by Rachel Slaiman, WNBA President
The gray skies and almost all-day rain weather did not stop the ever-popular
Brooklyn Book Festival from happening this year. Brooklyn Book Festival pays
homage to all independent, literary, and non-profit presses showcasing the
organizations on the festival day. Festival goers from all over the city and beyond
gather to enjoy the hundreds of booths and author panels at this annual event held
at the end of September every year rain or shine.
Members of the WNBA-NYC Chapter volunteered their time to discuss the
organization with prospective members from voracious readers to students, poets,
and everyone in between. Readers mainly stopped by the booth as well as aspiring
writers that want to find a community of booklovers.
Our booth quickly transformed into a looking glass with a tarp that covered
giveaways of bookmarks, post it notes, magnets, donated books, flyers about Great
Group Reads and Member Author Books. This allowed for interesting
conversations and promotion of the organization.
This festival also brings people from other areas of the city and beyond. We
had the pleasure of meeting people from five states: New York which included
Manhattan, Brooklyn, and New Rochelle; New Jersey included Floral Park, West
New York, and Bayonne; and representation from South Carolina, Connecticut,
and Ohio.
Our member volunteers reflected on their time at the booth:
Sophia Mojica: Volunteering at the book festival was a lovely experience! I
thoroughly enjoyed connecting with book lovers and individuals interested
in the writing/publishing industry.
Roberta Slaiman: As my seventh time attending this festival, this year was
all about the rain, but the organization remained strong and lively through it
all.
Sheila Lewis: It is nice to see the longstanding organizations that come back
and share how things are going in the book world and the challenges and
joys of these uncertain times.
We continue to attend this festival every year in hopes to attract new
members to our organization. For more about membership inquiries, click here.
To read more articles about the festival from previous years, head here to our blog.
