When it comes to Hip Hop and fiction, many often forget the origin and how it impacts our communities. From the likes of a Donald Goines, to Teri Woods, and Ashley and JaQuavis Coleman, our stories have been widespread for decades, impacting millions. This year, the A3C Festival and Conference joined forces with the AAMBC Awards and its origination to produce the Hip Hop in Books panel.

Moderated by Legendary LaQ’uita, the panel featured literary artists such as JaQuavis Coleman and Wahida Clark, who both have dominated the New York Times best sellers list to new age authors, Myss Shan and Booker T. Mattison. The panel also featured AAMBC Awards creator, Tamika Newhouse, who launched the AAMBC platform to advocate for literacy ten years ago.

The panelists spoke on the importance of storytelling and how literary artists contribute to the growth of Hip Hop. When it comes to those types of books, you often think of musical talents and perhaps the songwriter and producers, but the talent, often forgotten about are those who pen novels. With an ever-changing industry, it was much-needed to hear from these talents, and the best part was getting signed books during the wrap-up session.

The AAMBC Literary Awards is a platform that celebrates black books and black writers in a star-studded ceremony each summer. Their partnering with A3C only encourages the mission that we read and that we create! They made reading seem fun, powerfully, and the fact that we can create our stories for millions to read is pretty dope to me.

Check out some images from the Hip Hop in Books panel.