my fourth-grade teacher thought I read
too many black books one day following a
parent-teacher conference my mother came
to me and shared my teachers concern
that my book selection with its almost
exclusive focus on black story was too
narrow my teacher thought I should
broaden my reading horizons outside the
scope of just black life now when my
mother shared this with me I felt
confused and annoyed I was confused
because I thought why would my mother
even repeat this foolishness to me it
was my mother a kindergarten teacher who
had instilled in my siblings of me a
love and pride in our black identity and
an appreciation for the importance of
reading and books and I was annoyed
because how dare my teacher interfere
with my thirst for seeing my own culture
reflected in stories these were the days
of roll of thunder hear my cry by
Mildred Taylor zealey by Virginia
Hamilton and honey I love by Eloise
Greenfield I read these books over and
over I wonder if my teacher had gone to
parents of other students in the class
who very likely had a predominantly
white reading diet and encouraged them
to include more black books in their
selection now I don’t know how my mom
responded to my teacher that day and my
mother never encouraged me to change the
direction of my reading and despite
feeling confused and annoyed I’m so
thankful that my mother passed along my
teachers message it affirmed from me at
that young age that I had a strong and
growing sense of my black self I was
protective and proud of it it also
heightened my awareness that not
everyone would share in my love for
blackness not everyone would appreciate
my need to see it reflected in books not
everyone would understand that for black
people in the United States reading and
literacy have always in part been about
freedom and self representation around
1920 w eb de bois began publishing the
brownies book a magazine for as he
caught
the children of the son he solicited
manuscripts and drawings related to
colored children and he wanted to teach
universal love and brotherhood the boys
knew it was important for black children
to develop cultural and racial pride to
oppose narratives of inferiority that
surrounded them and that’s all to
justify black people’s unequal position
in Jim Crow Society with characters like
Karina of our gang to contend with self
representation was a key component in
the struggle for freedom and now here we
are in 2018 nearly a century after the
boys first began publishing the brownies
book magazine and we need black
children’s books as much as ever before
this decade has seen black girls
expelled from school for wearing their
hair in its natural state and black
children criminalized for selling water
there is so much negative messaging
about blackness surrounding black
children and so self representation
remains vital to freedom I’ve worked in
education and literacy throughout my
adult life and in 2017 I published the
children’s book and dedication to my
daughter I wanted to give her a story
about dreams and adventure and it was
important to me that my daughter who is
of Ethiopian and african-american
heritage see this cultural richness
reflected in the book so I worked with
my illustrator who brought my vision to
life and dream a rainbow was born from
there I established daydreamers Press as
a way to publish multicultural
literature promote multicultural
learning and advocate for excellence in
education and in so doing I became part
of this movement of self-published black
creators of books for children
now even though I’ve known about this
problem with diversity and
representation and books for as long as
I can remember it’s since becoming a
mother of two young children that I’m so
regularly frustrated by the lack of
diverse children’s content when
searching across multiple platforms like
Netflix Hulu Amazon Prime and of course
books on library and bookstore
Shell’s in fact according to the
cooperative children’s book center in
2017 just eleven percent of children’s
books published featured significant
black characters and what’s more
troubling is that of that 11 percent
which was around three hundred and
thirty or so books just 100 or so were
created by black authors and
illustrators so that means that of the
already too small number of children’s
book published telling black stories the
vast majority were told to the
perspective of a white storyteller now
I’ve talked about my mom being a
kindergarten teacher and she recalls
that throughout her thirty plus years of
teaching in elementary school
Black History Month was always a time
when black literature and black
accomplishment would take center stage
and the book the snowy day was always a
favorite among teachers to feature many
teachers believe that because the main
character is an african-american little
boy that the author and illustrator was
also african-american but Ezra Jack
Keats was a Jewish man who simply
believed that black characters should be
censored in children’s books and the
result of this beloved character and
story so while I don’t discount the
merit of the snowy day as a classic work
of children’s literature I still have to
ask the question why have we not made
more space for black authors and
illustrators to tell black stories we
cannot underestimate the power in the
position of storyteller or the relevance
of perspective when we write stories we
create worlds established norms and
expectations and decide what beauty
brilliance and belonging look and feel
like the great storyteller Thomas King
has said that once loose in the world
stories can’t be called bad so we must
be careful the stories we tell but watch
out for the stories were told have you
ever been told something that takes up
space in your mind and refuses to let go
now if that’s an affirmative thing then
great but if it’s a message of deficit
defeat or doubt it can be quite a curse
to your joy one of my favorite
children’s book writers Virginia
Virginia Hamilton has said that she
conceded a benevolent life to the
characters in her fiction as a sort of
gift to black readers for whom she knew
life in the United States could be
unreasonably burdened with struggle and
as a reader of her books I remain
grateful for the wonder and idealism
that I found there it was her
perspective as a black woman that was so
invaluable Virginia Hamilton understood
the importance of freedom representation
and joy in books so what do we do with
this centuries-old problem of diversity
and representation in children’s books
we can demand that the mainstream
publishers do a better job on their end
as it relates to children’s literature
and I think we should continue to do
that we can support smaller presses
whose mission is to publish
multicultural literature created by a
diverse array of authors and
illustrators and I think we need to do
more of that and a third option that I
put out today is that we seek out and
support independent self-publishing
black creators of books for children
people like Monique Duncan author and
illustrator of when Mama braids my hair
Veda Azim author and illustrator of the
boy who tried to touch the Sun and
tomorrow pizzoli author of the Ghanian
Goldilocks are some of the many black
creators of books for children
publishing independently and we know
that writing is an instrument of
testimony of self representation and
imagination and it is a path to freedom
we need you to join us on the journey
thank you [Applause]
too many black books one day following a
parent-teacher conference my mother came
to me and shared my teachers concern
that my book selection with its almost
exclusive focus on black story was too
narrow my teacher thought I should
broaden my reading horizons outside the
scope of just black life now when my
mother shared this with me I felt
confused and annoyed I was confused
because I thought why would my mother
even repeat this foolishness to me it
was my mother a kindergarten teacher who
had instilled in my siblings of me a
love and pride in our black identity and
an appreciation for the importance of
reading and books and I was annoyed
because how dare my teacher interfere
with my thirst for seeing my own culture
reflected in stories these were the days
of roll of thunder hear my cry by
Mildred Taylor zealey by Virginia
Hamilton and honey I love by Eloise
Greenfield I read these books over and
over I wonder if my teacher had gone to
parents of other students in the class
who very likely had a predominantly
white reading diet and encouraged them
to include more black books in their
selection now I don’t know how my mom
responded to my teacher that day and my
mother never encouraged me to change the
direction of my reading and despite
feeling confused and annoyed I’m so
thankful that my mother passed along my
teachers message it affirmed from me at
that young age that I had a strong and
growing sense of my black self I was
protective and proud of it it also
heightened my awareness that not
everyone would share in my love for
blackness not everyone would appreciate
my need to see it reflected in books not
everyone would understand that for black
people in the United States reading and
literacy have always in part been about
freedom and self representation around
1920 w eb de bois began publishing the
brownies book a magazine for as he
caught
the children of the son he solicited
manuscripts and drawings related to
colored children and he wanted to teach
universal love and brotherhood the boys
knew it was important for black children
to develop cultural and racial pride to
oppose narratives of inferiority that
surrounded them and that’s all to
justify black people’s unequal position
in Jim Crow Society with characters like
Karina of our gang to contend with self
representation was a key component in
the struggle for freedom and now here we
are in 2018 nearly a century after the
boys first began publishing the brownies
book magazine and we need black
children’s books as much as ever before
this decade has seen black girls
expelled from school for wearing their
hair in its natural state and black
children criminalized for selling water
there is so much negative messaging
about blackness surrounding black
children and so self representation
remains vital to freedom I’ve worked in
education and literacy throughout my
adult life and in 2017 I published the
children’s book and dedication to my
daughter I wanted to give her a story
about dreams and adventure and it was
important to me that my daughter who is
of Ethiopian and african-american
heritage see this cultural richness
reflected in the book so I worked with
my illustrator who brought my vision to
life and dream a rainbow was born from
there I established daydreamers Press as
a way to publish multicultural
literature promote multicultural
learning and advocate for excellence in
education and in so doing I became part
of this movement of self-published black
creators of books for children
now even though I’ve known about this
problem with diversity and
representation and books for as long as
I can remember it’s since becoming a
mother of two young children that I’m so
regularly frustrated by the lack of
diverse children’s content when
searching across multiple platforms like
Netflix Hulu Amazon Prime and of course
books on library and bookstore
Shell’s in fact according to the
cooperative children’s book center in
2017 just eleven percent of children’s
books published featured significant
black characters and what’s more
troubling is that of that 11 percent
which was around three hundred and
thirty or so books just 100 or so were
created by black authors and
illustrators so that means that of the
already too small number of children’s
book published telling black stories the
vast majority were told to the
perspective of a white storyteller now
I’ve talked about my mom being a
kindergarten teacher and she recalls
that throughout her thirty plus years of
teaching in elementary school
Black History Month was always a time
when black literature and black
accomplishment would take center stage
and the book the snowy day was always a
favorite among teachers to feature many
teachers believe that because the main
character is an african-american little
boy that the author and illustrator was
also african-american but Ezra Jack
Keats was a Jewish man who simply
believed that black characters should be
censored in children’s books and the
result of this beloved character and
story so while I don’t discount the
merit of the snowy day as a classic work
of children’s literature I still have to
ask the question why have we not made
more space for black authors and
illustrators to tell black stories we
cannot underestimate the power in the
position of storyteller or the relevance
of perspective when we write stories we
create worlds established norms and
expectations and decide what beauty
brilliance and belonging look and feel
like the great storyteller Thomas King
has said that once loose in the world
stories can’t be called bad so we must
be careful the stories we tell but watch
out for the stories were told have you
ever been told something that takes up
space in your mind and refuses to let go
now if that’s an affirmative thing then
great but if it’s a message of deficit
defeat or doubt it can be quite a curse
to your joy one of my favorite
children’s book writers Virginia
Virginia Hamilton has said that she
conceded a benevolent life to the
characters in her fiction as a sort of
gift to black readers for whom she knew
life in the United States could be
unreasonably burdened with struggle and
as a reader of her books I remain
grateful for the wonder and idealism
that I found there it was her
perspective as a black woman that was so
invaluable Virginia Hamilton understood
the importance of freedom representation
and joy in books so what do we do with
this centuries-old problem of diversity
and representation in children’s books
we can demand that the mainstream
publishers do a better job on their end
as it relates to children’s literature
and I think we should continue to do
that we can support smaller presses
whose mission is to publish
multicultural literature created by a
diverse array of authors and
illustrators and I think we need to do
more of that and a third option that I
put out today is that we seek out and
support independent self-publishing
black creators of books for children
people like Monique Duncan author and
illustrator of when Mama braids my hair
Veda Azim author and illustrator of the
boy who tried to touch the Sun and
tomorrow pizzoli author of the Ghanian
Goldilocks are some of the many black
creators of books for children
publishing independently and we know
that writing is an instrument of
testimony of self representation and
imagination and it is a path to freedom
we need you to join us on the journey
thank you [Applause]
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