Speaker 1: My league bus has how to knowledge you want. My
Speaker 1: league has how to knowledge you need.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they have out of books that the whole wild
Speaker 2: world one up read Malague Buds. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to
Speaker 2: Malik's Bookshelf, bringing a world together with books, culture and community.
Speaker 3: Hi, my name is Malik, your host of Malik's Bookshell.
Speaker 4: Wooooo.
Speaker 3: June was a captivating month.
Speaker 2: I tell you, we hosted so many events here at
Speaker 2: Malague Books. I was able to record some of these
Speaker 2: events for my podcast. I was able to interview Nicolehannah Jones,
Speaker 2: I interviewed Macari Sellers. I was also able to which
Speaker 2: I'm a feature on this episode, Tiffany Haddish.
Speaker 3: I wasn't able to talk to Taraji p Henson, but.
Speaker 2: We blew the event out the water, and I mean
Speaker 2: it was a home run. The June Team Celebration, headlined
Speaker 2: by Taraji Pte Henson was amazing, extraordinary, electric.
Speaker 1: The community came out.
Speaker 2: It was an awesome day of music, poetry, panel discussion, information,
Speaker 2: free food, Junet, memorability of giving out and Taraji Pete
Speaker 2: Henson this story time and I mean it was powerful.
Speaker 1: The crowds was enormous.
Speaker 2: I think we had at least eight to nine hundred
Speaker 2: people that came out for this event.
Speaker 3: Now throughout the event, the June team, it was more
Speaker 3: than that.
Speaker 2: But I'm just speaking about the story time and book
Speaker 2: signing part because this was a you know, from.
Speaker 3: One to five four our event that took place.
Speaker 2: But we had Taraji p at three o'clock doing storytime
Speaker 2: and followed by the book signing, and it was incredible.
Speaker 2: The line wrapped the round the mall again. But their
Speaker 2: crowd downstairs, now everybody came, Not everybody came.
Speaker 1: For the book signing.
Speaker 2: They some came for the storytime, some came for storytime
Speaker 2: book signing, some just came for the book signing. But
Speaker 2: while they was doing the storytime, it was about seven
Speaker 2: e hundred people standing downstairs. The line upstairs for people
Speaker 2: waiting for her to come up into Elik Books because
Speaker 2: we hosted her downstairs in the center court of Westville
Speaker 2: COVID City story.
Speaker 3: Timing that's where the Junior team celebration was taking place.
Speaker 2: But upstairs, after that event, we escorted a back for
Speaker 2: the book signing, more private, intimate environment, and the drummers
Speaker 2: from Loyola Elementary were so powerful and touching. It moved
Speaker 2: Rogie p Henson and she graciously signed all of their books.
Speaker 2: First we as when she came up to do the
Speaker 2: book signed all the kids that performed drums and dancing.
Speaker 1: Was incredible.
Speaker 2: They came right up behind her and she signed all
Speaker 2: of their books and it was a wonderful, wonderful event,
Speaker 2: amazing event. I love when we hit it out the park.
Speaker 2: That's what we do, get voice to the voiceless. Well,
Speaker 2: it just so happened. We helped to Rogie pet book.
Speaker 5: You Can Be a Good Friend No Matter What, is
Speaker 5: number one New York Times best seller, You Hurt Me,
Speaker 5: the number one children book in the country, the New
Speaker 5: York Times bestseller, You Can Be a Good Friend No
Speaker 5: Matter What.
Speaker 2: And elitite books helped make that possible because we sold
Speaker 2: Hundredson huntreson hundreds.
Speaker 3: Of her book and the line wrapped around the mall.
Speaker 1: It was incredible.
Speaker 2: It was amazing and I'm still high from the event.
Speaker 2: But we also but I'm moving on, moving on. We
Speaker 2: also this month hosted Bacari Sellers. Like I said, we
Speaker 2: also hosted Nicole Hannah Jones, which was ahead at the
Speaker 2: Miracle Theater upcoming in August thirteenth. Jay Ellis wrote a
Speaker 2: book in that and right now, that book and in
Speaker 2: front of me.
Speaker 1: So I'm not even gonna try to. You know, it's
Speaker 1: a book.
Speaker 2: About you know, growing up and having an imagined and
Speaker 2: every friend. But I be honest, I don't recall the title,
Speaker 2: so I won't even try. But Jay Ellis in conversation
Speaker 2: with Easter Ray is going down August thirteenth at the
Speaker 2: Miracle Theater at seven pm.
Speaker 1: It's a book launch party.
Speaker 3: It's a book signing, photo op and after a party.
Speaker 1: It's going down Elite books dot com.
Speaker 3: The reserve your tickets. We got VIP which includes floor seating, books, signed,
Speaker 3: photo op, after party.
Speaker 1: Can't beat that.
Speaker 3: Come on, we're gonna party. We're gonna have a good time,
Speaker 3: all right.
Speaker 2: But another person that flew under the radar was an
Speaker 2: event that we hosted that week called Built from the
Speaker 2: Fire by Look by Victor Lukinson. Now this event was
Speaker 2: epic because it kicked off our June team celebration, to
Speaker 2: be honest, before Saturday. Because this went down Tuesday night
Speaker 2: at Malik Books and we had the Descendants from the
Speaker 2: Miracle I'm sorry, the Descendants from the Dreamland Theater two
Speaker 2: of them that was related to the owner in the
Speaker 2: house and talked to talk about, you know, the history
Speaker 2: of Greenwood and them being a descendant of the owner
Speaker 2: of the Greenwood Theater. The book the book Built from
Speaker 2: the Fire, the epic story of TSA's Greenwood District, America's
Speaker 2: Black Wall Street one hundred years in the neighborhood that
Speaker 2: refused to be a race by Victor Luckerson, and he
Speaker 2: just talked about the history then and the history now,
Speaker 2: and he was very brilliant, sounded like a professor. We
Speaker 2: just had a wonderful time. The whole Pinel discussion was
Speaker 2: moderated by Shiva Turk. She's an anchor on CBA CBS
Speaker 2: morning show that call k Kyle and you know she's
Speaker 2: from New Orleans now she's in LA she's author herself
Speaker 2: and she's a morning anchor. She's doing great things and
Speaker 2: she was the host and it was just a wonderful
Speaker 2: conversation about Greenwood and.
Speaker 1: We had a wonderful time to go on.
Speaker 2: Over that history and reminiscing off of yesterday, but more
Speaker 2: importantly about what's happening now. What's happening now, And one
Speaker 2: of the things that was touched on was just recently
Speaker 2: a lawsuit was thrown out of I believe one of
Speaker 2: the courts. I don't know if it's state or federal,
Speaker 2: but it was several three or four descendants. They're still
Speaker 2: alive from the murder and my security that took place
Speaker 2: in nineteen twenty one in Toasa, Oklahoma, and the lawsuit
Speaker 2: was thrown out. It's not like you giving money to
Speaker 2: a descendant. You giving money now, the money ain't gonna
Speaker 2: make you or ain't gonna bring back the house. It
Speaker 2: ain't gona bring back to people who's murder, but it
Speaker 2: can't help make you whole. And that's why you have lawsuits.
Speaker 2: These descendants are still around, they in their hundreds and
Speaker 2: they was part of this lawsuit and the government threw
Speaker 2: it out because they didn't want a president to take
Speaker 2: place of president to take prace because it would be
Speaker 2: kind of the first in a way of reparations for
Speaker 2: people who have been persecuted, oppressed, property taken, and.
Speaker 1: So much more.
Speaker 2: Yet, they proved the case beyond a shadowble doubt why
Speaker 2: this case should go forward, But yet the government made
Speaker 2: some kind of ruling to kick it out because they
Speaker 2: didn't want this case to go to court in them win,
Speaker 2: and then it will be used all across this nation
Speaker 2: to talk about a very important topic, which is reparation.
Speaker 2: This is not just a looning tune controversy or some
Speaker 2: made up term that don't have no meaning and don't
Speaker 2: have no importance. Listen, We're talking about a country who
Speaker 2: enslaved and they want to avoid this topic, and it's
Speaker 2: a hot topic. Come on now, they don't want to
Speaker 2: talk about the oppression and enslavement that took place with
Speaker 2: Black Americans. This country has been the greatest enemy to
Speaker 2: the oppression of black people, and this government had gave
Speaker 2: an umbrella to every corporation and every individual in America
Speaker 2: to take part in crimes against humanity, enslavement of black people,
Speaker 2: and they don't want to address the atrocities.
Speaker 3: I heard one report, if America.
Speaker 2: Was to give reparations to black people, we'd be talking
Speaker 2: about one hundred trillion dollars. You know, much money the
Speaker 2: insurance companies made and profited. You know how much money
Speaker 2: major corporations in America made and profited off of slavery.
Speaker 2: A lot of these countries, a lot, I'm sorry, a
Speaker 2: lot of these companies made their wealth off the backs
Speaker 2: of slave labor or slave wages. And so we cannot
Speaker 2: forget that reparations is a legitimate argument, and it shouldn't
Speaker 2: be because the people in power today inherited the wealth
Speaker 2: of America yesterday, and yet they don't want to find
Speaker 2: a way to make black people who are descendants of
Speaker 2: that oppression and enslavement hold And it's a legitimate argument,
Speaker 2: and we not need not to. You can agree with
Speaker 2: it or not, but it don't say it's not a
Speaker 2: legitimate argument because to say that it's to you know,
Speaker 2: I was about to cuss, but is shi t on
Speaker 2: the descendants of enslavement and.
Speaker 1: Oppression of America.
Speaker 2: So I think it's important that we find a way
Speaker 2: to argue this in a legal way. But it appears
Speaker 2: that warfare in this country is something that is practiced.
Speaker 3: In the way of law. It is called law.
Speaker 2: Fare, and they use the judicial system as a weapon
Speaker 2: against the oppressed people of America.
Speaker 1: And it's something that has.
Speaker 2: Been being practice for quite some time when comes to
Speaker 2: black people where and others in America where it just
Speaker 2: quite don't fit the direction and agenda and the narrative
Speaker 2: that they want to take place.
Speaker 3: And so lawfare is just using the judicial system to.
Speaker 2: Raise havoc in war on the people that they don't
Speaker 2: like or they want to undermine. This lawfair was done
Speaker 2: on black organizations, on black leaders all across this nation,
Speaker 2: but nobody wants to talk about it because of the
Speaker 2: fact that it's hard to prove. It's hard to prove.
Speaker 3: But where our rights stop in this country, White.
Speaker 1: America rights begin, and that's been the.
Speaker 2: Double standard of America that we have been fighting hard
Speaker 2: to change.
Speaker 3: Black people have died to try to bring unity.
Speaker 1: And peace in this nation, only to be.
Speaker 2: Shot down, ridiculed, imprisoned, made mockery of the media viserating them,
Speaker 2: made them sound like they have mental illness.
Speaker 1: All of these things have taken place in America and
Speaker 1: we should.
Speaker 2: Not allow the country off just because we've made progress.
Speaker 2: There is a debt that is old and we need
Speaker 2: to get powerful enough to claim what is rightfully old
Speaker 2: to us because of the oppression and enslavement that was
Speaker 2: done to us in America. There are tons of books
Speaker 2: to show it, and I don't have enough time to
Speaker 2: go on to that and won't, but as a bookstore
Speaker 2: owner Malik Books, we got tons of books that talk
Speaker 2: about reparation and the atrocities that have taken place in
Speaker 2: America that most Americans, I can assure you are not
Speaker 2: aware of. And they simply put Obama Care is not
Speaker 2: sufficient for payment for four hundred years of enslavement and oppression.
Speaker 2: Plain and shupple and free education to go to your
Speaker 2: elementary and high schools is.
Speaker 3: Not payment to for what enslavement.
Speaker 2: And oppression this country has done to Black people. We
Speaker 2: are not gonna let you off the hook just because
Speaker 2: we might have produced out of the wickedness of the
Speaker 2: past of America, someone like a Beyonce or a Denzel
Speaker 2: Washington or all Taraji p Henson or.
Speaker 3: Spike Lee.
Speaker 1: I can go on and on. Yes, we have a
Speaker 1: lot of individuals that.
Speaker 2: Have achieved enormous success in this country because of their
Speaker 2: hard work and belief in themselves. But that does not
Speaker 2: excuse this country from the onslaught and incarceration and the
Speaker 2: oppression of hundreds and hundreds of thousands and millions of
Speaker 2: oppressed Black people who just have not found a way
Speaker 2: to be successful. So that's you know, that's my thoughts.
Speaker 2: And I say built from the fire last because it
Speaker 2: was fire that elevated our rise and our success in
Speaker 2: America despite the enslavement, no pressure. That's what the sixteen
Speaker 2: nineteenth project, the New organ Story by Nicole Hannah Jones.
Speaker 1: Is all about.
Speaker 3: It's about the achievements and the resilience of us in America.
Speaker 1: And I am for reparations. Simply put.
Speaker 2: It is old to us because of what I don't
Speaker 2: think in a lotment of money.
Speaker 1: Let's get this straight.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: A lot of different views about how reparations should be
Speaker 2: adminished to the basses, but I will say this, it
Speaker 2: has to be used to.
Speaker 1: Solve the damage.
Speaker 3: It can't solve it.
Speaker 2: Just giving people a check ain't gonna solve the data.
Speaker 2: A lot of people all just give me a check.
Speaker 1: What you're gonna do with it?
Speaker 3: Turn around and buy the Bentley, turn around and buy
Speaker 3: you all.
Speaker 2: Some of these frivolous things with the money that don't
Speaker 2: bring wealth.
Speaker 1: We need generation of wealth.
Speaker 2: We need to be able to say all the damage
Speaker 2: that was done, that's the purple.
Speaker 1: And so that's the tricky part, that's the hard part.
Speaker 2: And it ain't do but part of the reparation it
Speaker 2: has to be the solve a generation of issues, the
Speaker 2: teenage pregnancy, the low scores on SATs and proficiency tests.
Speaker 2: All the issues plaguing Black of Murray, the trauma, the
Speaker 2: all the the mental issues that exist within our community,
Speaker 2: the abuse as we see h P. Dady beating on
Speaker 2: someone and normalizing this behavior and getting away with it
Speaker 2: and everybody around.
Speaker 1: Them not speaking up.
Speaker 2: You know, these are the kind of things that the
Speaker 2: Reparations has to solve.
Speaker 1: We have to solve the problem with self.
Speaker 2: Hatred and lack of love of self, so, you know,
Speaker 2: we it has to solve that. If nothing else, then
Speaker 2: that has to be at the forefront to solve a
Speaker 2: generation of traumatized people and bring them hole and try
Speaker 2: to help them to live a life of peace and prosperity.
Speaker 2: So I'm a feature also on this episode. My conversation
Speaker 2: I had with Tiffany Hadis. We just hosted her at
Speaker 2: Malik Books. Her new book I Curse You with Joy
Speaker 2: was amazing and incredible, and we had a wonderful opportunity
Speaker 2: to talk with her as well, and I want to
Speaker 2: feature that's you know, when I get a chance to
Speaker 2: have a conversation with some of the authors, I you know,
Speaker 2: take that opportunity. So while she was signing some stock,
Speaker 2: I got a chance to talk to her directly, and
Speaker 2: I want to feature that on this episode.
Speaker 3: So enjoy, enjoy this episode because I know I did.
Speaker 1: Peace.
Speaker 6: I thank you for having me. It's so nice in
Speaker 6: year smell like Broach's a beautiful This is the community
Speaker 6: book store.
Speaker 4: I love it. I love it.
Speaker 7: In my favorite by too, the former Fox Hills mam Aka.
Speaker 4: That's right now, Westfield, Coba City.
Speaker 2: But Tiffany had is I ain't in here, and we
Speaker 2: turned up signs boat.
Speaker 4: Yes, I can't believe I was dshing.
Speaker 3: I believe.
Speaker 2: Today it was turned up, turned up boat music. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's where I'm from. D c you from l a
Speaker 2: HEAs toacht me the West coast all day, all day. Yeah,
Speaker 2: right here at the Belief Books. We got signed copy
Speaker 2: telling people where they can come get them sign.
Speaker 7: You could come get your signed copy of I Curse
Speaker 7: You with Joy written by me. Tiffany had its right
Speaker 7: here at Melick's Books at the Westfield cover City comp.
Speaker 4: Now I know that if I feels.
Speaker 7: Up here, you know, guys on the stick talking to boys.
Speaker 2: It was a good time.
Speaker 7: And yes, get the cookies and all that. And then
Speaker 7: we come in the bookstore. David it wasn't no bookstore.
Speaker 6: Then no.
Speaker 4: In the house.
Speaker 7: Now's the house now in the twenty two zero zeros.
Speaker 4: Right now?
Speaker 3: Yes here I am.
Speaker 2: Now this is a book you told me before I
Speaker 2: curse you with George. But something that's nearing there, minoir.
Speaker 2: You don't talk about I don't talk about nothing I
Speaker 2: don't know about. So I'm talking about all the things
Speaker 2: I know about, especially.
Speaker 7: These last few years.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 7: It basically just you know, shows you where my mind
Speaker 7: is at right now, where where my intentions are, where
Speaker 7: I'm going, where I've come from. What I wish people
Speaker 7: would have told me back in the day by have
Speaker 7: sag my little spirit a little bit. But you know what,
Speaker 7: sometimes gotta live and we gotta learn, and I did,
Speaker 7: and I share about that in this book.
Speaker 4: It seems like to me, you know, just success ain't
Speaker 4: go to your head. Did you not sell yeah, love
Speaker 4: a boat? Yeah, hug a boat?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 4: Yeahs show none but love? As you signed the books
Speaker 4: today with the people. You didn't let success change you,
Speaker 4: did you?
Speaker 3: Nah?
Speaker 7: Now, success didn't change.
Speaker 4: Me, yes, uh huh, it does so many other people.
Speaker 7: It changes a lot of people. I feel like, uh,
Speaker 7: because it can be scary you know. But you know,
Speaker 7: I lived in fear all my childhood.
Speaker 4: So what am I scared of now?
Speaker 7: I didn't have no control then, so it makes sense then.
Speaker 7: But I got control now, so wonderful.
Speaker 4: From foster home to success. Yeah, yeah, you got a
Speaker 4: story to tell me. I got a story I cursed
Speaker 4: you with George telling you.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we all got stories to tell. If everybody just
Speaker 7: wrote their own damn book, maybe we would learn not
Speaker 7: to mess up.
Speaker 4: No more all about that.
Speaker 7: Maybe we could save each other's lives if we shared
Speaker 7: our stories. Some stories might be t m I, but
Speaker 7: that TM I gonna help you in the long run.
Speaker 4: I'm just saying absolutely.
Speaker 2: I shared my chapter in my books The Heart of
Speaker 2: a Black Man Stories Resilience.
Speaker 4: Yes, thirty of us collaborated. Oh I like it.
Speaker 7: So that's thirty hearts, thirty Heart, thirty Hearts of a
Speaker 7: black Man.
Speaker 4: Yes, telling our sharing our story.
Speaker 7: You know, are any of those singles?
Speaker 4: Because I read it? Which one ain't? Got no wife?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 4: Sure?
Speaker 2: Some mom say, you know of keaven a healthy and
Speaker 2: long standing relation. That's a tough crack cookie to try.
Speaker 2: I know people ask you about relationship advice all the time.
Speaker 7: No, I don't ask me about relationship advice because they
Speaker 7: know that I don't maintain tho I maintain, I do ain't.
Speaker 4: Take relationships just not sexual. Yes, yes, yeah I get boy.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 4: Thank somebody need to turn up, show up and keep you.
Speaker 2: Engaged that par engagements yes, yes, yes that's what's you
Speaker 2: heard it lot right here at Malie Book Tiffany Hodey
Speaker 2: talking to my day. Thank you, thank you, thank you,
Speaker 2: thanks for listening to Malak's bookshelf, where topics on the
Speaker 2: shelf are books, culture, and community.
Speaker 1: Be sure to subscribe and leave me a review.
Speaker 3: Check out my instagram at Malak Books.
Speaker 1: See you next time.