Street Smart: Urban Fiction in Public Libraries

Instructor: Vanessa Irvin Morris, M.S.L.S., Ed.D.Sponsor: Public Library AssociationWebinar, 15 May 2013

Goals of this Webinar

Today’s Learning Outcomes:•Understand the evolution of street lit as we know it today

•Articulate the difference between urban fiction and street lit

•Refer to established resources for the purpose of collection development and readers advisory

Evolution of Street Lit(erature)• First question is: What is street literature about?• Life in city streets

• Interactions / Communications• Relationships• Life experiences

• Stories about the challenges of urban living for:• Middle- and/or low-income citizens• Immigrants• The Poor

• So given these considerations, we can ask:“Where did these stories come from?” “How far back

does street lit go?” “What’s the earliest traceable story

about a low-income city dweller and their life experiences?”

The earliest known street lit novel happens to be one of the first novels published in English!

Evolution of Street Lit(erature)• Defoe, D. (1722). The Fortunes and Misfortunes of

the Famous Moll Flanders. London: Thomas.• The full, original title of the text says it all:• The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll

Flanders, &c. Who was Born in Newgate, and during a Life of continu'd Variety for Threescore Years, besides her Childhood, was Twelve Year a Whore, five times a Wife (whereof once to her own Brother), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv'd Honest, and died a Penitent. Written from her own Memorandums.

• The story is about:• A woman• Born in a London prison• Lived a criminal life• Found redemption• Then died.

Evolution of Street Lit(erature)• Daniel Defoe was one of the first novelists. Robinson Crusoe and

Moll Flanders were originally serialized in newspapers.• The newspaper was the original “street literature” in the format of

broadsides (think of scribes and town criers of yesteryear yelling, “Hear ye! Hear ye!”).• Street literature ephemera show that gritty stories were told:

• Romance, Affairs• Community events, Politics • Crimes, Executions• Humor, Weather, Almanac info

• The stories via:• Short story• Poetry• Ballads• Prose

• Compilation of serialized stories from city newspapers and broadsides became the novel.

Evolution of Street Lit(erature)• 19th C.: city novels coincided with European immigration wave to American cities (Dunlap, 1934)• Depicted citizens’ harsh adjustments to city life

with the following themes:• City plagues and epidemics• Duelling• Alcoholism (Intemperance)• Poverty• Domestic violence• Crime• Religious life

• Late 19th C. – early 20th C.: rise of the naturalism movement that explored city social conditions and effects• Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist (1834); Tale of Two Cities (1859)• Margaret Lee: A Brooklyn Bachelor (1886)• Jacob Riis’ photographic treatise: How the Other Half Lives (1890)• Stephen Crane: Maggie, A Girl of the Streets (1893)• Frank Norris: McTeague (1899)

Small sampling of 19th Century City Novels

•J.T. Irving: The Attorney (1842)

•George Lippard: The Quaker City (1844)

•George Foster: Celio (1850)

•Charles Gayler: Out of the Streets (1869)

•Harriett Beecher Stowe: My Wife and I (1871)

•Rebecca Harding Davis: A Law Unto Herself (1878)

Evolution of Street Lit(erature)• 20th Century: • Migration patterns spawns new migrants to cities:• Paul Laurence Dunbar’s novel Sport of the Gods (1908)• Claude McKay: Home to Harlem (1928)• Henry Roth: Call It Sleep (1934)

• Harlem Renaissance:• Richard Wright: Native Son (1940)• Chester Himes: If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945)• Anne Petry: The Street (1946)

• 1950s-1960s:• Hurbert Selby, Jr.: Last Exit to Brooklyn (1957)• Mario Puzo: The Fortunate Pilgrim (1965)• Claude Brown: Manchild of the Promised Land (1965)• Malcolm X: Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)• Piri Thomas: Down these Mean Streets (1967)

Evolution of Street Lit(erature)• 1970s Pulp Fiction• Iceberg Slim• Donald Goines

• 1970s-1980s: Two worlds collide• Hip Hop (started in 1972: DJ Cool Herc)• The War on Drugs (decl. by Pres. Nixon, 1971)

• 1990s: A Street Literature renaissance• Omar Tyree: Flyy Girl (1996)• Sister Souljah: The Coldest Winter Ever (1999)• Teri Woods: True to the Game (1999)

• 2000’s: Current day authors• K’wan• Treasure E. Blue• Wahida Clark• Ashley and JaQuavis Coleman

My definition for Street Lit

• My original definition:Contemporary Street Literature can be defined as a literary

genre "where the stories, be they fiction or non-fiction, are consistently set in urban, inner-city enclaves. Street Literature of yesteryear and today, by and large, depicts tales about the daily lives of people living in lower income city neighborhoods. This characteristic spans historical timelines, varying cultural identifications, linguistic associations, and various format designations." - The Readers' Advisory Guide to Street Literature, 2011, p. 2.

My definition for Street Lit• My evolving definition:

Contemporary Street Literature can be defined as a literary genre "where the stories, be they fiction or non-fiction, are consistently set in urban, inner-city enclaves where city dwellers experience risky lifestyles that are often violent and/or illegal in nature, for the purpose of survival. Street Literature of yesteryear and today, by and large, depicts dystopian tales about the daily lives of people living in lower income city neighborhoods. This characteristic spans historical timelines, varying cultural identifications, linguistic associations, and various format designations."

Street Lit vs. Urban Fiction

Characteristics of Street Lit

• Set in and depicting daily living of low-income city residents• Fast paced stories, often with flashback

sequences• Vivid depictions of the inner city environment • poverty• substandard housing• lack of access to civic resources

• The street as an interactive stage

Characteristics of Street lit

• Female and male identity formation (via intense relationships, often romantic in nature)• Protagonists are often young adults (common age range 19 – 25)

• Navigation of interpersonal relationships • surviving abuse• betrayal in friendships• fantastical revenge plots

• Commodification of lifestyles• Surviving street life – overcoming street lifestyle – the

challenge of moving up and away from the streets• Which involves “risk”: Risky behaviors and lifestyles for the

purpose of survival

Characteristics of Street Lit

These characteristics are not exclusive. Can blend across genres, such as:

Romance Mystery Speculative Fiction Science Fiction

Black The Bridge A Wish After Midnight Mind of My Mind (2003) (2003) (2010) (1994)

Latest trends in Street Lit• Hip Hop publishing Street Lit

• eBooks and mobile devices

Who reads contemporary street literature?

ResourcesCOLLECTION DEVELOPMENT / READERS ADVISORY SOURCES

•Boyd, K.C. 2013. Urban Fiction/Street Literature Collection Development for School Libraries. Slideshare. Available: http://www.slideshare.net/kcboyd1/street-lit-collection-development-2013-18651891 .

•Honig, Megan. 2010. Urban Grit: A Guide to Street Lit. Genreflecting Advisory Series. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

•Irvin Morris, Vanessa. 2011. The Readers Advisory Guide to Street Literature. ALA Readers’ Advisory Series. Chicago: ALA Editions.

•Irvin Morris, Vanessa. 2009 - . StreetLiterature.com. Blog. Available: http://www.streetliterature.com.

•Street Lit Collection Development Resources. 2011. ALA. Wiki. Available: http://wikis.ala.org/professionaltips/index.php?title=Street_Lit_Collection_Development_Resources

ResourcesONLINE REVIEW SOURCES

•Saddleback Educational Publishing: Urban Fiction Series for Teens • http://www.sdlback.com/estore/search/

•StreetLiterature.com: Bringing You the Word on Street Lit & Urbanity.• http://www.streetliterature.com

•StreetFiction.org: Author Interviews, News & Reviews of Urban Books• http://www.streetfiction.org

•Urban E-Reads: http://www.urbanereads.com/•Urban Reviews Online. • http://www.urbanreviewsonline.com/search/label/Latest%20Reviews

•Urbania: Urban literature and arts magazine.• http://urbaniamag.com/

•The Word on Street Lit: Book Reviews from Library Journal.• http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/category/collection-development/african-american-fiction-

and-more/

•For more online review resources, see: http://www.streetliterature.com/p/parking-lot.html

ResourcesRESEARCH TEXTS•Gifford, Justin. 2013. Pimping Fictions: African American Crime Literature and the Untold Story of Black Pulp Publishing. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.•Ratner, Andrew. 2009. Street Lit: Teaching and Reading Fiction in Urban Schools. Practical Guides Series. NY: McGraw-Hill.•Sweeney, Megan. 2010. Reading Is My Window: Books and the Art of Reading in Women's Prisons. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Upcoming Research to watch out for:•Graaff, Kristina. 2013. (forthcoming). The Street-Prison Symbiosis: A Spatial Analytical Tool to Interlink Literary and Material Spaces of Marginality. Doctoral dissertation. Berlin, Germany: Humboldt University.•Norris, Keenan. 2013. (forthcoming). MARGINALIZED-LITERATURE-MARKET-LIFE: Black Writers, a Literature of Appeal, and the Rise of Street Lit. Doctoral Dissertation. Riverside, CA: University of California.•Norris, Keenan, ed. 2013. (forthcoming). Street Lit: Popularity, Controversy & Analysis. NY: Scarecrow Press.

ResourcesStreet Lit on SOCIAL MEDIA

• Blogs• The Audacious Librarian• PHAT Fiction• StreetLiterature.com

• Facebook Groups• Urban Hip-Hop & Street Literature Books• Urban Street Lit Book Readerz• Urban Reviews Facebook Group• K’wan’s Readers• My Urban Books Club• Street Fiction Ebooks• Readers’ Advisory Guide to Street Literature

• Goodreads• http://www.goodreads.com/group/show_tag/103123-urban-fiction-review?name=street-lit

• Pinterest• http://pinterest.com/Bilbary/street-lit/• http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=street+lit

• Social Network• Street Lit Review: Urban Literature Arts & Poetry

• Twitter• @myurbanbooks• @urbaniamagazine• @urbanlitreview• #streetlit• #urbanfiction

Book Award for Street LitStreet Lit Book Award Medal (SLBAM)

•Convened in 2011

•National committee of librariansand library workers

•Includes non-fiction, fiction, young adult, and author categories

•Has become highly anticipatedaward; awards published viaLibrary Journal, SLJ, and major library systems

•Retroactive SLBAM winners to1999 at: http://www.streetliterature.com/p/slbam.html

Q&A

It’s been a pleasure…

Thank you for your time and attention today.•Contact Information:• Vanessa Irvin Morris, M.S.L.S., Ed.D.

• Email: vmorris@drexel.edu

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vanirvinmorris

• Twitter: @vanirvinmorris

• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/vanirvinmorris

• Blog: http://www.streetliterature.com

• Website: http://www.vanirvinmorris.com

Credits• Dunlap, George Arthur. 1934. City in the American Novel, 1789-1900: A

Study of American Novels Portraying Contemporary Conditions in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. NY: Russell & Russell.

• Irvin Morris, Vanessa. 2011. The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Street Literature. ALA Readers’ Advisory Series. Chicago: ALA Editions.

• National Library of Scotland. 2004. The Word on the Street. Website. Edinburgh, Scotland. Available: http://digital.nls.uk/broadsides/index.html

• Online resources:• Google Images. Various images.• Gutenberg Project. Various sources.• StreetLiterature.com. Various articles.• Wikipedia. Various articles.