There are a lot of ways to launch a book, and tonight Angelo Solera did it right with the launch party for his brand new book, The Journey: El Camino.
Angelo enlisted the help of Baltimore’s Creative Alliance to host the event, and partnered with U.S. Hispanic Youth Entrepreneur Education (USHYEE) and made a community event out of it.
It was a multi-media event as well, with a 20 minute video slide-show of beautiful photographs Angelo took while on his 400 mile hike from southern to northern Spain, followed by a reading and then a question-and-answer session.
The physical foot journey, El Camino, is only in part the Journey of the title of his book. It serves as a metaphor for Solera’s journey through life – from his arrival in the U.S. as a teenage illegal immigrant, through a frustrating marriage, drug addiction, divorce and recovery, through his bid for office as a City Councilman in Baltimore, and finally to the peace of mind and heart that he earned by crossing 400 miles of ancient roadways in his home country.
So, thats the book. But his event tonight was great, and I think we can all take a bit from it.
We can launch a book, and thats great. Our friends and family will come and it will be, as it should be, an end and a beginning. A celebration of the completion of writing and publishing, and a celebration of the beginning of marketing and selling.
I think that in getting the community involved, by reaching out to the Baltimore art community and Baltimore’s Hispanic community, and sharing the significance of the event in this way, he managed to celebrate both that ending and that beginning, but also something much more.
By sharing the event with two seperate elements of our community, I think he allowed both to feel a sense of ownership of his book. He allowed us to feel that he wrote the book as one of us (I place myself in the art community camp as I my polish heritage keeps me a far cry from claiming a place in the latino camp), and that in doing so, was sort of giving us a voice, and a goal, and a model to live up to.
Leaving the party, I think we all felt a sense of investment in the book and a hope that it could have life. How rare it is that this happens to a book these days.
This book is different. It’s special. I haven’t read it yet, not the final draft anyway, and not more then pieces of earlier drafts, but I already know there is something special about it. I know this because of the people it brought together tonight, the way it made us feel, the people I am sure it will continue to bring together and the way I am sure it will make them feel.
In putting his event together tonight the way that he did, Solera helped us invest in his dream.
We are all launching books, now or later. I think it is instructive how well his party worked tonight, and we might all do well to remember, instead of, “Come see my new book,” that we offer “Come share my new book.”
You can visit Angelos website for more info about the book, to read an excerpt, see some of the beautiful photos, or watch the video we saw tonight. His website is at AngelosJourney.com and you can order the book there or at AuthorsBookshop.com.
