Monthly Archives: November 2017

CSK Award Winners, CSK Legends, Exhibit, Illustrator Award, Past Events and Important People, Virginia Hamilton Award

Ashley Bryan’s Stories Are Alive in Atlanta!

Anything you can do that can stimulate the imagination of another…is the most exciting thing you can do as an artist.  ~Ashley Bryan

With 50 books to his credit, Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award winner Ashley Bryan creates beautiful mindscapes for children.  Full of love of life and humanity, his body of work shares the stories of people of the African Diaspora as preserved in songs, poems, and folktales.  

In tribute to his longevity, Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre has staged two plays based on the works of the beloved artist, teacher, and scholar.  Dancing Granny and Beautiful Blackbird, winner of the 2004 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, are the books selected for production by the Alliance’s Theatre for the Very Young. The plays complement the exhibit Painter and Poet: The Wonderful World of Ashley Bryan on view at the city’s High Museum of Art until January 21, 2018.  


The opening voice of  The Dancing Granny is a character patterned after Ashley Bryan himself.  He is the tale weaver and griot whose narration and fancy footwork bookend this tale inspired by Mr. Bryan’s memories of his grandmother.   

Elaborate lighting and vibrant costumes along with Afro-Caribbean choreography and a range of percussion instruments– some made by the children in the audience as a pre-show activity– all come together to set the joyful tone of this show which encourages children’s expressive engagement. 

From the Alliance Theatre website Breanna Ross, Benjamin Sims, Chani Maisonet, Akumba Bynum-Roberson, and Ameenah Kaplan in the Alliance Theatre’s 2017/18 production of The Dancing Granny.  Photo by Greg Mooney.

Beautiful Blackbird is more understated than The Dancing Granny.  Arranged like an interactive playground for babies and toddlers, children sit on felt sun patches that encircle a chuppah-style canopy.   Bold quilts depicting night and day serve as backdrops for live electric guitarists who strum jazzy lines while the young ones roam and play.  

The audience hears Blackbird before they see him.  When he emerges, with rhinestones glimmering like dewdrops from his dark wings, he glides about the set, coaxing rhythm from his djembe.  The little ones play along on miniature African drums as Blackbird shares his musical gifts with the multi-colored members of his flock.  The message: know your beauty, find your unique groove.

Eugene Russell IV, who played the griot-tale weaver Ashley Bryan in The Dancing Granny and composed the music for Beautiful Blackbird, says: “The story is an unapologetic celebration of blackness which at the same time encourages all kids to be who they are, that who they are is beautiful, and enough. I think that’s a beautiful combination.” He goes on to say that stepping into the world of Ashley Bryan “really did change me life in a wonderful and beautiful way. I’m a forever fan. It will always be a part of my family’s life.”

To learn more:

Ashley Bryan Teacher Resource

Ashley Bryan Speaking About the Coretta Scott King Award

Post by Jené Watson

Jené Watson works as a public librarian at a system in suburban Atlanta, where she coordinates Books in the Barbershop community outreach and Mindful Monday, a family meditation program.  She is also the author of The Spirit That Dreams: Conversations with Women Artists of Color (indigopen.com).

CSK Award Winners, Illustrator Award, Interview

Dr. Claudette McLinn Interviews CSK Award Winner Javaka Steptoe

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Javaka Steptoe won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award in 1998, which was his first major book award. Since then, Steptoe has created a body of work as an illustrator and author and garnered many awards in the field of children’s literature. He recently won the 2017 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for his book, Radiant Child: The Story of Young Jean-Michel Basquiat. We caught up with Javaka Steptoe, who has been busy traveling outside the United States and touring the children’s literature scene.

CSM: Coretta Scott King Book Awards, which will turn 50 in 2019, was the first award to recognize your work. You won the 1998 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for the book, In Daddy’s Arms I am Tall. How did the Coretta Scott King Book Award help your career?

JS: This Coretta Scott King Book Awards is looked at as an award of excellence in the children’s book industry, most of all for children’s books of color. It is a major award to start off one’s career.  It put me on the radar of many publishers and made it easy for me to illustrate my next book, Do You Know What I’ll Do? by Charlotte Zolotow.

CSM: You have produced a body of work for children of all ages from Radiant Child; to Jimi: Sounds like a Rainbow; to Sweet, Sweet, Baby, which is one of my favorites; and many more books. What do you hope your readers will know or feel when they finish one of your books?

JS: It depends on the book. Whatever the book is saying, that’s what I want the reader to feel. Not on a superficial level but deep in their bones.  For example, with Sweet, Sweet Baby, I want the reader to feel the love between mother and child.

JS: I am also interested in complexity. There are lots of ways to talk about a subject. You can talk about it superficially or with depth and nuances. The latter creates a book you can grow with.

CSM: For a young man, it seems like you work all of the time. What do you do for fun?

JS: I read books—science fiction, fantasy, and mysteries. I like books that make you think about the world in a different way.  I also dance. I am always taking dance classes such as African Dance, Salsa, Improvisation, and Swing.

CSM: You have accomplished so much so far. What do you see in your future?

JS: Just to keep writing. Keep illustrating. I am interested in strengthening my ability as a writer. I’m also interested in the development of books. My belief is that there will always be paper books. They have a certain quality that cannot be replaced by technology. I see technology as a tool to help expand ideas and content within books.

CSM: Is there anything else you would like to say?

JS: [I would like to say] whatever you do, do it because you love it.

Javaka Steptoe is the son of award-winning author and illustrator John Steptoe and Stephanie Douglas. Both parents were artists. The Coretta Scott King John Steptoe New Talent Award was established in 1995 and named in memory of his father.

Dr. Claudette McLinn is Chair of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee.  She is the Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature.