Category Archives: Authors and Illustrators

African American Children’s Book Fair

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Two weeks ago, some Mary Mitchell Students traveled from the Bronx to Philadelphia Pennsylvania to attend their annual African American Book Fair. It was  a dream come true for me. My first self lead trip out of state with my students. It was a great success (If I may say so myself).

In this photo are some Mary Mitchell students with Author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and Illustrator R. Gregory Christie.

Ms. Nelson is penning a sheriff badge on Jerome. He had just told me that he didn’t want any books. That was before he met Ms. Nelson. She changed his mind. He ended up getting Bad News for Outlaws (written by Ms. Nelson and Illustrated by Mr. Christie).

Cazona De Flores

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Cazona De Flores

 

Today we went to a lecture by Ezequiel Adamovsky. (nice name right?)

The place where we went is called La Cazona De Flores and while I don’t understand fully why it’s so significant I do know that  it is where a lot of learning takes place and many educators such as writers and authors give speeches there.

To welcome us into the place was an anthropologist named Nicolas Fernadez. He sat us down and told us a little history about La Cazona De Flores. It was an upper class house full of paintings owned by a rich family. However,  when the city begin to grow, the neighborhood swallowed up the smaller rich neighborhood.

Now it’s an open space used for studies.  He told us that It connects study courses with employment. I guess that’s the equivalent to an internship. “The house has achieved prestige among the intellectuals, he commented, and the neighborhood of Flores is associated with Afro-Argentine families.”  I think this means a lot, but currently I am not sure why I think this.

Fernadez switched the topic to race in Argentina and I jotted down some of his quotes that I thought were intriguing:

The meaning of race has been a challenged  myth of the country since the beginning

The problem with the stereotypes is not that they are false but incomplete.

Education and violence is what constructed the nation and the false ideas that race doesn’t exist 

If you want to evolve, leave your ethnicities behind

The difference is the resistance of the people and how change comes (his comment in regards to other nations and their response to inequalities)

During the discussion, we spoke about how the government is in control of maintaining the history of Argentina and telling the history of Argentina. He then showed us the 100 peso. There are currently two circulating. One of them, the older one, has the father of the disappearance on it, Julio Argentino Roca (we spoke a little bit about him at the Recoleta Cemetery) and the other peso has Maria Eva Duarte De Peron picture’s on it.

 

Walter Dean Myers

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At the African-American book fair I had the great opportunity to meet  Walter Dean Myers.

The fact that Walter Dean Myers was on the list to be present at the book fair, is what really gave me extra zeal to go. I woke up on Saturday morning and did not really want to travel to Philly but every time I thought about Walter Dean Myers being there, I felt I needed to go.

When I was younger, I used to read Walter Dean Myers books…I tried to read all of them. In the eight grade my teacher assigned the class to read Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff. The class I was in, the students were very hard to reach. Somehow through that book and the teaching style of my teacher we begin to look forward to English. I remember that book giving me goosebumps. My teacher did not hold back on educating us. We spoke about each chapter and even figured out why Myers would name the characters the way he did.

I don’t know what I expected Myers to say to me when I met him. I really didn’t have much to say myself. He simply said, keep reading and writing. Just for keeps, I got a book signed. Nevertheless, I am glad I met Walter Dean Myers.

Gloria Jean Pinkney

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Gloria Jean Pinkney is an author and an singer. She’s one of the many authors I met at the book fair. She is the third person I’ve met who told me they can make hats. And the third person to tell me she doesn’t do it anymore.

Where can I find a good hat maker?! I know they are out there.

She’s rocking that hat isn’t she?

The Snowy Day

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A Saturday ago, I went to the Jewish Museum to see The Snowy Day exhibit. Prior to my visit, I had very little knowledge of Ezra Jack Keats. I only remembered reading The Snowy Day as a child. It wasn’t even a favorite book of mine. I don’t know why I felt I really needed to go see the exhibit. Anyway, I went and was glad I did.

I went with preconceived ideas about the book and it’s illustrator/ author. I thought Ezra Jack Keats was black and was surprised to learn that he was Jewish. I was also surprised when I learned that his book was the first children’s book to include a black protagonist. He knew what it felt like to be ignored because of something about yourself you can’t change and did not only use Black characters but Hispanic and White.

“My book would have him there simply because he should have been there all along” he said in response to Pete’s character.

As I walked through the exhibit, I felt so inspired. The art in itself was amazing. He started drawing as a child and even though he did not have that great of a relationship with his mom, she encouraged him to draw.

What I remembered and spoke about the most was the letters he received from people concerned about the color of his skin and the color of his characters. One person wanted an edition of a book he illustrated, but wanted him to changed the color of the character. His response was:

“Like life, there is only one edition.”

Javaka Steptoe

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While volunteering at the New York Public Library, I became interested in children’s literature. Almost every week I was reading a new book to a new child. Every child I worked with, was able to pick out a book of their interest for me to read to them.

It didn’t take long for my journal to be filled with children author’s, illustrators, and photographers. When the year was up and I started to work, I missed working with children and reading children books. To fill this void, I contacted all the artist that I could, offering my services for almost nothing but experience in return.

Javaka Steptoe, an African-American children’s book artist, replied to my email almost immediately. We begin working together.

A little after I began to work for him, his recent book, Jimi: Sounds like a Rainbow, (written by Gary Golio and Illustrated by Javaka Steptoe) was listed on The New York Times Best seller list.

Working with Steptoe gave me a better view of the “children book world” and has allowed me to meet legendary artist like himself. Some of them assumed that I was also an illustrator or at least an author. Well, not yet.

One of the most exciting  book events I’ve been to so far happen at the beginning of this month.

I was blessed to attend the 19th Annual African-American Children’s book fair held in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the Community College of Philadelphia gymnasium.

As a little girl, I always enjoyed going to book fairs.  However, I never been to one as grand as this one.

For starters, there were a good amount of authors and illustrators there to meet the children: Javaka Steptoe, Sean Qualls, Bryan Collier, and Renee Watson just to name a few.

Imagine being in third grade and meeting the person who wrote your favorite book? I didn’t even imagine that when I was a third grader. There was also gifts for the children which I think the kids enjoyed the most.

I enjoy working with Steptoe and look forward to more projects in the future.

Pictured here is Me, the Orange, and Steptoe
(Steptoe left an apple, a banana, a pear, a orange and a bottle of water on the table during the fair….these hungry kids came by and asked for everything…I kept the water and Steptoe kept his orange.)

Hats off to James McBride!

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Yesterday I had the joy of meeting acclaim writer James McBride, the author of The Color of Water.

Despite the embarrassment I received while taking a video of him, I thought that what he delivered to us was very interesting and encouraging. He had a way of telling stories not too many people have. He is the kind of person who you would not mind listening to. I wonder if he was shy or nervous while talking or if he felt completely comfortable talking to us. Sometimes the speaker would mention that they are nervous or anxious but he didn’t.

He started by telling us about our shared history in America. “Whites and Blacks have a shared history and the best thing that we can do is learn to appreciate our respective history”. I think our history is more than shared, I think it is the same if we are to look past color. It is one history. I am an American before I am African- American. Isn’t the founding fathers of this country, founding fathers of my country as it is any white person?

He continued by telling us that we know how to succeed but now we should learn how to fail. “You have to give yourself the right to fail” he said.  Of all the things I have heard as something encouraging I have to say I was at first surprised. Learn how to fail? What could he possibly mean? And what I took away is not to be afraid to fail. Failure will come and is going to come but do not give up. He continued saying When you fail, you attack what ever you are doing or trying to do, harder. He said more but I am dwelling on that for right now. At this moment in my life I have to accept and I have been accepting my failures. I’ve been greeting them and smiling through them and continuing on.

Anyways, let me tell you how he embarrassed me and how somehow right there I connected to his speech. So, here he is  talking and here I am video taping him. And towards the end of his speech he said to me: Are you video taping this? Please don’t do that. And instead of feeling embarrassed, I felt great. Number one, I was the only one who was there  video taping James McBride- the only one with a camera and using it. I also was the only one who got called out. And was not afraid to fail right there. I put his philosophy into practice. I stopped because he asked me to but the thought did cross my mind to continue. What could he or what would he had done IF I dared to continued. That would have been some story!  But I wanted him to sign my book and journal and take a picture with me so I stopped.

He is in my Hats or  Hatsnot series because he had a cool swagger about him. I promised him- well didn’t promise- but told him I would not put the video on Youtube  so you can’t see it however, it doesn’t mean I can’t put it on my blog. But his poise was very together. Very calm, cool and collected.

He did all of this with a hat and an ear ring. It was like he was the definition of coolness! He even said ‘this cat’ to describe someone. And his word choice? out of this world!Lilly and James McBride