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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
The Max Rodriquez Way: The
Harlem Book Fair
This exclusive interview took place in June 2004, just as he was
preparing for the 5th
Anniversary of the Book Fair, and later before the merge of QBR with
Black Issues magazine.
HW: Who inspired you?
MAX RODRIGUEZ: I acknowledge my parents for having instilled a
good sense of compassion and hard work in me. My father worked to
the bone. My mother loved us to the bone. They inspire me to both.
Yarina, my partner, opens my heart to love and inspiration.
HW: What is the key to your success?
MR: My key to success is standing only in the possibility of
what can be. We, all, are creators. It is what we are called to do.
We have only to powerfully choose that which we choose to be, and
then powerfully and intentionally stand inside of it. Ask yourself
'what will I stand for in this life?' and then be it always. It
takes some restructuring of our present way of being—bad habits die
hard—but the life we want is possible.
HW: How did the idea for the HBF originate?
MR: It was the same inspiration as with QBR, The Black
Book Review. I could not understand why a publication that focused
on writers of the African diaspora did not exist, so I founded it.
When I moved the business from Soho to Harlem, I found there was no
existing celebration of African American books and authors—in the
home of the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement!
Impossible! That absence sparked the original idea.
HW: Who are your favorite writers?
MR: Well, there are many in many genres and time periods. Within
contemporary writing, I like Orson Scott Card, Tananarive Due, and
Robert Heinlen in speculative fiction. In general fiction I like
Walter Mosley, Ben Okri, Ayi Kweh Armah. In nonfiction, it's
David Levering Lewis. In poetry, there's Amiri Baraka,
Sonia Sanchez, and Saul Williams.
HW: What is your motto?
MR: Who I am is the possibility of community, passion,
and contribution. And the winner is the last one standing.
—HW Staff
See the web-site at
www.QBR.com.
Photo: MAD MAX The visionary in his Harlem office.
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