Spirits Embodied Gallery & Literary Cafe - an Interview

 with Owner, Granderson Glenn II

by Bonita Lee, SP

      I dragged my 15-year old daughter, Venezuela, along with me to interview Granderson Glenn II, who we will call Glenn, owner of the Spirits Embodied Gallery & Literary Café. You know she protested, as all teenagers feel they have more important things to do on a hot Friday afternoon, than sit in a bookstore listening to the way it use to be! I am sure she felt I brought her along to keep a watchful eye on her, true that, but there was a double edge to my sword, every chance I could sneak in, I expose her to more of our culture, the black culture. 

      This evening we are breaking away from our interviews with those who write and publish books, to the other end of the literary spectrum, the bookstore owner. I believe the two are one [Writers + Bookstore Owners]. Without the other, neither could survive. Spirits Embodied is no ordinary bookstore, which is located on Pittsburgh's North Side at East Ohio Street. Glenn calls his store a "Flower in the Sand."

      As I walked through the doors I felt the overwhelming emotion of a prodigal daughter returning home to the open arms of her parents. Or even more so, it felt as though I crawled out of the desert, dying of thirst and stumbled upon an oasis, with a bounty of water and fresh fruit. If you ever visited a black bookstore you know the feeling.

        We were greeted with music playing background to eager voices talking, laughing in discussions perhaps of the latest new book, or newly arrived art, and we found Glenn in the midst of the conversation, full of energy. I've never seen him without a smile and a willingness to share his knowledge with others. Glenn is no ordinary bookstore owner. He is a man bursting with knowledge on every topic dealing with black history and culture. He is a man of convictions, goal driven in handing down the true story of "our story". He is a man in search of ways to assist our younger generation to find their way back to what it means to be black and proud.

      This afternoon we catch him in the middle of a heavy discussion dealing with lynching in America. As the customers exit, he hands to them printed material on the subject. He later explains to me he regularly hands out information to visitors. If a smile is worth a thousand dollars, let me tell you their smiles must be worth a million. Satisfied Customers!

      Glenn and I begin to discuss his bookstore as my daughter roams the store looking for something familiar in which to connect.

      Let's sit down and listen to Glenn's story, our village Griot, as he welcomes us to his flower in the sand.

      First let me introduce you to our new bookstore format that will be in place starting next month (May of 2005): On Wednesday nights we will hold our Cadre Male Book Club meetings. This club is a great forum; it's more like a mentoring session for our younger members. Our members range from teen-agers to 72 years in age. This brings into our circle a broad range of ideas, experiences and generations connecting with each other. Every week we pick a different literary topic to discuss. Thursdays will be Soul Cinema night, when we show black films. Friday nights will be our Open Mike night. This is not limited to spoken word or readings; this will include Open Mike for musicians/bands. Doesn't matter which instrument you play, everyone is welcomed. Akil Esoon is our house bandmaster who will assist the musicians. Saturdays will we hold Health Forums or book signings. For these forums we will invite local and international speakers to share their wealth of knowledge with people in our communities.

      On May 7th the Homewood Book Fair will be held at the Homewood Library and our Cadre Male Book Club will hold a forum at 1PM. This will be an excellent time for everyone to come out and see what our men's book club is all about. The sisters will be pleased to know we do more than read and discuss books. Several of the members of the Cadre Male Book Club are in the process of putting together a book of survival strategies for young African American males. This book will not have the usual one-sided approach. It will include the collective views of males of all ages and experiences. This is going to be a great book and will be released later this year. A companion to the book will be a CD of personal stories by some of the writers with accompanying music.

      The Sister Circle Book Club also meets here they are in the process of reading Queen Afua, "Scared Woman". I thought this was a great book, written for the females, but as I said, I read all the books on my shelves.

      Another good book on holistic health comes from Dr. Llaila Afrika - "African Holistic Health" it is one of the best health books I've read. He also wrote Nutricide: The nutritional destruction of the Black race. These and more titles all can be found at Spirits Embodied Book Gallery, along with other hard to find books, such as Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu's - Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys; Kashif Malik Hassan-El's - The Willie Lynch Letter and the Making of a Slave; Dr. Malachi Z. York's - The Holy Tablets; Robert Decoy's - The Nigger Bible and Dr. John Henrik Clarke's- Who Betrayed the African World Revolution. Just to name a few. You can check out more titles on last month's Soul Knowledge column and scroll down to The Essential Book List.

      Spirits Embodied Book Gallery offers books from all genres, the urban hip-hop fiction, traditional fiction, self-help, spirituality, and serious non-fiction on politics and social commentaries. We also carry books by local authors such as William Phate Feagins Jr.'s, Deep Within Us All, a spoken word book with an accompanying CD. 

      As a black bookstore we offer authors a venue to hold their book signing. Along with local authors we have also brought in international authors. Another service includes discounts to local book clubs if you allow us to order your books. Our lounge is also available as an alternative meeting place to hold your meetings. A place where you would be surrounded by music, art, books, culture and light refreshments will also be available. There is a group of female doll makers, who create beautiful one-of-a-kind black dolls, who hold their monthly meetings in our lounge.

      I cannot stress enough the need for our communities to support the black owned bookstores.  We are one of the few black cultural institutions left. We have the Black Church, the Black Barbershop and the Black Bookstore. Soon they will all disappear into the mainstream of integration that has already taken over most of our black institutions.

      You cannot sign-on to a major .com bookstore or walk into a local large chain bookstore and receive the personalize service or be surrounded by the same atmosphere as when you walk into Spirits Embodied and other black bookstores. This is where you receive the whole cultural effect. It's an up-close and personal feeling, like one you might feel sitting on the front porch of a childhood friend, and both of you spend the day talking and sipping on fresh lemonade, it's our home. Our bookstores are also a gathering place of male and females holding lively conversations throughout the day on any given subject. There is nothing else quite like it. You can walk in pick up a book and discuss it. I keep repeating there is nothing else like it. It is one of the last cultural institutions where black ownership matters. If you are looking for a friend, walk into a black bookstore, you will always find a friend and good conversation.

      We also specialize in hard to find African American literature. Other large chains will tell you or email you that the book is out of print. They are not out of print. The large chains don't deal with the small independent presses and bookstores. These books are always available at Spirits Embodied. If I don't have what you are searching for, I will order it, even the out of print books. Most books can be ordered and received with 2 to 3 days.

      We also have a list of authors on VHS or DVDs. In today's fast pace world, busy people find it easier to listen to a book. We also have lectures available from authors who have written books. These authors present lectures as a way to update books they may have written years ago. Some of our tapes include Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, who wrote The Isis Papers and Dr. Afrika. I remember once showing a teaching tape to a group of young students. Afterwards, they were all amazed and questioned why their teachers in school couldn't teach them like that.

      We also carry hard to find music and movies, such as the Last Poets, Gil Scott Heron (yes, our culture is still available, you just have to know where to find them); movies, such as Sankofa, the Huey P. Newton Story and all at a good price. We will be receiving more movies in the future.

      Along with the bookstore, Spirits Embodied is an Art Gallery. We carry works by local artists. This is one place you can come in and actually meet the artist. Many of the artists hang out here and talk. Such as Biko, Laverne Kemp, Tina Kenney and Will Feagins, along with others. This is the place to be to meet the local art crowd. 

      By May our lounge area will be revamped offering light refreshments, a comfortable place to sit, relax, talk and hang out.

      Spirits Embodied is also a learning place. We have plans for an upcoming late summer or early fall session to invite children from the neighborhood to come in and create art. When completed they will invite their families to the opening of their art show. We hope this type of activity will encourage children to explore the arts and literary world.

      It gives me a great feeling to see a young brother come in and buy his first book and then later come back to buy another. It doesn't matter what genre people read, as long as they are reading. I personally, read every book I carry as customers will have questions about a book and I like to be able to discuss or offer a knowledgeable opinion. I feel by discussing books with customers, this encourages them to expand their reading from one genre to another, from one level to another.

      Some of you may recognize my name as a contributor of the monthly column in the Soul Pitt called the "Soul Knowledge", where I share information that will challenge people to think. To challenge them to the point they visit the library, go to a computer and to the bookstore and read.

      To me the success of our black bookstores is a matter of black folks supporting each other. Most authors find it hard to get into the major chain stores, so they come to us, the small independent bookstores. Here at our bookstores we don't have a black book shelf or section, we are a black bookstore. It's a whole different vibe when you come in here, you leave smelling good, feeling good, it's a great place to be. Here, you can pick up soap, hair and face products, gemstone jewelry, black art and crafts along with books and DVDs. You can enjoy yourself. We support products that come from our local community.

      The art is also an important part of the store. We just don't sell the artwork; we offer you the background, what tribe or region the mask or artwork originated what it represents. Most places you shop will tell you where it was made; they have no idea of its place in the tribe. A lot of people need to know what they are buying; some won't buy certain art or masks if they have a negative meaning behind it. Many of my customers have brought in artwork they received as gifts for me to give them background information.

        The Gallery also has a line of Afro-centric T-shirts. I was tired of seeing brothers walking the streets in those oversize white-Ts.

STOP THE MADNESS AND WEAR A T-shirt THAT HAS A MEANING.

RESURRECT BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS.

        I am a strong believer that we need more black writers to tell our story on an epic scale. We need to bring across our story as elaborate as possible, as we have led an elaborate existence. A lot of our stories are told as a calendar of facts - 1897, this happened, 1898, that happened. Our existence is not fact after fact we lived lives with intricate details. We need to start including those details, develop stories that captivate the readers' attention. Tell it on an epic level. Another way is to produce more documentaries in keeping our stories alive. We should get into promoting our own selves. We should be the ones to retell our own story.

        Today books are competing with movies and videos. As writers we need to step it up a level. Our history needs to be told in a way to reach the younger generations, if they knew our history, they would know that the majority of Jay-Z's lines were pulled straight out of the collection of Donald Goines books. In the past when I heard some of his lines, I would say, "wait a minute that was from Black Girl Lost, Donald Goines, or Black Gangster, Donald Goines." I read the books so I knew he pulled quotes from those books. The younger generations doesn't know that Donald Goines wrote those lines, they are thinking Wow! Jay-Z came up with some tight rap. Other rappers have pulled quotes even Snoop is trying to live his raps through the Iceberg Slim's book "Pimp Life". The younger generation sees these as new Hollywood characters but they don't know the true-life story. If they come in here, you will learn that and more. There is a book out titled "Donald Writes no More," which tells you Donald Goines true-life story. You can read how he came up with the ideas for all the different books and the experiences he went through. Most of them are from his real life experiences. People think all this hip-hop is new, they don't realize all these stories have been told a long time ago, but now they are putting it to music.

        The Griot was the most important person in the village. That is part of the role of the black bookstore. Our stories are in the black bookstores. They are the foundation of our communities. The black bookstores are your walking, talking history. In Africa they say, every time an elder dies a bookstore closes. Here we have a collection of stories that the elders told; we can't let it go.

        Spirits Embodied Gallery & Literary Café is a "flower in the sand", the most cultural filled place in all Pittsburgh. Visit us at 607 East Ohio Street on the North Side.

Look for our website soon. www.spiritsembodied.com

PEACE

Glenn welcomes all feedback. You may contact him at granglen412@aol.com

Spirits Embodied

Gallery & Literary Café

607 East Ohio Street

Pittsburgh PA 15212

412-867-7822

Spirits Embodied

"Gallery"

Spirits Embodied is the premier art gallery in Western Pennsylvania, specializing in artworks created by African Americans and artists of African descent.  Spirits Embodied sells international artifacts, (pottery, masks, sculptures, etc.) and original fine art and prints.  We strive to exhibit aesthetic and powerful images in a variety of mediums.

Spirits Embodied

"Literary Café"

Spirits Embodied is the only literary café in Western Pennsylvania, specializing in literature written by African Americans and authors of African descent.  Spirits Embodied offers books on self-help, spirituality, urban/hip hop, mystery, romance, health, and "serious" nonfiction on history, politics, and social issues of interest to African Americans.  We also have a wide selection of international coffees and herbal teas for customers to enjoy while they read.

 Spirits Embodied

"Gallery & Literary Café"

Our customer service extends beyond the sale, by ensuring that ethics and accountability are trademark characteristics of each interaction and transaction.