There would be no Miami Book Fair without Eduardo Padrón and Mitchell Kaplan. Now officially middle aged, 40, the Miami Book Fair began in quite unlikely circumstances.
Lizette Alvarez, a former Miami bureau chief for The New York Times and a contributing columnist for The Washington Post, said it beautifully in an article a decade ago. She wrote: “Book fairs were scarce around the country. Only two major ones existed. One sold books and the other held readings. Dr. Padrón and Mr. Kaplan proposed doing both and set their sights on at least one big name. “They lured James Baldwin to the first one.”
The rest is history, but before we lay it out, let’s give a standing O to these two for more than this. Miami would not be Miami without MDC and Books & Books. Dr. Padrón made Miami Dade College the esteemed institution that it is. Mr. Kaplan created a haven for book lovers with his excellent, internationally beloved stores. Sooner or later, Miami roads have often led to and from MDC, visits have often led to Books & Books, and every year before Thanksgiving, Miami goes downtown to the Book Fair.
This year’s eight days run from November 12-19 with more than 400 authors in person or online, in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole because that’s who we are. Held on MDC’s downtown Wolfson Campus, the weekend features the delightful Street Fair for which you need tickets, and the busily attended author autographing sessions. If you enjoy stargazing, Kerry Washington, Eva Longoria, Jada Pinkett, Lena Waithe, Joan Baez, David Brooks, Henry Winkler, and Cassidy Hutchinson will expose upon their decisions, their dreams, their hopes, their lives, their mistakes, their thoughts and their troubles. WLRN is sponsoring many of the evening program events. And of course, local heroes Dave Barry, Carl Hiasson, Mark Kurlansky and Michael Hettich will be there.
For 40 years this event has been a cornerstone of Miami Art events, having since been joined by Art Basel and its ever-expanding tentacles, O, Miami and its poetic community building often via zip codes, and a handful of Rubell and Pérez museums.
It is unfathomable how the banning of books has once again somehow taken hold, as libraries are under siege, librarians are attacked, school boards are harangued, other school boards practice censorship, and forces which are decreasingly supportive of democracy mysteriously throw their weight around in order to inconsiderately satisfy their own private morality while simultaneously claiming to champion free speech. It’s a tiresome, selfish mess.
Thank goodness, Miami has a long running, sustainable tradition with our Book Fair. We are the center of South Central Caribbean American culture. We are the place where you live next to a Polish Panamanian married to a Chinese Jamaican. Our Indians are from Guyana and our Native Americans own casinos. Our Venezuelan, Haitian, and Trini neighbors have set us on a path which is the envy of peacekeepers everywhere. We are gay, Jewish, Black, Islamic, Christian, reggaeton, hip hop, salsa, bachata, country – and we are all at the Miami Book Fair every year.
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