HARLEM — Bookworms will march through the streets of Harlem this weekend.
During Saturday’s Literacy Across Harlem March, people will walk past literary landmarks while carrying their favorite books and chanting phrases like, “Knowledge is Power Read a Book Today.”’
Starting at noon, one group will begin marching from Sister’s Uptown Bookstore, 1942 Amsterdam Ave., and the other will leave from La Casa Azul in East Harlem. They will meet at Marcus Garvey Park’s amphitheater for a book fair, said Joe Rogers Jr., founder of Total Equity Now, the group organizing the march.
“When they came into the park, the east side and the west side entered Marcus Garvey park at the same time," Rogers said of last year's march. "They come together at the stage pumped about reading.”
The march is meant to promote literacy in the neighborhood. During the march they will walk past Trinity cemetery, where Ralph Ellison is buried, and the Harlem YMCA, where Langston Hughes lived, Rogers said.
“We are trying to instill a sense of community and cultural pride,” he said. “When you are reading about your neighborhood and recognize some of the landmarks or people it can be a very powerful experience.”
This year’s march honors the late Walter Dean Myers, the Young Adult author who died last year. Myers wrote of the lack of black characters in children’s books.
The event is free and people are encouraged to register online. Everyone is invited to bring a children’s book to be donated to a local homeless shelter.
At the book fair everyone is going to be asked to write down three book suggestions on a piece of paper. These suggestions will be mixed up and redistributed.
“Everyone walks away with book suggestions,” Rogers said.
