If TLA’s presiding motto for the 2017 conference focused on owning your profession, then the Black Caucus’s annual author’s brunch with Bernadette Stanis echoed the idea of ownership with emphasis on owning your voice!
Any young urban child from the 1960-80s knows the television sitcom, Good Times, would not have climbed in ratings nor earned a Golden Globe nomination had it not been for the leading ladies: Esther Rolle and Bernadette Stanis (better known as the mother/daughter duo Florida and Thelma Evans). The voices of these women made the show a reflective model in a world that didn’t quite know how to handle Black America on the small screen just yet.
As Bernadette stood before TLA’s Black Caucus members, her voice shook with joy and trepidation. She recounted the three women–and the words they used–that altered her life forever.
She began with her grandmother, who pushed her to join the arts, working extra jobs just to finance her love for dancing. Granny’s empowering advice: “Don’t let fear block you from walking into your destiny.”
Then, Bernadette’s mother encouraged a young and reluctant Bernadette to enter the beauty contest that led to the infamous audition with producer extraordinaire Norman Lear.
However, it was Bernadette’s own voice that piped up to tell a million dollar, successful executive producer, “Mr. Lear, project kids don’t talk like this!”
After scripting her own lines and performing as a bolder, sassier young woman, she inched towards her destiny. This pivotal moment of bravery–owning your voice–landed her the role of “Thelma,” and made her a primetime role-model.
During the Texas Library Association’s conference this year, I checked out the Ultimate Children’s Picture Book Illustrators Sketch-Off. This session gave six illustrators a chance to flaunt their skills in front of a large audience. The catch? They had ninety seconds to draw whatever the emcee selected as the topic for each round. As if that weren’t nerve-racking enough, the emcee’s topics came from the audience. Think Whose Line is it Anyway? with markers and easel pads.
I had the pleasure of speaking to Christian Robinson and Shadra Strickland just before the competition. I asked a few questions in hopes of discovering whether these illustrators were new to Texas and if they were first time TLA attendees. I also wanted to know which side they were on in the big Texas cuisine battle: Mexican or BBQ.
No stranger to Texas, Christian visited San Antonio for his first TLA experience. Despite never witnessing or participating in a Sketch-Off before, Christian arrived ready and hopeful. He took a break from reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou to stake out his competition. He’s a vegetarian who occasionally enjoys sushi, so the BBQ versus Mexican decision comes with some surprises. Ultimately, Christian prefers Mexican food because there are more vegetarian-friendly options. He does enjoy barbecue sides—mac and cheese and potato salad, to be exact. The crowd kept him pumped, and the strange topics jump-started his creativity. Midway through the competition, Christian shared his connection to an educator in his life, which started a chain of the other illustrators doing the same. He gained victory and made it to the final!
Christian won the audience’s hearts when he drew a likeness of illustrator Melissa Sweet.
Shadra arrived in Texas with her copy of On the Road by Gloria Steinem and a determination to win. TLA marks her first visit to the Lone Star State. Surprisingly, one of the first meals Shadra ate in San Antonio was sushi. (We forgive her!) She’s more inclined to eat Mexican food while visiting as she frequents places in Baltimore where the BBQ is made with Southern roots. During the Sketch-Off, Shadra fed off the energy of her competitors. She even dropped the mic at the end of Christian’s aforementioned chain of educator connections! Shadra’s first competition brought her success, and she joined Christian in the final.
Shadra laughing with the audience as she drew a State Flower that grows out of the toilet for Round 3
Unfortunately, Christian and Shadra didn’t win the Sketch-Off. But would they do it again? Christian left a little dazed, but he enjoyed the competition nonetheless. Christian believes the session was stressful but fun, and he may be up for a repeat if the chance arises. Shadra thinks the Sketch-Off had the perfect blend of people, and all the personalities made the session worth it. She found it quite different from something similar she does with museums in Baltimore. Shadra’s favorite sketch topic? A poster for a western movie about a town loner whose rival is a skunk! Her illustration involved tomato sauce and a giant pot. Overall, Shadra found TLA to be the friendliest library convention she’s attended.
We thank Shadra and Christian for participating, and welcome both illustrators back for a rematch in Dallas!
Energetic and tireless Don Tate and Crystal Allen spoke at the Speed Dating event for authors and illustrators on the 2017-18 Texas Bluebonnet Award list. They rotated from table to table, talking about their titles and writing craft, answering questions, and posing for at least 100 photos. More than 250 participants eagerly listened to and admired these two dynamic literary artists.
This is Don Tate’s third appearance on the Texas Bluebonnet list, this time as the illustrator of Chris Barton’s Whoosh!: Lonnie Johnson’s Super-soaking Stream of Inventions. With humor and an enigmatic smile, Don shared that he has illustrated 50 books and “written 30 of which only three were published.” He likes to write about little-known historical figures and to introduce the new subject matter to children, such as NASA engineer Lonnie Johnson. Tate labeled Strong as Sandow: How Eugen Sandow Became the Strongest Man on Earth as one of the most enjoyable books to research, write and illustrate.
Don identifies strongly with Sandow because of his own love of bodybuilding and his own award-winning physique. He told his audience members that this was the most fun he had with a book.
Just as he was once committed to being a bodybuilder contender, Tate has transferred that passion to writing, illustrating texts, and visiting schools year-round. He wants students to see that he is an African American male artist. He is adamant in his message that not all African American males play basketball. He sets the example of other successful options and occupations through his books and presentation so that students have a window into a future for themselves, further representing Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop’s message face-to-face with students.
Holy Moly! Crystal Allen broke all records at Speed Dating. She is friendly, charming, and loquacious with a magnetic smile and personality sharing a lot of common traits with her literary character Mya Tibbs.
This is Crystal’s first time on the Texas Bluebonnet Award list with The Magnificent Mya Tibbs: Spirit Week Showdown. Crystal shared that she wants today’s fourth-grade girl to feel independent and good about herself. She wants to help elementary students be proud to have their own ideas and be their own person. Crystal’s goal is to help elementary kids get to middle school and have fewer transitional issues. Ms. Allen focuses on “positive” family environments. Through Mya, students will learn a valuable lesson in not being judgmental.
The biggest takeaway for her audience is that she identifies most with Fern from Charlotte’s Web, exemplifying Fern’s kindness, patience, and consideration of others. And, finally, she wants all to know that Mya is not race-driven and that race does not drive her stories. “My books are for all children.”
The Texas Library Association and the Black Caucus Round Table celebrated the message of Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, winner of the 2017 Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement. Multiple conference programs reflected Dr. Bishop’s famous words that books can at times be windows or other times mirrors in which children might see themselves. Books can also be sliding glass doors, an entrance to a different world. African American authors and illustrators conveyed this message to hundreds of librarians. The CSK blog is proud to highlight four of those programs: The Brown Book Shelf with Kelly Starling Lyons and Gwendolyn Hooks; Speed Dating the Bluebonnet Books with Don Tate and Crystal Allen; Illustrator Sketch-off with Christian Robinson and Shadra Strickland; and My Life Beyond ‘Good Times’ with actress and author Bern Nadette Stanis.
Part One of Four
The Brown Book Shelf at the Texas Library Association Conference in San Antonio, TX
Presenters: Kelly Starling Lyons (CSK 2013) and Gwendolyn Hooks (NAACP Image 2017)
What a treat for a room of more than 200 librarians to learn about The Brown Book Shelf from Kelly Starling Lyons and Gwendolyn Hooks. In February 2017, the Brown Book Shelf celebrated its 10th anniversary by recognizing authors and illustrators of color who have paved the way to heighten the awareness of the many Black voices in the world of books. Each day in February, an author/illustrator was featured with an in-depth profile and list of their body of work. There is currently a collection of 280 featured authors and illustrators from the past decade.
Kelly Starling Lyons from Raleigh, North Carolina, shared that the first time she saw an African-American child on the cover of a book was in third grade. The book was Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Seeing a girl that looked like her let her know that her experiences and history mattered. It ignited her dream of writing too. Lyons didn’t see another book featuring a black child until in her 20s when she read Something Beautiful by Sharon Dennis Wyeth. That book made her want to write for kids. Lyons shared that family relationships are the heart of what she writes about, but her latest book, One More Dino on the Floor, showcases her love of fantasy and dance. The counting story features colorful dinosaurs dancing at the disco, limbo, hip hop, Cupid Shuffle, and more.
Gwendolyn Hooks from Oklahoma City shared her career path from a military brat to a middle school math teacher and on to her full-time writing job. Her 2016 title Tiny Stitches: The Life of Medical Pioneer Vivien Thomas was inspired by the 2004 HBO show Something the Lord Made. In the 1940s, Vivien Thomas was instrumental in the successful surgery and development of procedures to treat young children with “blue baby syndrome.”
Hooks shared about her own family of readers. She explained that as a military family, the only constant in their lives was the library. No matter where they lived, they could always go to the library. After the debut of Tiny Stitches, her son, who is now in the military, phoned from Kuwait to ask her why he had to learn about this book from his commanding officer? A friend of the officer’s wife discovered the book and told her that this pediatric heart surgery had saved her own baby from “blue baby syndrome.”
Lyons and Hooks had several takeaways for their attentive audience:
Librarians should feel comfortable and confident choosing diverse books for diverse children.
Children’s books by Black authors and illustrators are books for all children.
Librarians must be intentional about their purchases and the power of their dollars, demanding that publishers produce more diverse books and bring back ‘into print’ popular diverse series from the past.
They stressed the message of Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, winner of the 2017 Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the value of “mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors.” Librarians need to make sure that there are books on the shelves with pictures and images of children and people who look like they do.
Books should have ‘cultural authenticity’ with people of color telling their own stories.
Lyons and Hooks shared a history of images in children’s books going back to painful pejorative titles from 1875 to a celebration of Ezra Jack Keats’ Caldecott Award for The Snowy Day in 1969. They referenced the Cooperative Children’s Book Center published statistics, demonstrating the great need for more books by and about people of color.
Finally, they ensured that this audience had tools ready to use back in their libraries by sharing favorite strategies for promoting diverse books. These included choosing fun stories like Nikki Grimes’ Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel; focusing on “who was that person” such as Schomburg, The Man Who Built a Library; using Riding Chance to demonstrate decision-making and consequences; and drawing kids in with the unexplainable such as The Jumbies, a Caribbean fantasy.
Afterward, Lyons and Hooks reported that they were pleased with this first presentation at the Texas Library Association and with the size of the audience and the attentiveness and the follow-up questions at the end. Lyons was very happy to get the opportunity to eat and perhaps have a margarita at one of Maya Angelou’s favorite San Antonio restaurants, La Margarita. Texas librarians were very fortunate to have the opportunity to hear from these national speakers and to learn more about celebrating diversity in their own libraries.
