Street Lit Debate: Does Urban Fiction Undermine the Black Canon?

Author Bernice McFadden concurs with Murray. “I think culture and literature deserves, and succeeds with a variety of ideas, expressions and opinions. However, “ she says, “editors and agents are sending the message out wide and far in the [African-American] literary community that they only way [a black] writer will get published is if he/she writes urban lit. This will ruin the canon.”

As a counter-point, Barney says she can’t speak for other editors, but “I’m not specifically looking for street lit. I’m looking for great stories told with great voices and really great writing.” Yet, the popularity of the genre cannot be denied, especially among young people – and overall, publishing is a business, not a social service.

Despite its potentially negative effects on the black canon, perhaps street lit has more social benefit than we are aware of.

Davis is less concerned with the posterity of the African-American literary canon, than she is with the here and now, specifically as it relates to young people. “From my experience working with incarcerated youth in DC,” she recounts, “most of the young men there read on a third grade level. The ones who read on a sixth grade level were considered smart.” If street lit is what gets these boys to pick up a book, its value is far greater than its impact on an elitist canon. “I think our greater hope is that they start there, but that their reading becomes more sophisticated.  I’ve always wanted to be that link—I want to write well, but also tell that story.”

Recounting a story of two students who recited verses of his book to him verbatim, Maldonado says he’s seen the proof that his book resonates with students who adults think hate to read. “When they were exposed to books like mine that accurately and authentically reflect their reality, they were so hooked to the book that they memorized parts of it,” Maldonado said.

That’s impressive and hard to imagine occurring as a reaction to Alice Walker.

It’s been three years since Omar Tyree’s retirement, and the street lit genre he mined to great success continues to flourish. But the question isn’t whether the so-called streets should be on the shelves, but how we can get the immense diversity of our stories onto them.  It may be a complicated role, but street lit has an important part to play in black America’s future.