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| Hearsay: |
A SoHo nightclub venue housing a paid party for an “urban” author turns away her black party goers (who were “fat”) and allows in the white lawyers. Gee, I just don’t understand… I thought racism was fixed now! [knuckles in dimples]
Woods, author of New York Times best seller “True to the Game,” said she arrived to find that all her black guests – some of whom had traveled from as far as Virginia – had been turned away without explanation.
“They left all of my friends and family standing outside,” she said. “I had really serious people out there: lawyers, doctors and people in the entertainment industry.
“I was embarrassed. I was just walking around in circles and in tears. They took my moment.”
A handful of her guests who were white lawyers were allowed in, she said.
“There was nobody out there who was fat, and even if there was a fat person, who cares?”
Robinson, the sister of rapper Queen Pen, said, “When I asked the doorman what was the problem, he just looked past us like we didn’t exist.”
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October 21st, 2009 at 8:49 am
What a strange take on the story. The nightclub is racist?
The fact that this one, like pretty much all “urban lit” is self-published and completely ignored by the publising industry isn’t the story at all, is it? Racism, sure, but what about publishing itself?
October 21st, 2009 at 11:20 am
Um, John… WTF?
Self-published? Completely ignored?
Alibi is published by Grand Central Publishing, part of the Hachette Book Group.
Woods got her start self-publishing, yes, but “this one” is part of a multi-million dollar deal. Hardly the same thing.
October 21st, 2009 at 11:31 am
Yes, some big publishers have come around to Urban Lit and distribute the books, but look at the way this launch was handled. Urban Lit is nowhere near where it should be in publishing if we believe the old line about sales being so important.
It still looks like every urban lit author got their start self-publishing. It still seems like the 50’s music business…
October 21st, 2009 at 11:43 am
Those are definitely valid points, John — thanks for the clarification.
But singling out “this one” as your examplar was… well, it required a certain overlooking of the facts.
The development of urban lit is an interesting one, and it IS a story that’s been recounted and analyzed. I wouldn’t say it’s like the 50’s music business, though — it’s more akin to the current state of hip hop and urban music, which has a large number of artists self-releasing their music and flogging it on the streets of New York, as Woods did with her first book.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:02 pm
I’d like to draw everyone’s attention back to what the article’s about: a club owner and his bouncers kept black people out of a predominantly white-clientele SoHo club because they didn’t think the invited guests fit the aesthetic of the place. Even though the party was a paid event. It wouldn’t matter if she scribbled the words on scrap cardboard with a crayon, if she (or her publisher) was paying to have her party there, or entered into any agreement on the matter, money or no, why were people on her guest list excluded?
How could anyone be questioning the word “racist” here?
October 21st, 2009 at 12:26 pm
But George, they were fat people!
Getting into trendy New York clubs has always been some kind of ism. I would have no chance getting into those clubs – ageism, weightism, facial hairism, uncoolism – take your pick. I don’t even dare try to get into the Drake and the Gladstone is starting to be out of my league.
But I do have to wonder, did someone from Hachette arrange this party, or is urban lit still “self-publishing” and self-promoting but now with multinational distrubutors taking a cut? How involved was the publisher in this launch?
The party-goers have launched a class-action suit and the article doesn’t mention Hachette at all.
I just have a feeling that if the headset-wearing guys at the door of the Drake turned away Margaret Atwood fans because they were too old, M&S would have something to say.