Street Fight: Welcome to the World of Urban Lit by Amy Pattee

Street lit is controversial stuff. From the racy covers (think buxom babes and mouthwatering men) to the provocative titles (like Death Before Dishonor) to the assorted R-rated acts, it’s enough to make many librarians reach for the Advil. And they’re not the only ones. Read more

The Rise of Street Literature by Almah LaVon Rice

IN PERCIVAL EVERETT’S NOVEL Erasure, Thelonious Ellison is a college professor who writes novels that are more praised than read. His work’s engagement with French post-structuralists and ancient Greek literature impresses and baffles reviewers, who wonder what those subjects have to do with the African-American experience. Frustrated by his latest novel’s seventh rejection and angered by the success of the street-lit hit We’s Lives in Da Ghetto, Ellison dashes off a novella parodying the “true, gritty real stories of [B]lack life” that he has been advised to write. This satiric tale, which is included in Erasure in its entirety, is peopled with stock characters like the perennially scowling thug and the vapid baby mama. It is sent to Random House as a protest, but to Ellison’s amazement and chagrin he is offered a $600,000 advance for his “magnificently raw and honest” account. Compromised, disgusted and rich, Ellison creates a reclusive, ex-con writer persona that the literary world celebrates as a “real! live! scary! Black male!” writer in their midst. Read more

Street Fiction in Canada…

TORONTO, ON (August 2008) – With the release of her novel collection, the “Urban Toronto Tales,” Toronto-born writer Stacey Marie Robinson is poised to carve out a unique position for herself as the literary voice of first-generation Canadians.

“The Urban Toronto Tales will immediately remind readers of their friends, co-workers or classmates, and most importantly themselves,” said Robinson. “I cover topics from relationships to higher education to crime, all with an underlying theme of finding oneself and making intelligent choices. My characters speak and exist in a contemporary Canadian context that all readers can definitely relate to and appreciate.” Read more

PAYBACK IS A MUTHA by Wahida Clark

Brianna and Shan couldn’t be more different. From her $1200 weave to her closet full of Gucci, Prada, and Chanel, Brianna believes men were born to bankroll her lifestyle. Shan likes to make his own money by working for a living at a men’s prison – and prefers Sean John, Baby Phat, and Fubu to Jimmy Choo. Still, despite appearances, Shan and B are sisters where it counts – or so they think…

For B, lying is part of the hustle, and the hustle is what gets her sex, clothes, cars – pretty much whatever she wants. She couldn’t care less who gets hurt along the way, as long as it isn’t her. But it’s one thing to hustle tricks, and quite another to betray the one person who really cares. When one of B’s schemes goes too far, blood is spilled – and Shan is caught in the crossfire. Now, with friendship and lives on the line, Brianna’s got one last chance to change her ways – or suffer the consequences…

Find more street lit by Wahida Clark.

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York teens enjoy street lit

The first time 16-year-old Jordan Richardson critiqued a book that wasn’t for school was during a meeting of the DREAM Readers book club at Martin Library.

That was 18 months ago when the teen club was new and the library just building up its collection of “street lit,” a gritty genre of African-American writing often dominated by urban street life — fast cars, rap music, sex, drugs and varying degrees of crime and punishment.

“I thought it was cool to read and talk about them,” said the 11th-grader at William Penn Senior High School. Read more

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