Those are the words of Darren Vincent, owner of RealEyes bookstore, Charlotte, N.C., and organizer of the Charlotte Literary Festival, which will be held this coming weekend. He told his story to the Charlotte Observer,
recounting a hard journey from his troubled past in Niagara Falls,
N.Y., "where people knew him as a roughneck, a troublemaker. He was a
rap singer with muscles and tattoos and a scar from a barroom brawl. .
. . But one day, Vincent says, someone convinced him to read a book
about facing fear. It was the first book he ever read from front to
back--and it awakened a hunger in him."
As Vincent put it, "I was a kid from the 'hood, and all of the sudden, I realized I didn't know anything."
Like
most independent booksellers, Vincent's bookstore dream, which grew out
of conversations with a co-worker at a call center, wasn't about
getting rich, but nourishing people with information. "I was looking at
all my family members, and I saw people who were 26 years old and had
six kids, and they had never picked up a book about parenting, never
picked up a book about pregnancy. And at the call center, I was taking
in what all those people wanted to do and where they wanted to go. And
I realized that it was just like in the 'hood. What they all lacked was
information."
Last year, Vincent's commitment grew further when
he started the Charlotte Literary Festival, which drew Nikki Giovanni
as well as local authors. This year Catherine Coulter and Zane are
expected to participate.
A long way from home.
"Everybody
who knows Darren Vincent back in the Falls says, 'Oh yeah, I remember
him. He beat up my cousin, Now he owns a bookstore?'" said Humphrey
Hill, Vincent's cousin.
When asked if he is happy, Vincent
replied, "I have a lot on my plate. I don't have the money to get the
kind of manpower I need to do what I want to do. I have to be in so
many places at once. But I finally in my life like what I do."