hooves on the turf

Amiri Baraka

Matt Ashby writes: The room filled with about 60 people, some standing in the back, for the interview of Amiri Baraka by Colin Channer. Baraka, known for his poetry and activism, recently released a short story collection Tales of the Out and the Gone, published by Akashic Books, a Brooklyn-based independent house that also published a collection of Jamaican writers, Iron Balloons, as edited by Channer. Akashic’s publisher Johnny Temple introduced them.

More after the jump

Colin Channer

The Park Slope Barnes & Noble reading of Akashic authors Colin Channer and K. E. Silva proceeded with perhaps 10 people in attendance. The corner tucked beside the religious texts in the lower level is a reading area for about 8 customers when it’s not rearranged with rows of chairs for author events. It’s not a space that intends to command a turnout like Upstairs at Union Square does, especially when the streets outside are glistening under a Friday night shower, but it offers the intimacy and informality fitting for readings.