Images of Books & Authors in Unexpected Places

Every year in December, I head off to Fifth Avenue to tour the gorgeous holiday window displays. This year, my traditional seasonal trek had a happy addition: Harlem's 125th Street! I was like a kid in a candy store, as several stores on Harlem's 125th Street showcased gorgeous holiday windows. Expecting to see the usual festive creations of glamorous gowns and dressed-to-the-nines mannequins; snow-filled dioramas; old-fashioned toys for miniature girls and boys; and the usual Christmas scenes, what a wonder-filled surprise to find instead, books and authors inspiring the holidays this year!

Fifth Avenue

Bergdorf Goodman offered windows on Architecture, Music, Painting, Theatre, and my favorite, Arts & Literature.

Literature themed holiday window at Bergdorf Goodman - December 2014. Photo Credit: Ricky Zehavi

Can you find Frederick Douglass and Phyllis Wheatley among the many iconic writers featured in the window?

Harlem

Uptown, a Harlem store's fanciful window shimmered with a quote from Zora Neale Hurston, one of my most cherished writers. The images of Hurston and Langston Hughes, standing stand-by-side in the Yoga Land window display, made me smile.

Photos of legendary authors Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston in a winter holiday themed window at Yoga Land in Harlem. Photo credit: DNAinfo/Gustavo Solis

Then, a happy thought came to me; all good wishes are sent forth – to everyone -- in this glorious holiday season!

Tour Bergdorf Goodman's holiday windows. 

Tour the Harlem stores' holiday windows.

===================================================

Each month, I'll share images of books and authors that I come upon in unexpected places. It's all to inspire you to experience, as if for the first time, the wonder of books and their creators.

Hit me up on Twitter @LuvonRwriter!

Luvon Roberson is happiest when she's reading a book or talking about one. She gets to do both as What's The 411 Book Editor. The daughter of a single mom who worked the night shift, she and her sister were "latch-key" kids. She spent hours reading on her bed and writing stories and poems. And, so began her lifelong love of books and storytelling. What's The 411 marks Luvon's return to TV, after a much earlier stint at WTNH-TV as a field producer/researcher, which she nabbed by beating out 50 others for the job.

She then teamed up with now-writer Ifa Iyaun (whose sister is Ntozake Shange) to develop The Book Team Folklore Project for the New Haven Board of Education. From there, she headed to the University of London, for her first Master's degree, returning to the US two years later to begin Ph.D. studies in the anthropology department at Columbia University. Zora Neale Hurston, her favorite novelist-folklorist-anthropologist, studied in the same department. Leaving Columbia with her second Master's, she moved to a focus on books and writing: She was an Associate Editor at NASW Publications, taught English literature to gifted students of color in the acclaimed Prep for Prep program, and taught Journal Writing to adult students at The College of New Rochelle. Then she began a long career in public relations, ranging from NYC's iconic Howard J. Rubenstein agency to global giant Omnicom, where she was a Senior Vice President at Fleishman-Hillard.

Among her recent adventures with books and writing, Luvon lists: Columnist, features writer, copy editor at Harlem News; book reviewer at ThoughtGallery.org; facilitator of book talks, literary-Biblical classes, and coordinator of large-scale book events for hundreds at The Riverside Church. Luvon is especially grateful to Gloria Steinem and NYC First Lady Chirlane McCray for using their skills as writers and their national and global visibility to showcase a new book, Breaking Through: 2014 Anthology from the Next Generation of Woman Writers. Luvon is the copy editor of Breaking Through and volunteers with Girls Write Now.

She calls herself "bookish," and reads at least one book each week. She's currently reading three books – Harlem Nocturne, by Farah Jasmine Griffin; My Secret History, by Paul Theroux; and – for the fourth time -- Moses, Man of the Mountain, by Zora Neale Hurston. Luvon belongs to three book clubs. And, she will accept all invitations to visit your book club! She wants to know what you're reading...What's The 411 on your bookshelf, Nook, or Kindle?