A literary collective is looking to bring English- and French-language books to Brooklyn’s Little Haiti. On Saturday, a book truck provided by the House of SpeakEasy was parked at Parkside Plaza on the corner of Parkside and Ocean Avenues in Flatbush.
Residents had the opportunity to purchase books aimed at readers of all ages. In addition to the pop-up truck, there was an impromptu book signing featuring French film director and author Benoit Cohen.
Jeff Waxman, the Bookmobile director for the House of SpeakEasy, said Parkside Plaza—conveniently located across the street from Prospect Park and at the western edge of Little Haiti—was an ideal location for the literary event.
“I used to live in the neighborhood and I passed through this plaza so frequently that I knew that traffic was very good,” he said. “I knew the people who live here and I said: ‘We should probably be right there as soon as possible.’”
Elena Callahan, a volunteer for Parkside Plaza and a Flatbush resident, explained how her collaboration with Waxman brought the Bookmobile to the neighborhood and why holding events at the plaza matters.
“Our mission is to really make it peaceful for the community as a place to relax, hang out and get to know your neighbors, but also hold events that really speak to the community,” she said. “When he reached out to me I said: ‘Is there any way we could make it more relevant to the community?’ He had that idea to begin with, but ‘can we get some authors that are French-speaking?’”
The purpose of the House of SpeakEasy Bookmobile, according to Waxman, is to provide much-needed resources to communities that lack easy access to bookstores and libraries. Catering to Flatbush residents meant partnering with Albertine, a Manhattan bookstore devoted to French- and English-language books and part of the French Embassy’s cultural services.
“We are always looking for opportunities to bring books into communities that aren’t necessarily well-served by bookstores,” he said. “We just want to open it up to everyone and part of that means bringing collections of books that are multilingual into our multilingual neighborhoods.”
When Waxman lived in the neighborhood several years earlier, he began to notice how New York City’s book culture was heavily geared toward the English language despite being multicultural. Although Flatbush contains multiple bookstores and libraries, most carried English-only material.
“When you live in a neighborhood,” he said, “you start to get a sense that English readers are not the only readers. There’s absolutely no reason why we can’t even on a temporary basis start to address readers for everyone.”
Waxman hoped the House of SpeakEasy Bookmobile could pop up more frequently in Flatbush and elsewhere in New York City. Its next appearance would be in East Harlem, where English- and Spanish-language books would be on display.
Originally published by The Haitian Times · haitiantimes.com