and years.

So when you talk about consistency, there are partners who have stayed connected.

And I would also say as far as the district is concerned, our elected empowered board, and stable district leadership, made everything that we've gone through and where we are now, much more manageable.

And and so consistency does matter, on multiple levels.

And I'm very, very confident that what we've lost, we're going to make backup of because the leadership has not changed, and the vision and mission has not changed.

So I'm still encouraged.

So I just want to put that out there.

We've got a lot of great things happening.

And we're going to make up that last time.

- Yeah.

Kenya, I wanna have you talk a little about the school level.

And the role that Bookstock plays in programming and other things that happen at Davison elementary as a result.

- Okay.

Bookstock has been a wonderful partnership with Davison.

For the years I've been at Davidson for about four years now and participate in the program every year.

My fourth graders are ecstatic.

They're constantly working on the you know, the results.

Now they're asking me through teams, because we still communicate with that technology.

Have you got the results in yet?

So I look forward to tomorrow, going to let them know if anyone (indistinct) But just being able to have that experience in letting students be able to have the opportunity to create masterpiece writing, and be able to put their words on print.

And having like she said, a tangible book in your hand.

We've been so confined in our homes with on technology, looking at books online, but being able to go out and use whatever winnings they get, and have that incentive to go out and purchase a book.

So I'm excited and opportunities been great.

My kids enjoy writing.

I've made into a great competition.

So we even read, every read and writing was a pretty pretty big deal in the classroom.

- It gives us a sense of how the, I guess how the pandemic disrupted things in your school and with kids in your classroom and what the momentum feels like now that we're coming out of at least the worst part of COVID-19.

And things are kind of returning to normal.

Give us a sense of what that energy is like.

- I can emit the transition was pretty steep, coming from virtual back to face to face, developing those routines and procedures all over again.

Trying to instill, you know, motivate them to want to learn and be passionate about what they're doing.

But like I said, it's been a challenge.

We call it the road to recovery.

We've been using like small groups instructions, peer editing and different groups at the district level to try to help the students achieve that gap that we're focusing on right now with literacy.

But Bookstock has just provided them a great incentive to want to read and want to write about their personal connections that they had with every book character that they have in class.

So it's pretty rewarding.

- Yeah, no, I can remember.

Fourth grade for me seemed to be that point.

I'm where stories took on so much more meaning and the connection with characters and narrative arc, all kind of opened up in front of me.

And I just remember that sense of wonder that I had at that age, and I'm jealous that you experience that all the time.

- (Chuckles) It is great, 'cause they get to really focus on the characters and they like I'm a lot like this character.

Someone (indistinct) give me some other characteristics as you can describe about your character.

So like I said, it's been really rewarding to see them get invested in it.

And like I say, it's one person started doing it and everybody's says, oh, to make this into a whole competition.

So they get to share on the microphone as well.

- Wow.

Tell me how you assemble three to 400,000 pieces of media books and CDs and DVDs, all of this.

How does this all come together?

- It's almost like the elves do it.

People drop them off.

We have collection sites and collection days throughout the year.

And that information is at Bookstockmi.org along with all the special stuff we're doing this week.

And over time, we just accumulate it.

And of course, with no books got the last few years we've got all those holdover books plus the stuff we collected this year, and I'm overwhelmed.

Last I checked, we were at 300,000 and a number is now 400,000 items.

Kinda staggering.

I'm glad I don't have to lift all of it.

(Stephen laughing) In terms of teachers, by the way, - Right, I'll be there.

- We adore teachers.

And we appreciate that, with having to shift to virtual, and in some cases virtual and in person at the same time.

You've worked twice as hard at what's an amazing job in the first place.

So we have Teacher Appreciation days, Tuesday and Wednesday of Bookstock from two to 7 pm.

Everything's half off for any teacher with an ID.

And I talked to a lot of teachers, particularly, you know, early elementary.

Who stalked their rooms for the entire upcoming year by just coming in rating Bookstock.

And the last Sunday, it's 11 on Sundays.

11 to seven, all the other day's basic mall hours.

But the last Sunday, everything's half off for everybody.

'Cause once again, we don't wanna let this stuff we got to get it out of the mall somehow.

We'd much rather you do it.

- Okay.

Neil, Alisha and Kenya, Congratulations on another Bookstock coming up may 15 through the 22nd at Laurel Park Place in Livonia.

So great to have you here with us as well on American Black Journal.

- Thank you.

- The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit is celebrating the city's rich cultural history and black creativity.

And its new spring exhibition series.

The show features multimedia works from three artists and a Detroit art collector.

Today we wanna introduce you to one of these featured artists, Sterling Toles.

This is the first solo museum exhibition for the Detroit native producer, Eden Sabolboro has his story.

- My process is doing whatever I have to do in the creative process who fully returned to a space of love.

I always tell people my work is not the work, but the work does to my humanity is the true work.

My name is Sterling Toles, I am a cross pollinating creative.

(laughing) So we are in the MichaelI mobile homestead at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

And I have a exhibition going on here called Shelves.

So I was brought into this project by curator, Java Lang.

Java was aware of like the work that I've been doing in community for a long time, which was kind of using art as a tool to create community and also collective healing.

This work was informed by many community conversations, I was really fixated on this idea of the relationship between trauma and identity.

All of us have experienced pains and hurts and traumas and regrets and guilts and doubts.

And we try to evolve past those.

But how do you do so when the identity that you refused to let go of, was born out of those things?

This exhibition is an exploration of a lot of different materials and mediums.

I thought it would be interesting to you use materials that have derived from industrial spaces.

And so a lot of those materials are used in the transference of energy.

Thinking about the true nature of our humanity, really, we are not the static things.

We are the constant transference of energy.

Having a solo exhibition for the first time has been very interesting, because I never anticipated ever having one.

Never pursued having one.

My creative practice is always centered around intimacy.

It's interesting to be thrusted in positions where there's greater visibility, because so much of what I'm doing is just about internal introspection.

I wanted to do a few paintings as representation, portraits as a representation of identity.

But when I started to think about identity, I thought about the quandary of how identity doesn't allow us to see others fully.

Oftentimes, we can only see the parts of people that support the perspective that our identity holds.

And so there's often partition between us where we don't fully see people and we aren't seeing fully.

And so I think it's just an interesting relationship to each other as we see only bits and pieces, when we make eyes or when we engage or when we we make contact, you know.

It means everything to me to have my first solo exhibition in Detroit because everything that I think I've done creatively in some way has something to do with Detroit.

What got me interested in being an artist, I think was the realization at a very early age that I could transform how I felt inside by me making things.

I think, Mo Cad's goal for me doing this exhibition was to, I think, have somebody that is really in the trenches and community, kind of create things that hopefully, recharge and revitalize the people that really hold the city up.

You know, I think the diversity of exhibitions and art in a particular space is so important because it allows people to see parts of themselves in an experience to where now they can engage in a way in which their internal power joins the collective force.

That hopefully is about change and justice, and resolution, revolution, you know.

And I think we're in a time now where we realize that we're hopefully beginning to realize that if we are a tree, like that sustenance that the tree needs, involves the energy of everybody to participate for it to be nourished adequately.

- We're gonna leave you now with music from singer Aaron Lewys from his appearance on Detroit.

Performs live from Marygrove.

You can find out more about our guests at americanblackjournal.org.

And as always, you can connect with us on Facebook and on Twitter.

Take care and we'll see you next time.

(upbeat music) I wrote the song for you girl.

I hope you liked.

It goes like this, ♪ You know you're wasting all my time ♪ ♪ With your word play on my mind ♪ ♪ Instead of being all talk ♪ I think you should pack up and walk ♪ ♪ You know I'm tired of your games ♪ ♪ You think you have control of my brain ♪ ♪ I'll give you my best advice ♪ You don't want to pick this fight ♪ ♪ No no no ♪ You think I want your love ♪ But you're nobody I can trust ♪ ♪ So I'm warning you just go ♪ go get out of my life, yeah ♪ I think you had your fun ♪ But now it's time to run ♪ Don't make me say it twice ♪ Stop wasting my time ♪ Stop wasting my time ♪ Now you want me to be nice ♪ Too bad, you didn't get it right ♪ ♪ I don't want you in my life ♪ I don't want you in my life ♪ I put up with you for too long ♪ ♪ So I bid you farewell with this song ♪ ♪ You did your dirt when I found you in his shirt ♪ ♪ And now I wound up hurt ♪ You think I want your love ♪ But your nobody I can trust ♪ So I'm warning you just go ♪ go get out of my life, Yeah ♪ I think you had your fun ♪ But now it's time to run ♪ Don't make me say it twice ♪ Stop wasting my time ♪ Stop wasting my time ♪ Now you want me to be nice ♪ Too bad you didn't get it right ♪ ♪ I don't want you in my life ♪ I don't want you in my life ♪ Shoo shoo shoo ♪ Shoo shoo get out of my life, yeah ♪ ♪ Shoo shoo shoo ♪ Shoo shoo get out of my life, yeah ♪ ♪ Shoo shoo shoo ♪ Shoo shoo shoo ♪ I don't want you in my life ♪ Shoo shoo shoo ♪ Shoo shoo get out of my life, yeah ♪ ♪ Shoo shoo shoo ♪ Shoo shoo get out of my life, yeah ♪ ♪ Shoo shoo shoo ♪ Shoo shoo shoo ♪ Please stop wasting all my time ♪ Break it down.

♪ You think I want your love ♪ But your nobody I can trust ♪ So I'm warning you just go ♪ go get out of my life, Yeah ♪ I think you had your fun ♪ But now it's time to run ♪ Don't make me say it twice ♪ Stop wasting my time ♪ Stop wasting my time ♪ Now you want me to be nice ♪ Too bad you didn't get it right ♪ ♪ Now you want me to be nice ♪ Too bad you didn't get it right ♪ ♪ Now you want me to be nice ♪ Too bad you didn't get it right ♪ ♪ I don't want you in my life ♪ I don't want you in my life - [Announcer 1] From Delta faucets, to bear paint Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco serving Michigan communities since 1929.

- [Announcer 2] Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford fund for journalism at Detroit Public TV.

- [Announcer 3] The DTE foundation proudly supports 50 years of American Black Journal in covering African American history, culture and politics.

The DTE foundation and American Black Journal partners in presenting African American perspectives about our communities and in our world.

- [Announcer 3] Also brought to you by Nissan Foundation.

And viewers like you.

Thank you.

(instrumental music)