Krystal Skwar's YA Reviews: No Crystal Stair: Documentary of the Life of a Harlem Bookseller

Hidden Messages: Fight the power; history is not always acurate.

Pleasure rating: 5/5 stars

Critical rating: 4/5 stars

Would I buy this book for a child I care about? I did! I begged my department chair to purchase a class set, and we are currently reading it in one of my American Lit classes. :)

In No Crystal Stair, Vaunda Micheaux Nelson acknowledges that her great-uncle Lewis Michaux strove to create a racially balanced middle and upper class. In the novel/documentary of Lewis Michaux's life, this community leader challenges the cultural narrative that blacks should stay relegated to the working class. How does he do this? By opening a bookstore in Harlem. A bookstore with books about and by blacks.

Sounds innocent enough. But in Civil Rights-era New York, this was very dangerous. As Nelson shows, the FBI had files on her great-uncle, and many whites in power viewed him as a threat to the system. The mayor had what seemed like a campaign to shut this gem of a store down, and Michaux himself was not surprised by this. Friends with leaders like Malcom X, he was no stranger to blatant racism based on white America's fear of black social and intellectual advancement.

Vaunda Michaux Nelson with her award-winning book!

When he creates the National Memorial African Bookstore, Lewis Michaux produces a space for blacks to read “books by black people and about black people” (Nelson). Black readers flock to his store, and as they do, they “affirm what blacks had given to the world…in terms of culture.” Lewis Michaux’s patrons see that they need not be part of the New York City working class. Many of Lewis’s patrons, such as Calvin, who becomes a doctor, and Snooze, who is inspired to work with children, find their paths because of the bookstore’s “blossoming of…black awareness.”

Michaux empowered his black patrons, motivating them to read works by and about black people in order to be inspired by their multifarious contributions to the world. As Reverend Dr. Charles E. Becknell states in the remembrance section of the book:

“[Black] history and culture is fading away…people like Mr. Michaux…stood for something. They had standards. What are the standards today?”

Like Michaux’s bookstore, Nelson’s No Crystal Stair teaches readers about their country's history, and compels them to include knowledge of black history into their “standards.” Nelson’s rendition of her great-uncle’s story could blossom to eternalize Lewis Michaux’s legacy.

On a critical level, the only issue I had was that Nelson seemed to suggest that intellectualizing the black community, or any community, somehow makes it better. It is not this simple. Historically, it is a white/euro-centric cultural narrative that pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is possible if you are guided by that glowing beacon of light that is knowledge and education. The fact that Nelson aligns herself with this narrative is understandable, but a little troubling. I am not sure we have come far enough in terms of racial equality to say that regardless of race, if you become an intellectual, you become successful. What is success, and why must it be intellectual?

That said, I hope more schools adopt this text, like mine has. One way to sell the book to a school is that it has many CommonCore-worthy elements. Interslpiced throughout the text are several nonfiction pieces such as Martin Luther King and Malcom X's speeches, personal letters from Michaux's friends, and files from the FBI. It is also an excellent way to discuss metaficton, and to discuss the differences between fiction and nonfiction, biography/autobiography/memior, etc. Nelson does SUCH a fabulous, meticulous job backing up her sources that it could also provide a nice lesson in the importance of documenting the research process - she is a librarian, so it's no wonder she is so good at it! It would also be really good for a history class, as it shows a unique, more common-man persepective on the Civil Rights Movement.

Most public school English curricula are whitewashed, and I'm not sure this is a good message to send to any student, and especially a student of color. It's nice when English departments make a conscious effort to change and be more inclusive. Thanks department chair! :)

For my students: Link to the Langston Hughes' poem "Mother to Son", which inspired Nelson's title! http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177021

Langston Hughes, Harlem Rennaisance author: