Meet Malaika Adero | Adero’s Literary Tribe LLC

We had the good fortune of connecting with Malaika Adero and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Malaika, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Adero’s Literary Tribe, LLC is a literary agency and book development studio. I pursued a business venture based on what I know best and one that compliments my work as a writer. I’ve worked in big long-established corporations such as Simon & Schuster and in start-ups such as Amistad, when it was launched in 1992 as an independent company.

Four decades into my work-life in the arts & letters and book publishing, I’m confident in and can demonstrate what I can do by showing what I’ve done, including produce great books authored by a wide range of writers, artists and thinkers. I’ve cultivated mutually respectful relationships with people over time that produced great and lasting work. People will remember the good work you did that was meaningful in their lives and career and that’s one of the best ways I know to secure a beautiful future for your life and your business.

What should our readers know about your business?
I have an amazing roster of client authors with new books in the works, including: Kokayi, a Washington DC-based musician, producer, and marketing guru. His book, You Are Ketchup, hits the market this Fall. I’m also working with Brooklyn-based novelist Ifeona Fulani andHarlem-based poet, writer, and musician Sharrif Simmons. Todd Hunter, founder and principal of Avenue Literary Services, partners with me in the work of Adero’s Literary Tribe. He is a brilliant editor and publishing consultant.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
The Schomburg Center for Studies in Black Culture, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Alvin Ailey Dance Center, and up and down Harlem to hear great live music in a variety of venues, indoor and outdoors.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

Among the long list of people producing work, I’d like to shout out Imani Perry, Farah Jasmine Griffin and Mecca Jamilah Sullivan who have each written brilliant recently published books.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’m in it for the long haul. There are more great books to come from me and my tribe. I’m building on a career-foundation, having edited books by Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe, George Clinton and Ben Greenman, Maryse Conde, Common and Adam Bradley, T.D, Jakes, Zane, Walter Mosley, Jewell Parker Rhodes, Demetria Lucas, Kevin Powell and many more. I’ve coauthored books, Including The Mother of Black Hollywood with Jenifer Lewis. And, I’ve authored books, including Kamala Harris: Her Path to the Whitehouse(Union Square 2021), A Black Woman Did That (Downtown Bookworks/S&S), and an anthology, Up South(The New Press 1993).

Website: http://www.aderosliterarytribe.com/