{"id":267463,"date":"2025-09-30T21:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T21:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/267463\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T21:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T21:22:12","slug":"publix-black-book-bash-organizers-dispute-sponsorship-claims-ahead-of-jacksonville-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/267463\/","title":{"rendered":"Publix, Black Book Bash organizers dispute sponsorship claims ahead of Jacksonville event"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 Conflicting accounts are surfacing ahead of a Jacksonville event celebrating Black authors, as organizers of the Black Book Bash claim Publix pulled its sponsorship at the last minute \u2014 a claim the grocery chain firmly denies.<\/p>\n

The controversy began after organizers released a video on social media, alleging Publix had backed out as a title sponsor just days before the event, forcing them to dip into personal funds to keep things going.<\/p>\n

However, Publix told News4JAX that it never agreed to sponsor the event in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re disheartened,\u201d a communications director for Publix said during a phone interview. \u201cAfter conducting a thorough investigation, we concluded that Publix never agreed to sponsor or serve as the title sponsor of this event.\u201d<\/p>\n

The disagreement has sparked online backlash, with some social media users calling for a boycott of the Lakeland-based grocer. Publix responded to the criticism by encouraging the public to seek out accurate information.<\/p>\n

Casey Kelley, an organizer for the Black Book Bash, shared a different version of events. <\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past few months, one of our sponsorship coordinators was in communication with someone from a Publix.com email address,\u201d Kelley said.<\/p>\n

She also shared an email \u2014 which News4JAX reviewed \u2014 appearing to show a sponsorship offer being rescinded.<\/p>\n

Part of that message read:<\/p>\n

\u201cI regret to inform you that Publix [is] no longer able to offer sponsorships for the foreseeable future. In this volatile [climate], we have pulled all sponsorships for the foreseeable future. As a result, we are rescinding the existing offer to sponsor Black Book Bash\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Notably, the email address the message was sent from ends with \u201c@publix.com\u201d \u2014 the same domain News4JAX has used to communicate with Publix\u2019s corporate communications team.<\/p>\n

Publix, however, maintains the message was not from them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can confirm definitively that this communication was never sent by Publix,\u201d a company spokesperson said in a follow-up statement to News4JAX.<\/p>\n

Despite the sponsorship confusion, organizers say their focus is on ensuring the Black Book Bash is a success. The event, which celebrates literacy and amplifies the voices of Black authors across genres, is scheduled to take place this weekend in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for more information about the event.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Conflicting accounts are surfacing ahead of a Jacksonville event celebrating Black authors, as organizers of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":267464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,139395,3188,723,7310,68315,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-267463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-black-book-bash","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-publix","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115295351264274983","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}