Hampton Roads Community News
Black Va. Publisher To Give Away Children’s Books And Things
NEWPORT NEWS
It is called by many names, but the most popular is “giving back to the community from whence you came.”
On Saturday afternoon, December 19, 2015 in Newport News, Virginia, major Black Publisher, H. Khalif Khalifah, Founding President of The Southeast Community Day Parade and Festival and business owner of “UBUS BOOKS & THINGS” in Hampton, Virginia is returning to reportedly, “The oldest Black Community in America,” Newsome Park, to give away 500 Children Books & Things.
The giveaways will be at a Holiday, Pre-Kwanzaa Event in the new Moorish Science Cultural Center at 39th Street and Marshall Avenue. The event is sponsored by the only Black Bookstore in the City of Newport News or Hampton, Virginia. This is the recently opened “Stone of the Sun Bookstore” 611 25th Street Newport News, Virginia 23607.
High quality “Books and Things” will be given to children between the ages of “new born” to 15 years old. A limit of two per child applies. The Holiday event will be from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Free vendor setup available in
the spacious building. Vendors will sell hand crafted products. The giveaway will be after a free Publishers Workshop by Khalifah at 2 p.m. Native Newport News author, Terrence Moore-el will introduce Khalifah.
There will also be a program to introduce the New Bookstore and Cultural Center, beginning at 3 p.m. Guest Speakers will feature the Leader of the Moorish Science Leader of Virginia.
Publisher H. Khalif Khalifah came to Newport News in 1978 to marry Carver H. S. Graduate, Class of 1967, Sister Reathella Bowser. The Bowser family lived in Newsome Park, not within, but in a private house near the Newsome Park Housing Project. Khalifah also happens to be a historian and once said, “I recognized immediately the historic importance of Newsome Park.”
The Newsome Park Community is reportedly, the first autonomous settlement of Chattel Slaves who moved away from the slave plantation between 1555 and 1619.
When Newsome Park was demolished to make way for interstate 664, Reda and Khalifah bought a house at 3810 Orcutt Ave as near to the former Bowser Homestead as possible where they lived for 19 years and raised three daughters.
After Sister Reda died of Breast Cancer, December 18, 1997, widower Khalifah raised the children in Southampton County, Virginia. He still lives in what was built to be Sister Reda Faard Khalifah’s “Dream House.” The Free Books will be given away in her name to commemorate the 18th year since her death.
For more information, call (434) 378-2140. Email publish@khabooks.com
