By the time the evening sun settled on Homewood yesterday, Kelly Starling Lyons had come full circle. Back in a library, surrounded by books and words and the people who love both.

	Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Serenity Scott, 10, of the North Side, and Samson Baily, 13, of Penn Hills, share a book during the Celebration of Reading event at the Carnegie Library in Homewood yesterday afternoon. The event also included readings, workshops and crafts. Click photo for larger image.

Ms. Lyons, a freelance writer in Raleigh, N.C., sat in the Homewood branch of the Carnegie Library, her daughter, Jordan, 3, asleep in her arms.

Sprawled on the table before them were pamphlets and books on "Eddie's Ordeal" and "One Million Men and Me," both written by Ms. Lyons, a rising children's author. Raised in Pittsburgh, Ms. Lyons was in town for Mother's Day and to participate in the fourth annual Celebration of Reading, sponsored by the United Black Book Clubs of Pittsburgh.

Ms. Lyons' writing dreams were born in Pittsburgh.

Her mom wrote Christian plays and Ms. Lyons was a good student who devoured books about magic animals and white children as she went through Beechwood elementary, Milliones middle and Brashear high schools learning to love writing and storytelling.

Something about the experience was empty, though.

When she was younger, she never saw books of young people who looked like her.

So, now an accomplished author, Ms. Lyons brought the fruit of her labor back to Homewood yesterday and talked about her foray into multicultural literature.

"It was really important for me to come," she said, as she displayed her book, "One Million Men and Me," a story of a young girl who accompanies her father to the Million Man March a decade ago.

Several summers back, Ms. Lyons went to a classroom and none of the students had heard of the Million Man March. It shocked and dismayed her because, when she worked as a reporter, Ms. Lyons covered the march, a time when a million black men gathered in the nation's capital, and was transformed.

The day of the march was healing for Ms. Lyons and the image of a young father holding hands with his daughter by the Reflecting Pool never left her. It was the genesis for her book.

"Literary Healing" was the theme for the two-day Homewood celebration, which began on Friday, and comes nearly a week after Sunday morning violence interrupted worship services in the neighborhood.

"We are hoping this can restore Homewood," said Rena Amos, one of the event's coordinators. "This is intergenerational and we're hoping to connect writers to their readers."

The celebration featured workshops on "Developing Healthy Children by Reading," "Literature on Healing the Mind, Body and Spirit" and a forum on "Street Literature: Is it Healing or Harmful?"

Sarafina Brooks, an 11th-grader from Penn Hills, found that, when she needed it, writing also became a balm.

The winner of an essay contest sponsored by the celebration, Sarafina wrote about the death of her beloved Uncle Keith, a jazz lover who taught her the soulful rhythms of reggae.

He was a beautiful man, said Sarafina.

As he passed from cancer, she wrote: "Writing seemed to be the only way to help my eyes understand what my heart was going through. A whirlwind of confusion left me filling up notebooks with letters, poems and essays. Writing became a form of expression and a way for my body and mind to restore and mend its sorrows."

Masai, 79, and recovering from a stroke, sat at a table in the middle of the celebration surveying items of black memorabilia.

Amid the items of a smiling red-skirted mammy and racist images on books such as "Watermelon Pete" and "Little Black Sambo" sits a 1969 New York Times Magazine. On the cover, a smiling, dignified Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman in Congress, stands in her pressed hair and pearls.

Masai is a native of Homewood and frequents the library.

He supports the celebration because he's concerned about what black people read and write. "So much of it is anti-black," he said. "The gangsta rap takes away from any kind element that might actually be uplifting."