There’s a first time for everything.
And next month, June 20, Downtown Monrovia will host its inaugural book festival as part of Pride month, featuring 50 LGBTQIA+ authors, vendors, and performers. The genres will include children’s literature, young adult, romance, and more.
“Monrovia Pride Book Festival has been a dream of mine at Underdog,” says Kealie Mardell-Carrera, director and board president of Underdog Bookstore. “It is something that I envisioned as a big future goal that we would love to see happen, because Monrovia has never had an official Pride event before.”
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Mardell-Carrera spoke about the event one recent afternoon as shoppers came in and a regular customer stopped by for a special order and a friendly chat.
“We are looking at having over 50 queer authors and vendors, community groups. It’s family-friendly and dog-friendly. There’s going to be free activities and craft things for people to enjoy, and we just want to have a big day of celebrating queer storytelling.”
She says with a smile that if it seems like it’s coming together quickly, well, that’s because it is. She says the event application got approved at the beginning of the month – this month.
“When I found out that, yes, it had been approved and it was going to happen, I had this total moment of, ‘Oh my God, yes, it’s finally happening!’ and then, ‘Oh my God, it’s next month, and there’s so much to do!’” she says. “But it’s gonna be so worth it.”
If you’re surprised by the speed with which she works, don’t be. Mardell-Carrera, you’ll remember, transformed the store into an aid station after the Eaton fire, and was one of several bookstores that were hubs of help to the community.
The San Gabriel Valley LGBT Center will be involved and has made the event an official stop on its SGV Pride Tour, she says. “And this is the first time Monrovia has ever been on there, which is really exciting.”
Having been a target of bigotry and harassment – she posted a picture just last week of anti-gay stickers being posted in Monrovia – she says the bookstore and the event planners are aware and prepared.
“It’s something we face, just constantly, as an openly queer business anyway. We have been on the receiving end of hate and harassment in various forms, and knowing that we are now doing something even bigger and more public than has been done before, we are anticipating that there will be pushback.”
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She’s working with the city on security as well as the event’s volunteer teams to ensure a fun, safe experience.
“There are always going to be those voices of hate, and those people that are going to push back against what we’re doing, but what we’ve found,” she says, “is that the voices of support are so much louder, and so much more prevalent.”
Because, she adds, the June 20 book festival will be a joyful event.
“It’s a Pride celebration. We are celebrating queer storytelling,” she says, adding that it’s a response against nationwide book-banning bills that are predominantly affecting queer and trans authors.
“There is something really quite terrifying that’s happening across our country right now that is affecting these authors, which is why we want to have this event and give those authors potentially being impacted by these bans this space and platform to share these life-changing stories they’re putting out into the world.
“It is so crucial that we are uplifting those stories and making sure that people have access to those stories,” she says. “We all want to celebrate the wonderful joy that this is gonna bring.”
For more information or to support or volunteer, go to the Underdog website.
