- In case you didn't know, September is Black Reading Month.

And that's a time to celebrate literature, culture, and the written word as it relates to the African American experience.

This month, the community's encouraged to read books, magazines, and journals, all written by black authors, and to support black-owned bookstores.

I spoke with one of the co-founders of Black Reading Month, Malik Yakini, about the importance of the September observance.

Black Reading Month, something you co-founded.

Let's start with just the origin of that.

How'd you come up with this idea?

- Well, in 1978, '79, myself and my wife at the time, Inky Ruka Yakini and Dr Keith Dye had created a company called New Directions Information Institute.

And we were distributing black magazines and books, trying to get them in kind of mainstream stores throughout the city.

So we noticed that grocery stores, for example, at the checkout counter, there were various magazines, but none of the magazines dealt with the black experience.

Or those who dealt with the black experience, dealt with entertainment and issues like that.

There were no real serious black publications in the places where people went every day to shop.

So our attempt was to get those magazines and books in those kinds of stores.

And so for about two years we were distributing, going every month, dropping off magazines like "Black Enterprise" and "Africa Magazine" and others that dealt with serious issues of the day.

But when we came back at the end of the month, we noticed only one or two had sold.

So we realized that it was more than just getting access to the publications, we needed a public campaign in order to promote the importance of reading black books and magazines.

And so we met with a number of other black book distributors and black book sellers in Chicago with Third World Press in the summer of 1980.

And out of that, we decided to come back to Detroit and do something concrete.

There had been a lot of discussion on the national level about some kind of promotional campaign.

We decided to come back to Detroit and create Black Reading Month.

September as Black Reading Month.

We set it for September because that's the time when students are, at least at that time period, that's when students were going back to school.

I understand students are going back to school earlier now.

And also it was the peak book buying month in the book industry.

So we wanted to not only promote literacy, in general, we think it's important that people be literate and well-informed about what's going on both in their communities and the world, but, specifically, we wanted to promote familiarity with the black literary tradition so that we can, as a people, ground ourself in our own experience.

And have a window to look at the world which is informed by that legacy.

- Yeah, yeah.

And this is something that's celebrated in many different places now.

I mean, it's kind of an international phenomenon.

- Yeah, well, you know, especially with the advent of the information super highways, they used to call it, you know, people all around the country and around the world have become familiar with Black Reading Month and are celebrating it or observing it in various ways.

The most fundamental way that we ask people to celebrate or observe Black Reading Month is to read at least one book by a black author during the month of September.

That's kind of the low bar.

But at least one.

You know, and that might sound like it's not a big accomplishment, but the reality is in American society, the average adult has not read a book in the last five years.

And so we have a tremendous problem with literacy in general, but again, with black people in this country, people of African descent, we have the problem of living in a society which has intentionally kind of covered up our history, our culture.

And part of that is the tremendous contributions that we made to literature.

- Yeah, yeah.

You know, I think we'd be remiss to talk about reading and African Americans without talking about the linkage between literacy, and the word, and freedom.

And the idea of liberation, both in terms of resistance to slavery and to things like Jim Crow that came after it, but also in terms of just the idea of self-determination.

That bedrock is very rich with the ability to read and the proclivity to read, to understand, to know more, to know ourselves, and to know the world around us.

- Yeah, I don't think I could've said it better, Stephen.

In fact, maybe we'll hire you as a spokesperson for black reading.

(Stephen laughing) But our tagline has always been, black reading is crucial for black survival.

And it really speaks to what you're saying, both in the times that we were in chattel slavery, having access to the printed word and having access to the world of information that that opens up was certainly a liberating experience, and certainly something that our ancestors struggled for.

In the current time period, being well-informed is extremely important.

And especially in this age of misinformation and intentional disinformation, it's important that we're reading from multiple sources and that we're comparing that information and that we're thinking critically.

And that we're arriving at decisions which help to benefit ourselves as individuals, our families, and our community.

- Yeah.

You have an event coming up in September around this as well.

- Well, actually, we were trying to get an event nailed down.

We don't have it nailed down yet.

I wish I could give you the details.

But I would just encourage people to stay tuned to the September's Black Reading Month Facebook page for that potential Detroit event.

But the main thing is that we want people in their own homes.

Not so much, you know, we used to try to get people to come out to big public activities, but in their own homes, we want people to do a couple things.

One, as I said, to read at least one book during the month of September by a black author.

And then, two, for those who are up to it, we ask them to participate in the turn off the TV challenge.

That is to turn off the television for the entire month, except for shows like "American Black Journal."

- Except for "American Black Journal," of course.

- Yeah, no, but seriously, which speak to our experience and helped to uplift us.

But we're trying to break people from the habit of kind of mindless television watching.

And so the turn off the TV challenge during the month of September is really a fast of sorts.

It's a fast to break our addiction to television.

It's a fast that enables us to take the time that perhaps we were using watching television in the past, and use that to read.

And also, it's an exercise in self-discipline.

Fasting of any sort also always strengthens us and allows us to have the kind of fortitude to move through the challenges that we're facing in life.

- Yeah, yeah.

So before we go, gimme a suggestion for listeners.

The one book, if they might choose to read a book by an African American author this month?

- Well, there's so many books.

I can't narrow it down to one.

- Yeah.

- But what I'll say is I've been doing lots of family research over the last several months and finding out incredible things about my family right here in Detroit.

There's so much history that is still to be uncovered.

Much of it is out there, but it's in archives, and newspapers, and books, and so we have to dig to find it.

But one of the books I'm rereading is "Black Detroit" by Herb Boyd.

- Herb Boyd, yeah.

- I would strongly suggest that if people want to have an overview of the history of people of African scent descent in the city of Detroit, that that would be an excellent book to start with.

- Yeah, yeah.

- "Black Detroit" by Herb Boyd.

- Yeah, no, that's an excellent book.

And, of course, Herb's a great author and thinker.

I'm gonna suggest a book too.

It's a book that I just bought last week.

It's by a woman named Alice Randall, and it is about the history and linkage of country music to the African-American tradition.

The way in which country is ours, like all American music is ours.

- Absolutely, absolutely.

- It's a really wonderful book.

And it comes with an album of several African American artists' recording.

- You know, Beyonce now has kind of tapped into this- - Absolutely.

- So I'm sure there's a lot of interest in that now.

I'm sure people will be picking that book up to kind of see historically, 'cause people think that, some people think Beyonce is the first black artist to delve in that genre.

- Not quite, not quite.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

All right, Malik Yakini, it's always great to- - Thank you, Stephen.

- See you.

Thanks so much for being with us on "American Black Journal."

- Thank you so much.

- That'll do it for us this week.

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

And you can always connect with us on social media.

Take care, and we'll see you the next time.

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