VLOG: I Got Trapped In A Sand Storm At My First Book Conference |

I had the opportunity to spend the week in beautiful (and sweltering) Phoenix, Arizona at ABA Children’s Institute. I met so many awesome independent bookstore owners and bookseller’s, built community with some amazing Black and brown book fanatics and authors who were in attendance, and filled my suitcase with too many advance review copies of upcoming releases. Support your local indie bookstores (especially those that are BIPOC owned), they work incredibly hard to get books in the hands of those that really need them.
Here are a few bookstores I got to connect with while in Phoenix:
• AYA Coffee & Books - Kansas City, MS - Black owned & and woman owned (S/O to Jahna, she’s Pham 💛🖤💚💗) - www.ayacoffeea...
• Word Up Books - New York, NY - Collectively run by Black and Latinx booksellers - www.wordupbook...
• Semicolon Bookstore - Chicago, IL - Black woman owned - www.semicolonc...
• Rooted MKE - Milwaukee, WI - Black woman owned - www.rootedmke....
• Sista Scifi - Online Black woman owned sci-fi bookstore - sistahscifi.com/

[@thoroughlyenjoyedbooks8565]

Every time you said it was over 100 degrees I wanted to cry. I would burn just walking to the car.
It looks like a brilliant time, despite the sand storm!

[@mrplatink]

Have a great time, handsome man!

[@NiteOwl2000]

Yesss, Sistah Sci Fi is so dope, great video as usual

[@mithzelluque4754]

eyyy, you were in my neck of town, good to have ya (tho, i apologize for the monsoon.... it's summer you see.) thank you for the vlog!

[@victorythecreator]

I knew you were in Arizona before even looking at the description! I know you was hot 🤣 So sorry to hear about that situation with American Airlines though. Depending on the situation, you could absolutely receive compensation. Especially if your flight was overbooked and you got left stranded, you can invoke "involuntary denied boarding" in which they pay you double the cost of your ticket or more depending on the amount of stress they've caused. Just a thought!