Pictures!

The day finally came and an amazing time was had by all.

We received too many books to even begin an official count, but a quick survey of the boxes on hand confirmed what I hadn't even dared to hope for: we broke the 1000 book ceiling, and then some. We had AT LEAST 1200 new books!

The hurdle crossed, it fell to us to worry about sufficient attendance. To that end, El Puente had volunteers positioned throughout the South Side handing out fliers and drumming up interest throughout the event on Saturday. All the while, two ACTUAL drummers, unexpectedly displaced from their usual rehearsal space at the Leadership Center, decided to play on the steps in front...quite literally drumming up more interest. By the time the doors opened at noon, we had attracted a throng of fifty or more parents and kids...and the pace kept up well through the first three hours of our four hour event.

Over the course of the day, we had well over 300 attendees browsing for books, chatting with each other, participating in one of two fantastic on-site workshops (one movement and performance workshop, one bookmaking workshop), eating refreshments, admiring the incredible art of beacon program participants. Councilwoman Diana Reyna even made an appearance with her kids, and I got to chat with her over a breakfast muffin.

Almost miraculously, the ratio of grateful attendees matched perfectly with the number of books on hand. Each and every kid got to take home between 2 and 3 high quality kids books...more to those lucky kids who won the book raffle we held every half hour. Those kids got to pick from a wide array of box sets, including complete series of Ramona Quimby, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, Lemony Snicket, and Junie B. Jones.

Every aspect of the event -- the generosity of those who gave books or spread the word, the creativity of the kids who made the art adorning the walls, the ingenuity of the kids and El Puente staff who so beautifully set up the space, the dedication and high spirits of El Puente staff and volunteers who administered the event, and the gratitude and community and enjoyment of those kids and parents who attended -- was a tremendous success.

Here are just a few (sometimes blurry) photos of the event. I'll post more pics as they come in!

The Event Itself

Watch this space for more information about what to expect at the South Side Gallery & Book Fair. El Puente is putting together a nice roster of literacy and art workshops for the event.

Also coming soon: our spiffy new flier!

In the meantime, mark your calendars:

South Side Gallery & Book Fair
Saturday April 5th, 12-4PM
Williamsburg Leadership Center
211 S. 4th Street, Williamsburg

How You Can Help

1) By DONATING BOOKS. If you work for a literary agency or publishing company, take up a book collection for the event. Any new K-8th Grade books would be greatly desired! Whether they be hot-off-the-presses copies of high-demand titles or spare author copies, remainder copies, old advance copies...we want as many (new, or SO 'like-new' we won't be able to tell the difference) books as we can get! Box 'em up and send 'em to: El Puente Williamsburg Leadership Center, 211 S. 4th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211. Make sure to send them such that they arrive no later than April 4th!*

(*Though direct shipping is preferable, we will be happy to arrange door-to-door pickups for large quantities of books within the tri-state area! Contact Bob Berens at (917) 202-1702 for pickups, or email him at bobberens at gmail dot com.)

2) By BUYING BOOKS. We've set up an Amazon Wish List/Gift Registry with a target list of time-honored classic books for kids, ALA and YALSA recommended kids books, and books specifically requested by our target community. Contributing spanking-new titles to the event is only a mouseclick away, whether you can give one book or a hundred books...click here: South Side Book Fair.

Again, please arrange for shipping that will arrive by April 4th!

If you find other online sources for these same books, or would like contribute K-8th books you don't see represented on the registry, go for it! Part of the fun is picking which books you'd like to reach an eager, grateful audience! Just be sure to use the address above, and to arrange shipping in time for the event!

3) By SPREADING THE WORD. If you know other publishing folk please pass this on and encourage book donations; if you know any YA or childrens book authors dying to offload excess author copies, give them instructions for how to share. These books will find an eager audience.

El Puente is committed to getting as many kids to the event as possible, from all the local and neighboring public schools...our job is to get as many books as possible to the event! The more books we have on hand, the more kids we can include!

The Mission

The South Side Gallery & Book Fair is a community event bringing FREE, NEW books to the school-aged (K-8th) children of Williamsburg and Bushwick. By collecting unused paperbacks from NYC publishers, editors, and readers and by soliciting online donations of new books, the day will provide these kids with a vast range of high-quality books…to keep.

Books are not the most out-of-reach or in-demand luxury items for neighborhood kids. Maybe an X-Box 360 (600$) or a pair of limited edition sneakers (150$ or so) would fit that bill. And local libraries already serve a vital role in providing kids with reading material. But the pleasure and luxury of book ownership-- keeping it by one's bed, putting it up on a shelf or on top of one's dresser as a badge of honor – 'I read that' – is a rich and rewarding stage in the development of any lifelong reader. For cash-strapped parents, it can be perfectly sensible to strike the cost of buying new books from their household budgets; for media-addled kids, the choice between using whatever disposable income they have for clothes, food, and flashier entertainment options like music or movies is, unfortunately or not, even easier to make.

That's where our book fair steps in: a one-day event for kids and their parents to browse from and freely choose high quality books to take home: picture books for the early readers, young reader paperbacks, YA novels, classics, etc.

Any books remaining at day's end will be divided between local community organizations, schools, libraries, and the Prisoners Reading Encouragement Project.