Jacqueline Woodson shares her own childhood through vivid narrative poetry in her memoir for young adults Brown Girl Dreaming. In tracing her roots from her birth in Columbus, Ohio, to her beloved home with her grandparents in Greenville, South Carolina, to moving with her mother and three siblings to Brooklyn, New York, as a seven-year-old, Woodson paints the canvas of her life as a young black girl growing up amidst the backdrop of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. And it is words, not necessarily those on paper, but those that lived in her rich imaginative world, that paved her path forward.

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Jacqueline Woodson – http://www.jacquelinewoodson.com/

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Inspired by her father’s stories of growing up in the midst of a family active in the Civil Right’s Movement, Pamela Tuck turns out a tale of hope and perseverance in the face of adversity with her children’s book As Fast As Words Could Fly. Young Mason Steele turns his father’s words into polished letters for a local group of civil rights activists and soon receives a gift from the group: his very own typewriter. Eric Velasquez’s colorful oil paintings breathe life into the narrative as Mason and his brothers become the first black students to attend the local formerly all white high school. Mason’s skilled typewriting eventually wins him the grudging respect of his fellow students, teachers, and the local community as he wins the county typing tournament.

Don’t miss as SAG-AFTRA Foundation presents the Storyline Online reading of the book by actor Dulé Hill:

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Pamela Tuck – http://www.pamelamtuck.com/
Eric Velasquez – http://ericvelasquez.com/

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Charles R. Smith, Jr.’s poetry, bold and brash like the master of the ring he grew up admiring, serves as both historical record and tribute to “The Greatest of All Time” in his children’s book Twelve Rounds to Glory (available in the Briggs library). The incorporation of a selection of quotes from friends, family, and Ali himself, further highlights this poetic journey through Ali’s greatest triumphs and tribulations. Bryan Collier’s illustrations illuminate Muhammad Ali’s journey from infancy through his lighting of the 1996 Olympic Torch with hands unsteady, ravaged by Parkinson’s disease.

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Charles R. Smith, Jr. – http://charlesrsmithjr.com/
Bryan Collier – http://www.bryancollier.com/

Muhammad Ali – http://muhammadali.com/

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With her children’s book The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth, and Harlem’s Greatest Bookstore, Vaunda Micheaux Nelson introduces her young readers to the magic of her great-uncle Lewis Michaux Sr.’s National Memorial African Bookstore. R. Gregory Christie’s bold paintings splash color across the proud history of the bookstore that proclaimed itself “The House of Common Sense and Home of Proper Propaganda”. As it grew to national prominence, Lewis’ bookstore offered an incredible array of books by and about black people, and the bookstore drew a loyal following of notable athletes, activists, artists, authors, politicians, and academics, perhaps most notably Malcolm X who spoke passionately to crowds on a platform outside the store.

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Vaunda Micheaux Nelson – https://thebrownbookshelf.com/2009/02/16/vaunda-micheaux-nelson/
Gregory Christie – http://gas-art.com/about-r-gregory-christie/
National Memorial African Bookstore – http://www.nytimes.com/1976/08/27/archives/lewis-michaux-92-dies-ran-bookstore-in-harlem.html

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Walter Dean Myers, the award winning author of more than 100 books for children and young adults,, has been a staple of my classroom from the very beginning. Whether I’m reading aloud or inviting a reluctant reader into the world of books,  his collection for young adults 145th Street: Short Stories never fails. Myers deftly weaves together ten tales of life on 145th Street in Harlem that span the emotional gamut from laugh out loud hilarity with “Big Joe’s Funeral” to the stark, cold reality depicted in “The Baddest Dog in Harlem” to an unfailing romance with “Kitty and Mack: A Love Story”.

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Walter Dean Myers – http://walterdeanmyers.net/
James Van Der Zee, Legendary Harlem Photographer – https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/10/17/in-photos-of-ordinary-life-james-van-der-zee-captured-harlem-renaissance-glamour/?utm_term=.18850ac687a9

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With her powerful folk art paintings, Faith Ringgold narrates her own dream of Martin Luther King, Jr., sharing his life journey from a young child growing up in the segregated south to his leadership in the Civil Rights Movement to the aftermath of his assassination with the children’s book My Dream of Martin Luther King. As her dream begins, a diverse patchwork of men, women, and children carry “bags containing their prejudice, hate, ignorance, violence, and fear…” By the end of the narrative, we see these bags in flames with the artist’s words boldly splashed across the image: “Every good thing starts with a dream.”

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Faith Ringgold – http://faithringgold.com/
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – http://www.thekingcenter.org/

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With her young adult historical fiction, Copper Son (available in the Briggs Library), award winning author and educator, Sharon Draper, takes us on a journey with young Amari as she is brutally captured by slave traders, her African home and family destroyed, and shipped across the Atlantic to be sold to work on a plantation. As she attempts to hold on to her memories of home and the essence of her true self in spite of the cruel conditions she is forced to endure, Amari looks towards the future and escape. Inspired by her visit to the slave castles of Ghana, Draper has shared that this is the book of her heart, and in her research she found in America the opposite of those slave castles, a fortress of freedom for those few slaves who were able to reach Fort Mose near St. Augustine, Florida.

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Sharon Draper – http://sharondraper.com/

Door of No Return: Cape Coast Slave Castle, Ghana – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRb-vCqcLcs

Fort Mose – https://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/histarch/mose.htm

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With poetic grace, award-winning author Carole Boston Weatherford traces Harriet Tubman’s journey north to freedom in Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom (available in the Briggs Library). Guided by her deep and abiding faith, Tubman’s courage and strength is beautifully depicted by Caldecott Honor Award winner Kadir Nelson’s illustrations, not only in her own escape, but also as she led family members and other escaped slaves north along the Underground Railroad.

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Harriet Tubman – https://www.nps.gov/hatu/index.htm

Carole Boston Weatherford – https://cbweatherford.com/

Kadir Nelson – http://www.kadirnelson.com/

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With the historical fiction Elijah of Buxton (also available in the Briggs Library) Newberry Award winner Christopher Paul Curtis weaves together the compelling story of young Elijah, the first child born free in a settlement founded by escaped slaves in Buxton, Canada in the mid-1800’s. Through Elijah’s eyes the story unfolds with laugh out loud humor, a stark contrast to the sobering, stark reality of the times in which he lived. Perhaps most incredible is to discover the community itself, once visited by Frederick Douglas, where the Liberty Bell was rung to announce the arrival of a newly freed person.

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Christopher Paul Curtis – http://nobodybutcurtis.com/

Buxton National Historic Site & Museum – http://buxtonmuseum.com/
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Award-winning poet, educator, and activist Nikki Giovanni’s Rosa (available for checkout in the Briggs Library) celebrates the courageous refusal of Rosa Parks to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus and traces the historic events of the Civil Rights Movement that followed. Bryan Collier’s vivid cut-paper illustrations add a vibrant, colorful layer to this retelling of this historic moment in American history.

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Rosa Parks – http://www.rosaparks.org/

Nikki Giovanni – http://www.nikki-giovanni.com/

Bryan Collier -http://www.bryancollier.com/
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