we drew and we draw upon the creative genius of many, gwendolyn brooks, margaret walker, j. calif. cooper, delaney, terry williams, the list goes on and on and on. james baldwin spoke at the role of the writer in america conference in 1960 at san francisco state college. he said, quote, a country is only as strong as the people who make it up and the country turns into what the people want it to become. this country is going to be transformed. it will not be transformed by an act of god but all of us, you and me. i didn't believe we could afford to say it is entirely out of our hands. we made the world we living in and we have to make it over. the language of publishing is will be argued to talk about this afternoon, economics, technology, cultural ascetics, creativity. just like anywhere else in the world, in your home, in my home all publishing houses have their own cultural values and norms, cultural messaging going on all over the tests place. are we paying attention? can we go with the flow and the flexible? what do we bring to the mix? how do we see ourselves in this industry