Iyabo Williams and Avotcja Saturday, February 16th, SF

Saturday, February 16th at Marcus Books, 1712 Fillmore Street, San Francisco

4:30PM to 6:00PM

Iyabo Williams will read and sign her book Hidden Scars

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                  

At the age of eight, Aisha Praisso, alongside her great grand mother, became a victim and a rescuer of many during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967 between the Hausas in the north and the Ibos of the in the east. The tales from the war are sporadic and many of the stories are still left untold. Aisha, a survivor and self-proclaimed motor-mouth, would not broach the subject unless her life depended on it. But it did, and her whispers became loudly  heard.                                                                                                                                               

6:OOPM to 7:30PM

Avotcja, will be reading and signing her newest book, With Every Step I Take

Introducing herself as storyteller, ‘wild woman,’ a ‘bonafide sound junkie,’ nothing slows or dampens Avotcja’s passion for the power or wonder of music. Guided by ancient, ancestral wisdom, she refuses to separate poetry and storytelling from song or dance. In ‘Blue to the Bone,’ her rhapsodic tribute to Oakland’s uncrowned poet laureate, Reginald Lockett (1947-2008), musician-poet-broadcaster Avotcja could just as well be describing her own esthetic. ‘Reggie was the real deal,’ she croons. Melodically keyed to what she calls ‘la palabra musical,‘ Avotcja’s rhythmic testament decades in the making celebrates the world-changing spirit of human creativity while condemning its cold-blooded, tone-deaf assassins.’ –Al Young, California’s poet laureate emeritus.

Please join us for an evening of strength and joy.

All are welcome.

Info: 415 346 4222

Black Authors’ Opportunity to Advertise on Marcus Book Store’s Website

Marcus Books’ on-line store offers ad space for your book on its website: http:// http://www.marcusbooks.com.

 

This is what you’ll get for $100:
* An on-line presence to sell your book with the oldest African American bookstore in the world (52 years of service).
*  On a full page of ads (entitled New Works), your book cover is situated within a “block” of 36 covers.
*  The block of covers is presented in the same format as the other listings on our website.
*  The book covers are buttons that take readers to an individual full page, just for your book, that includes your book cover (enlarged), the title, author, description of your book, price, and binding (cloth or paperback).
*  An add-to-cart button that goes to the Marcus Books website’s secured account with Paypal which processes the sale of your book.
*  After a sale, the author receives the standard 60% of the price of the book (by mail) and Marcus Books receives 40%.
*  A web link for your individual book page that you can use to promote your book.
*  Your ad stays posted on the Marcus Books website for 6 (six) months.

 

The Process

After Marcus Books receives your payment you will be asked (via email) to supply the following:
* A jpeg of your book cover (If you don’t have a jpeg, Marcus Books will scan your book cover after we receive your books.)
*  A description of your book (There is no limit to the number of words you can use, but you must have permission from the reviewers to use their reviews of your book.)
*  The title, price, publisher, distributor, or the address, phone number and email of the supplier, if self published.
*  Availability: your book must be ready to ship within two days of an order we receive through the website. If you are self-published, we recommend that you send two copies of your book to our San Francisco store on a consignment basis, then your book will be in stock when we receive an order. (Consignment is a process that allows a store to carry a product without the store’s commitment to purchase the product within the usual 30-60 day terms of purchase. This is a practical approach for a store to acquire a product before the store sees a demand for the product. With consignment terms, an author is paid by check as the books are sold.)
*  Know beforehand that the minimum wholesale discount from a publisher, distributor or self-published author to a bookstore is 40% to 50% of the price of the book.
*  This introductory price expires August 1st, 2012.
*  Your book will be posted to the website two weeks after your process has been completed in a first-come-first-serve position.

marcusbooks@marcusbooks.com or call Marcus Books of San Francisco, 415 346 4222 for more info

one book ad, $100.00

Home

Toni Morrison

 

 

America’s most celebrated novelist, Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison extends her profound take on our history with this twentieth-century tale of redemption: a taut and tortured story about one man’s desperate search for himself in a world disfigured by war.
Frank Money is an angry, self-loathing veteran of the Korean War who, after traumatic experiences on the front lines, finds himself back in racist America with more than just physical scars. His home may seem alien to him, but he is shocked out of his crippling apathy by the need to rescue his medically abused younger sister and take her back to the small Georgia town they come from and that he’s hated all his life. As Frank revisits his memories from childhood and the war that have left him questioning his sense of self, he discovers a profound courage he had thought he could never possess again.
A deeply moving novel about an apparently defeated man finding his manhood–and his home.

 

 

Cloth 24.00

Unchain the Pain: How to Be Your Own Therapist

 Bob Livingstone, LCSW

“I will be reading from and signing my new book Unchain the Pain:  How to be Your Own Therapist at Marcus Books, 1712 Fillmore St. San Francisco, Ca.  This event will take place Saturday March 31, 2012 at 6PM.   It is an honor to be invited to this historic African-American Bookstore.  Marcus Bookstores are the oldest Black bookstores in the nation.  I hope to see you there!” –BL

1. Be willing to ask questions about your emotional pain.
2. Imagine that you are in a therapist’s office. Think about what questions she may ask you and then ask yourself these same questions.
3. Imagine that you are talking to a friend who is in distress. What questions would you want to ask her about her emotional pain in order to support her healing? Then apply those same questions to yourself.
4. You will learn to be introspective; feel unstuck emotionally; resolve long-standing emotional issues; discover your place of wisdom; be less depressed; be able to work through grief and loss issues; be less anxious; feel more confident and your self-esteem will increase; learn what it means to process your feelings.
5. Learn to overcome the obstacles that can help you become your own therapist.
6. Develop and nurture the self questioning part of yourself.
7. Exercise regularly. You will not only look and feel better, it will help you problem solve and be open to self-questioning because you will feel the freedom to do so!

Hot Girl

Hot Girl

It’s summertime in Bed-Stuy-Do or Die-Brooklyn, and Kate is feeling down in the dumps. Not only is she tired of her raggedy, tomboy image, but she’s also missing her best friend, Felicia, who’s away for the summer. Lonely and not exactly getting along with her new foster mother, Lynn, Kate so badly wants to be out and about, twirling pretty, and partying—and maybe catching the attention of her longtime crush, Charles.
Opportunity knocks one hot summer day when fly-girl Naleejah struts her stuff straight up to Kate and takes a seat. Full of smiles, Naleejah tells Kate that she remembers her from school, but Kate can’t remember ever having such a fabulous chick trying to befriend her. Kate’s suspicion turns to trust once Naleejah gives her a much-needed makeover.
Now a brand-new Kate suddenly has the attention of her dream boy. But is Naleejah checking for him, too? Against Kate’s better judgment, she ignores the warning signs, and continues to let Naleejah lead her down a treacherous path. Soon, what seems like a fun and exciting summer ends up being a harsh reality check. Now Kate must decide how to get back on the right track . . . or is it already too late?

Paper 9.95

Video Gallery

MARCUS BOOKSTORE’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE

History Of Marcus Bookstores

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1960, in the thriving Black business district known as the Fillmore, Julian and Raye Richardson were co-owners of The Success Printing Co. and avid readers. When friends didn’t return their books, they realized the need for a Black bookstore. It was named Success Book Store. After reading Marcus Garvey’s Philosophy and Opinions, they decided to change the names of their 30 year-old printshop and ten year-old bookstore to Marcus Books Printing and Marcus Bookstores, opening another store in Oakland, California.

As Black people learned more about the legacy of consciousness, strength and creativity inherent in their history, many civic groups were sparked and nurtured. Black people and other progressives could feel at home and were “understood” at Marcus Books. They didn’t have to apologize for their difference, their pain from racism, or translate their philosophy or concerns into a second language. For example, a small group of Black parents, frustrated with the school district’s mis-education of their children, sought advice from Rich (Julian) and Raye. In the large meeting room of the stores’ Civic Center location, the Malcolm X School was established. At another time, the Richardsons put up their family home as collateral to pay bail for over one hundred students arrested for their participation in the strike at San Francisco State University. They printed the student newspaper, The Organ, for free after SFSU refused to continue publishing the paper during the strike. They printed many pamphlets, posters, flyers and newsletters for free, if they believed the individual events would have a beneficial effect upon Black people. Their community contributions were so vast, that we will have to devote ongoing chapters to describe their service.

Within the fifty years of supplying Black literature, Marcus Books has hosted many fledgling authors as well as most best selling Black authors in America. Actually, more Black writers have been to Marcus Bookstores than those published during the entire Harlem Renaissance. Some of the patrons, writers and speakers include:

James Baldwin, Huey Newton, Nancy Wilson, Ousmane Sembene, Earth Wind & Fire, Les Nubians, The Last Poets, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Dorothy Height, Haki Madhubuti, Bernice McFadden, Jesse Jackson, Hugh Masekela, Delroy Lindo, Elaine Brown, Dave Chappelle, Ernest Gaines, Ntosake Shange, Maya Angelou, Mary Monroe, Walter Mosley, Alvin Poussaint, B.B. King, Amiri Baraka, Ice T, Sugar Ray Leonard, Nalo Hopkinson, Gayl Jones, Wesley Snipes, Barry White, Della Reese, Stokeley Carmichael, Angela Davis, Pam Grier, James McBride, Queen Latifah, Toni Morrison, Danny Glover, Randal Keenan, Robert Allen, Nathaniel Mackey, Evelyn Williams, Eldridge Cleaver, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Barbara Lee, Jackie Robinson, Willie Brown, George Moscone, Paule Marshall, Ron Dellums, Chaka Khan, Taj Mahal, David Bowie, Tavis Smiley, Oba T’Shaka, Oprah Winfrey, Claude Brown, John Edgar Wideman, Al Young, Ivan Van Sertima, Wanda Coleman, Nikki Giovanni, Wade Nobles, Sonia Sanchez, Jayne Cortez, Alice Walker, Cecil Taylor, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, Jimmy Heath, Charles Finch, Hunter Adams, III, Bebe Moore Campbell, Stanley Crouch, Bertrice Berry, Rosa Parks, Terry McMillan, Marita Golden, James Allen McPherson, Paul Mooney, Luisah Teish, Eric Jerome Dickey, Belva Davis, Morgan Freeman, Erica Huggins, Michelle Cliff, Runoko Rashidi, Hazaiah Williams, Marcus Miller, Randy Weston, Nathan McCall, Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson, John Handy, Zane, Ray Taliaferro, Femy Kuti, En Vogue, Geoffrey Canada, Asa Hilliard, III, bell hooks, Frances Bebey, Edward P. Jones, Mike Norris, Emory Douglass, August Wilson, James Van Der Zee, Opal Palmer Adisa, Stephen Carter, Russell Simmons, Bobby Seale, Maulana Karenga, J. California Cooper, Sister Souljah, Tina McElroy Ansa, Iyanla Vanzant, Trisha Thomas, Norman Bass, Omar Tyree, Valerie Wilson Wesley, Michael Baisden, Toni Cade Bambara, Tananarive Due, Jamaica Kincaid, Manning Marable, devorah major, Ismael Reed, Quincy Troupe, Derrick Bell, Connie Briscoe, Ed Bullins, Octavia Butler, Pearl Cleage, Debrena Jackson Gandy, Dick Gregory, E. Lynn Harris, Richard King and Carman McRae . . . (No disrespect if your name, or the name of someone you know isn’t listed but should be. Just call, write or email us.)

Unbarred Love

Marcus Books

In a society that is too young to appreciate depth, blackness itself is the most maligned word in the English language. Even though black is the color of creation, spirit, higher consciousness, humor, peace and eternity, it is portrayed negatively as evil, anger, low consciousness, the devil, the bad guys, the wicked withches, trouble, criminality, substandard, hateful, and uncivilized. Though the continent of Africa birthed civility, mathematics, religion, medicine, astronomy, government, agriculture, chemistry and architecture, African Americans are portrayed as any thing but civil in the media. Sometimes, in believing the stereotypes, we think they must be talking about some other Black people. We must be special because we’re different than the portrayed lie. Often, we believe the lie. Often, we act out the lie till it becomes true. In not knowing anything else, we grow low.

The first law of the universe is: what you see is what you get or energy follows thought. When we change our focus toward something positive, we change our reality. Our history is our vertibrae. The more truth we learn about ourselves, the more backbone we have. The truth about the gifts that Black people brought to the world is even more amazing then our present self-destruction. When we read about our real history, then we can stand shoulder to shoulder with anyone, anywhere, and hold our head up without fronting. We make peace with the self and the cell becomes a haven for our spirit. That’s where Marcus Books comes in.

Marcus Books is a true mirror of our existence and is uniquely qualified to know which books explain, heal, and fortify our folks. That has been our focus for over fifty years. There are many great books that Marcus Books can send to prisoners that mirror their beauty, strengthen their awareness and put their dreams back in their pockets. (Some books give a smack-down, some throw some facts down, but all lay some track down for the soul train to truth.)

(Some books give a hug.) We know which books can fulfill some of the needs of the children of incarcerated parent, as well: books that help their children understand their own strength, beauty and gifts. Marcus Books knows which books support their growth in a positive manner during this difficult time when their parents cannot hold them or guide them as they would like to.

We know which books teach to reach for higher powers where we find that the purpose of a challenge is just to make us stronger; where hurdles are meant for us to get over; where blocks in our path become stepping stones (once we halt and find the lesson); and where the weight of a burden is meant for lifting and learning leverage. We know which books bring peace. For recommendations of titles that heal, empower or just make them smile, call Marcus Books in Oakland 510 652 2344, San Francisco 415 346 4222, or email us at marcusbooks@hotmail.com.