Voyeurism in Politics and Prose

I was lucky that a book talk was taking place during my visit to Politics and Prose. It was a sublime back-drop to this interesting opportunity to spy on and report about this maverick bookseller.
'Gender and Sexuality' is located near "Education". The display is very colorful and inviting. It is subliminally lower than the walled religion section hovering The Power of Now and Who Speaks for Islam?. In the background the writers of A Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream are having a book talk about marriage being a "decision of necessity in a struggling society" and "common interests" the reason for a marriage that is affluently based. It is also interesting to hear a discussion by the authors about African-American marriages from non-African- American men. They are quite condescending about love. The 'Gender and Sexuality' section includes a book called The Governess: The Lives and Times of the Real Jane Eyre, near Women as Weapons of War, 'Iraq, Sex, and the Media by Kelly Oliver. There were 141 different books on Gender and Sexuality in this vibrant section.

I noticed the section on African-American culture was next to 'American Politics'. This section falls next to 'Race Relations' then 'American History'. I am uncertain if the divide was intentional on a historic scale. However, a division of 'American Politics' and 'American History' with books on the African-American experience "in between" is also subliminal. (I feel compelled to yell at the know it all authors who keep talking about the break up of the African-American family and education in general. My grandfather went to Pitt and studied classical piano. Who do they think they are? Even the booksellers are annoyed.)

The display for 'Race Relations' looks like a feat of glory. At the bottom are books on Barack Obama (The Rise of Barack Obama by Pete Souza), Mississppi Freedom Riders by Eric Southreidge, and Let Your Motto Be Resistance with a picture in black and white of Mahalia Jackson that pops right off the shelf. ( A discussion about the ignorant authors is looming in the background from an visiting couple. They are discussing their small minds...Let your motto be resistance.) The books I have found do not support cultural stereotypes. The N Word by Jabari Asim is fashioned at the bottom of the shelf. I recall that Borders had this book front and center.
There is a social consciousness at this book store that flows through each isle. It is its' own little Eutopia of an American that can be; subliminal but fair, equal but individualistic.

Self as Informant

The smell of pipe smoke fills my memories when I recall the times my father would reach up onto my grandfather's bookshelf and retrieve the Blake Reader from the shelf. We lived in Beaufort, South Carolina when my grandfather moved down from New York City to the very exclusive retirement home that my father had provided for him and my grandmother. They had views of oak trees and a small wildlife refuge was nearby. When my father died in 1996, the first item I retrieved was this Blake Reader, a one hundred year old school book that my grandfather shared with his sisters in the school house he was taught in while growing up in Milageville, Georgia. My father cherished this book because he also grew up reading it. It has become so weathered now. The pages are crisp with sadness of generations lost. Yet, the Reader is a part of a history that I can no longer unveil. My grandfather's pipe smoke trailing back to the library where my father taught me how important it was to get every word just right; I would have to repeat any words that I misread. I hold the book in a frozen food bag with rubber bands and memories; waiting for my daughters to unleash the faint smell of pipe smoke and over one hundred years of history from my ancestors; young and old.