Festivals aren’t always about loud parties, street food, and fun. Some events are different, offering a more balanced and focused format. One of them is the Bronx Book Festival. In this article on bronxski.com, we’ll tell you who founded it and what it’s like.
It All Started With an Idea
Saraciea Fennell is one of the founders of the Bronx Book Festival. She began her career in publishing and worked as a publicist for Simon & Schuster for several years. This is when her first introduction to book festivals happened. She was sent to an event in Brooklyn as a representative from the publishing house. The girl was amazed by the scale and format of the literary event and had a great time. On her way home, she was haunted by one question: “Why isn’t there anything like this in the Bronx?”
The question haunted Fennell for several years. She was born in Brooklyn but moved to the Bronx with her parents as a child. Saraciea thought back to her school days and realized that not a single book author had ever come to her class, nor had there ever been a literary event or a trip to the library. In fact, bookstores were a rarity in the Bronx. This both surprised and saddened Saraciea. She dreamed of a way to help her home borough shed its reputation as a gangster-ridden, uneducated place and declare itself an intellectual and aware part of New York.
Fennell knew there was a need for a book festival and saw interested young people all around her, but at first, she waited for someone else to take on the project. She was afraid she couldn’t handle the responsibility and hoped someone more experienced would do it. But time went on, and still, no festival appeared.
In 2015, when the last remaining bookstore in the Bronx, Barnes & Noble, announced it was closing, Fennell knew it was the last straw. There was no time to wait. Petitions from local residents to save the store inspired her. She realized there were people in the Bronx who wanted to read and explore new horizons, so she decided to act. Saraciea tried to bring Bronx-based authors to the store, but it proved more difficult than she expected. When the store closed a year later, it was a big blow for her.
Organizing the First Bronx Book Festival
Fennell decided it was time to make her dream of a festival a reality. She began looking for sponsors among local companies and organizations but ran into difficulties due to a lack of connections to non-profits or celebrities. So she turned to the community. “I want to find people who are like me, who went to schools where they never saw or talked to authors or illustrators, or adults who have never been in a bookstore—I want to do something really important for them,” she said. “These are the people I’m really trying to reach.”
Saraciea posted a call to action on Twitter, where she had many followers from different publishing houses due to her years in the industry. The response was astonishing: hundreds of people supported her Kickstarter campaign, which quickly exceeded its $30,000 goal. Authors and publishers began to actively join the festival’s planning committee. Fennell teamed up with local organizations and the Department of Education to ensure the participation of the borough’s schools. She found the perfect location for the event herself—Fordham Plaza, which was easily accessible to both local residents and visitors from other boroughs.
Since the Bronx is predominantly populated by Latinx, Black, and Caribbean communities, Fennell decided to focus on bringing authors of color to her programs. One of the festival’s participants was poet Elizabeth Acevedo. In her books, she writes extensively about the problems and stereotypes Latinx people face. Other authors who agreed to take part in the first Bronx Book Festival included Daniel José Older, with whom Fennell had worked for years as a publicist; Lilliam Rivera, whose novel “The Education of Margot Sánchez” is about life in the South Bronx; Adam Silvera, who addresses LGBTQ+ issues in his work; Coe Booth, who writes novels about the Bronx; and Arlene Alda, who recorded a wonderful audiobook dedicated to the borough’s history.
The event went great, with more people showing up than Saraciea expected. That day, she realized she had been foolish to be so scared to do it for so many years. At the same time, Fennell understood that now nothing would stop her and that she would do everything in her power to make the Bronx Book Festival a long-awaited annual event.
The Festival’s Important Mission
Saraciea Fennell really wants her festival to help change the stereotypes about the Bronx. “Years ago, when the Bronx got the slogan ‘The Bronx is Burning,’ nobody wanted to come here,” she says. “Everyone thought the borough was worth next to nothing. But that was decades ago. That’s not the case anymore; the Bronx has changed so much. So I think people need to get rid of that stereotype and they just need to visit our borough.”
This hope to change people’s minds is embodied in the phrase Saraciea chose as the festival’s slogan—**’Bronx is Reading.’** She wants no one to doubt that the Bronx is home to educated people and readers.
Fennell wants to change not only the outside world’s perception of the Bronx but also the views of its residents toward the literary industry. “I want to show Black people that there are opportunities in publishing,” she notes. “Whether they want to be authors or work in marketing or advertising, I want them to see that representation. The publishing field is very homogenous, and I believe one way to make it more diverse is to hold a festival in different cultural environments.”
The Bronx Book Festival also aims to support literacy and encourage a love of reading among children, teenagers, and adults. The event covers a variety of topics important to the Bronx community. It’s not just about invited authors presenting their books. The festival hosts panel discussions, masterclasses, and other activities with authors, award winners, publishers, illustrators, and more. The festival promotes a culture of reading in the Bronx and is a significant literary event for local residents and visitors.
A special focus is placed on students. At every festival, a significant amount of time is dedicated to highlighting children’s literature, publishers provide guides for reading groups, new books for kids are presented, and all participating schools receive pleasant book gifts.
A Great Team and Ambitious Plans
A lot has changed in the few years the Bronx Book Festival has existed. In 2018, Saraciea Fennell was recognized as one of the 25 most influential women in the Bronx by “The Bronx Times.” She is currently studying for her master’s degree at Lesley University and is constantly traveling between the Bronx and Brooklyn. Saraciea’s main partner is Roja Marsh, co-founder of the “Bronx Poet Laureate” program. Roja has gained national recognition as a poet, performer, and activist. Her work has been published in numerous magazines, and in 2020, she released her debut poetry collection, “DayliGht,” which is dedicated to Black women.
Saraciea once nervously and uncertainly ran the first Bronx Book Festival by herself. Now, a large team works on the festival’s program and production. Publicists, marketers, a planning committee, graphic designers, and journalists—they all work for a common goal: to create a real celebration for Bronx readers.
Each year, the program becomes richer and more diverse. For example, in 2024, the festival took place over four days:
- June 5 — Literacy Day celebration at the Library Center;
- June 6 — Teacher Appreciation Day celebration;
- June 7 — a literary party at the historic Andrew Freedman Home;
- June 8 — festival closing at Fordham Plaza and at Fordham University.
The festival went well, but there were some difficulties, primarily with attracting sponsors. Such an event requires significant funding and support from the government and the corporate sector. Saraciea Fennell was disappointed that not a single representative of the local government attended the festival, but she still hopes that it was solely due to the officials’ busy schedules, and not because they don’t consider the event important for the Bronx.
Despite this, Fennell is determined to promote her idea and fulfill the main mission of the Bronx Book Festival—to ensure that the slogan ‘Bronx is Reading’ is not just a phrase, but an unwavering statement.