‘Book by Authors’ ventures into North Long Beach

Often ignored by just about everyone in our city—save for those who live within its perimeters—North Long Beach is the subject of the second Book by Authors anthology (the first, spanning all of Long Beach, was released in 2006). Spearheaded by Smolarcorp’s Ryan Smolar and Rachel Potucek, the literature and arts compilation—featuring 50 local writers and 50 local artists (edited by our own Greggory Moore)—aims to share the joys and struggles of “North Long Beach activists, artists and inquisitive onlookers,” as Potucek notes in her introduction. She’s joined by BbA collaborator and Alive Theatre co-founder Jeremy Aluma, who explains: “I was a blank canvas stepping into this project; I knew absolutely nothing about North Long Beach. It was one of the most diverse communities I ever witnessed,” before launching into a minor catalog of the folks he encountered (“old school Caucasian-Americans,” “young African-Americans,” “Mexican-American families” and the firefighters who serve them all) while assisting on the project.

Aluma is among the more “inquisitive onlookers” to be found here; the rest celebrate city fixtures old (Dooley’s Hardware and the Fairfield YMCA, which receives 100% of profits from BbA) and new (community do-gooder at large Dave San Jose). And for the most part, it’s a great read: stories like Joyce E. Wheeler’s “Glimpses of the Los Angeles River” (recalling playing with polliwogs and splitting cherished Victory Garden yield with area jackrabbits) and Lee Adams’ “A Memorable Christmas Eve” (about being served divorce papers in Lucy’s) are rich, transporting glimpses into lives we’d otherwise never know.

Even the most negative pieces (Jim Worsham’s “Something Fishy,” decrying the city’s focus on downtown when “Fish don’t shop”; and Bianca Garibaldi’s “Violence”—“You hear wheoo / And guns go bang bang / You sometimes see blood on the floor / This is violence”) are enjoyable, tempering some of the collection’s boosterism. This being largely the work of amateur writers, there are of course occasional falters—a few stories aren’t stories at all, just notes—and we need some explanation about the four oral-history subjects, which include Long Beach Heritage Museum founder Ken Larkey—but on the whole, it’s a job well done. There’s no question these authors are proud of NLB—and they should feel the same about their work here, too.

BOOK BY AUTHORS: NORTH LONG BEACH ANTHOLOGY 115 PAGES • $12 • BOOKBYAUTHORS.ORG

Tags: book by authors, dooley's hardware, fairfield ymca, Los Angeles River, north long beach, Smolarcorp