Flava

1. Books with Flava What Librarians Across the Country Tell Us About Their Street Lit Collections

2. What Profanity Urban Sex Crime Drugs Action Slang

3. Who Donald Goines Iceberg Slim 1970's

4. When 1993 Omar Tyree publishes Flyy Girl with Simon & Schuster to great acclaim. Teri Woods self-publishes True to the Game and sells her manuscript out of the trunk of her car. 1994

5. 1998 Sister Souljah publishes The Coldest Winter Ever through a mainstream publishing company, despite heavy controversy. 1999 Teri Woods becomes a millionaire just from selling True to the Game from her car and starts Teri Woods Publishing. Zane publishes The Sex Chronicles and begins a new street lit genre: urban erotica. Vickie Stringer is released from prison and begins selling Let That Be the Reason to her mother’s church friends.

6. Street Lit gets Noticed

7. Vickie Stringer starts Triple Crown Publications, the world’s first publishing house exclusive to street lit. K’wan writes to Vickie Stringer asking for writing advice and instead, gets a publishing deal for Gangsta. In 2003, Nikki Turner publishes A Hustler’s Wife and A Project Chick under Triple Crown Publications. Kwame Teague asks Teri Woods to publish his novel, Dutch, while still incarcerated.

8. Street Lit hits the Mainstream

9. Nikki Turner moves from Triple Crown Publications to a Random House imprint that specializes in multicultural literature called One World / Ballantine. Nikki Turner gets her own imprint entitled "Nikki Turner Presents" within One World / Ballantine. Grand Central Publishing purchases the rights to Teri Wood’s True to the Game and its sequel. They also become the first to publish True to the Game III.

10. Glorifies gangs Realistic portrayal Debate VS

11. Language to which teens relate Homophobic and sexist language VS

12. Overshadows other African American literature VS Gateway genre

13. Spelling and grammatical errors VS Avoidance

14. Characters in street lit sell drugs and engage in casual sex and violence. From these books, teens will learn that this behavior is acceptable. Teens are looking for ways to have those experiences without actually experiencing them. Reading street lit is a safe way to experiment with these desires.

15. Poor Satisfactory Excellent Survey 241 total responses from 35 states

16. IL MI OH IN CA NY

18. 92.5% 7.5% NO YES ? Include street lit

19. too controversial 11.1% poorly written 5.6% negative stereotypes 11.1% no patron interest 50% Those who said no... urban location 11.1%

20. “ ” I am going to try to sneak some in. — librarian in rural OH library, serving more than 200 teens/month “ I'd be happy to include urban fiction in my collection if I thought my teens would go for it, but they're generally uninterested in books that are too gritty or realistic. ” — librarian in suburban MA library, serving 50 teens/month Future? 47% yes 53% no

21. Survey variables • Started with free surveymonkey account, which had limitations. • Only two mandatory questions. Where do you live and do you include street lit in your collection? • Definite confusion on what is considered “street lit.”

22. YOUR Library at Street Lit in Practice

23. How do teens ask for Street Lit? real life urban dramatic girlie books “The books where the girl meets the guy and then he beats her up…”

24. 16.9% Adult 13.2% separate 14.6% YA 86.8% interfiled 68.5% both Where is it? Adult or Young Adult? Interfiled or separate? ”

25. “ “ It's really hard to find. We often talk about how we wish urban fiction (esp. the adult more so than the teen) would have a sticker or some other identifying mark on the spine to help us … find titles when browsing. ” — librarian in suburban WA library, serving more than 200 teens/month We give … subject headings of ‘Urban Fiction’ and ‘Urban Fiction -- Young Adult Fiction.’ After demonstrating this search for many of the teens they've caught on and are now showing other friends how to do this search on the online catalogs. ” — librarian in suburban IA library, serving more than 200 teens/month

26. “ 39.7% Yes It is probably out [sic] moststolen fiction genre… It is nearly impossible to keep on the shelf. It either gets checked out and not returned or it is stolen from theshelves. 37.9% No ” 22.4% some — librarian in suburban SC library, serving more than 200 teens/month Non-return, missing, walk-off: Theft by any other name...

27. “ We have been having a very serious conversation about continuing our high-volume purchasing numbers for this genre…it's just not a good use of our precious-few budget dollars to purchase items that are stolen before they even have a chance to circulate. ” — librarian in urban IN library, serving more than 200 teens/month Creative solutions?

28. Street Lit in Teen Programs Book clubs Book talks Supplemental reading

29. Tips • Read some street lit. • Know your collection. Provide satisfying alternatives if needed. (Be honest!) • Be prepared to answer concerns from your community. • Know where to buy street lit.

30. “ Talking about urban fiction with teens is a great way to get to know them and start a relationship. ” — librarian in urban CA library, serving more than 200 teens/month “ [Urban fiction] books are often lost or not returned. While this makes it difficult for patrons to get the books they want, I think it also provides an exciting opportunity to advertise and promote the collection by doing an amnesty program. ” — librarian in urban MN library, serving 50-100 teens/month

31. Nina Emlen Karen Grenke Christopher Lassen Kristy Raffensberger Bibliography available at www.earlyword.com/street-lit-resources-bea-program

32. www.nikkiturner.com