St. Pete Reads Lit Fest Celebrates 5 Years Of Books, Culture, Community

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Reading should be something to celebrate, not just another forced school assignment.

That's the idea behind St. Pete Reads! Lit Fest, which returns to South St. Petersburg on Saturday for its fifth year, the event's founder Lorielle Holloway told Patch.

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The bookish gathering will bring authors, illustrators, musicians and literacy organizations together for an afternoon celebrating books, culture and community.

The free, family-friendly festival will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Woodson African American Museum of Florida, 2240 9th Ave. S. Pre-registration is encouraged and can be done online here.

Organized by Holloway's Cultured Books Literacy Foundation, the event grew out of listening to the community and asking residents what they wanted from local literacy programming.

The idea for the festival took shape after the organization conducted its St. Pete Reads Study in 2022, partnering with local organizations to hear from parents, caregivers, educators and others working with children, she said.

Holloway and her team repeatedly heard that not only did people want to know more about literary resources in their community, they also want to see more opportunities that make reading fun.

"People just want to have fun and celebrate reading, like a party," she said.

The festival, born from those conversations, combines the atmosphere of a community celebration with the chance to discover new books, meet authors, and connect with literacy resources.

"One reason why we call it Saint Pete Reads is because it's like a declaration that we are reading," Holloway said. "We're doing it. We're reading. And we're letting everyone know."

This year's lineup includes award-winning children's author Carole Boston Weatherford, who will share her book "The Black Hands." Her illustrator R. Gregory Christie, who illustrated the book, will also read from his own work "Jazz Baby" alongside the Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association.

Mary Corbett of the Florida Orchestra will lead a musical storytime, while additional programming will give attendees opportunities to explore storytelling through different creative outlets.

There will also be a literary how-to table where attendees can learn skills such as annotating a passage, with Holloway's daughters helping lead that activity.

For Holloway, making reading accessible, enjoyable and reflective of the community is central to the festival's mission. Through Cultured Books, she hopes to move beyond negative narratives about literacy in Black communities and instead celebrate the many ways people engage with reading, whether through books, recipes, song lyrics, religious texts or other everyday materials.

"Who defines what a reader is or what reading is?" she said. "I mean, if you read something, you're a reader."

That mission is also rooted in making sure Black children and families have access to literary spaces where they can see their experiences and cultures reflected, Holloway said.

She was inspired to start organizing her own storytimes and reading circles after struggling to find multicultural children's literary programming for her own daughters when they were young. Since then, Cultured Books has worked to bring those opportunities directly into South St. Petersburg communities, celebrating Black authors, artists and stories while giving families opportunities to discover books and connect with one another.

"The more that you see our community reading, the more it's just a part of our everyday life," Holloway said. "It's not just something you do in school."

The foundation, which was established in 2018, now offers programming throughout the year, including book clubs, poetry events, and community activities connecting literature with art and local history.

While the Lit Fest is one of its largest annual events, Holloway hopes to continue building opportunities for families to connect with books and one another beyond a single afternoon.

This fifth annual festival is supported in part by Creative Pinellas through its Arts Everywhere grant program.