{"id":1100,"date":"2019-05-29T14:14:02","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T14:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/?p=1100"},"modified":"2021-08-15T03:48:11","modified_gmt":"2021-08-15T03:48:11","slug":"love-for-honey-i-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/2019\/05\/29\/love-for-honey-i-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Love for Honey, I Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Sunday, June 24, 2018, in New Orleans, I attended my very first Coretta Scott King Awards Breakfast where Jason Reynolds warmed up the room by saying, \u201cMy cousin comes to visit and you know he\u2019s from the South, \u2018Cause every word he says just kind of slides out of his mouth,\u201d and BOOM, just like that the room remembered and followed along, chuckling softly. I hadn\u2019t heard or thought about those words since I was a little girl, but in an instant I smiled and went back to being little-me, peering inside the little pocket-sized gem that is Honey, I Love and Other Love Poems<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eloise Greenfield and Alia Jones <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I had the pleasure of meeting Eloise Greenfield the day before the Coretta Scott King Awards Breakfast at her Virginia Hamilton Award celebration. I stood outside of her circle of admirers, friends, and greeters waiting for my turn to say hello. I told her how much I love and appreciate her work and then asked if I could take a quick picture with her. She has a quiet, kind manner about her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few months later, I remembered Jason Reynolds telling us at the breakfast that he kept a copy of Honey, I Love <\/em>in his back pocket when he was young because it was an important text for him. So, I went to the bookstore and bought myself a little paperback copy, too. Though I consider it part of my \u201ccanon\u201d of black children\u2019s books, I\u2019m pretty certain I never owned a copy as a child. But, because the book has been on my mind lately, I included it in a guest lecture I gave this past March at Cornell University. The title of my lecture was: Challenging the White Default: Diversity and Representation in Children\u2019s Literature<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I enjoyed rediscovering the book in preparation for the lecture; it\u2019s such a gorgeous celebration of black childhood. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my copy with me to Ithaca, so I visited the Tompkins County Public Library to copy down the first poem, “Honey, I Love.” I opened my lecture by showcasing books I loved in addition to Honey, I Love<\/em> like I Need a Lunch Box<\/em>, Mufaro\u2019s Beautiful Daughters, <\/em>and Jambo Means Hello<\/em>. And then I spoke “Honey, I Love” <\/em>out loud and into existence in that space. I wanted to show the power, endurance, and beauty of diverse children\u2019s literature, of black <\/em>children\u2019s literature. It was such a privilege to share it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alia Lecturing at Cornell University<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I lectured at Cornell University only a few weeks after my mother passed away from a long battle with colon cancer. This stanza of the poem really resonated with me: \u201cMy mama\u2019s on the sofa sewing buttons on my coat \/ I go and sit beside her, I\u2019m through playing with my boat \/ I hold her arm and kiss it \u2018cause it feels so soft and warm \/ Honey, let me tell you that I LOVE my mama\u2019s arm \/ I love to kiss my mama\u2019s arm.\u201d My mama had a soft, brown arm, too, and I\u2019m grateful for such a vivid, positive image of black motherhood and love.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Honey, I Love” by Eloise Greenfield<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important that black children grow up seeing themselves in all shades & variations of blackness in books. The Coretta Scott King Book Awards do such important work in highlighting and celebrating these stories, authors, and illustrators. As a kid growing up in the 90s, it wasn\u2019t easy to find many beautiful images of blackness in books, but when I found texts like Honey, I Love <\/em>by Eloise Greenfield, they reassured me that my black existence mattered. I\u2019m so thrilled to celebrate fifty years of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards and can\u2019t wait to see what the next fifty years of black books bring for our children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alia Jones<\/em><\/strong> is a member of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee\/Community. She is a Sr. Library Services Assistant at The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County and blogs at readitrealgood.com<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The photos attached are all mine & are: (1) Eloise Greenfield and Alia Jones, (2) Alia Lecturing at Cornell University, & (3) “Honey, I Love” by Eloise Greenfield.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, June 24, 2018, in New Orleans, I attended my very first Coretta Scott King Awards Breakfast where Jason Reynolds warmed up the room by saying, \u201cMy cousin comes to visit and you know he\u2019s from the South, \u2018Cause every word he says just kind of slides out of his mouth,\u201d and BOOM, just … Continue reading Love for Honey, I Love<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,8,20,26],"tags":[36,3],"class_list":["post-1100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-csk-award-winners","category-past-events-and-important-people","category-personal-reflections","category-virginia-hamilton-award","tag-eloise-greenfield","tag-jason-reynolds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1100"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1303,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1100\/revisions\/1303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}