By: Ayana Young,
on 3/1/2016
There is a moment in the George Miller film Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985) that has stuck with me over the two decades since I first saw it. A bedraggled Max (Mel Gibson) is escorted through the crumbling desert outpost of Bartertown.
The post W.E.B. Du Bois and the literature of upheaval appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Ayana Young,
on 2/28/2016
In 1996, decades before the trending hashtag, Reverend Jesse Jackson led a boycott protesting the lack of diversity at the Oscars. Having encouraged attendees to wear a rainbow ribbon in support of the issue, he was ridiculed for his efforts.
The post #OscarsSoWhite: new branding for an old problem appeared first on OUPblog.
By: rgarcia406,
on 2/11/2016
February is Black History Month. The origins of Black History Month began with historian Carter G. Woodson launching Negro History Week in 1926. Woodson felt that teaching African American history was essential for the survival of the African American race.
In 1969, students at Kent State University proposed expanding Black History Week to Black History Month. The first Black History Month was celebrated a year later. In 1976, Black History Month was recognized by the federal government and has been celebrated ever since.
Today, heritage months can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, relegating culturally diverse books to specific months of the year can mean these books are overlooked the rest of the year. It can also separate Black history from American history, when in fact black history is American history.
On the other hand, we are still working to undo a long history in which the achievements and contributions of people of color were routinely ignored. Having a special time of year to highlight these achievements can help fill in the gaps in our history.
Our opinion? Black History Month isn’t a time for once-a-year books; the books you use this month should be in your regular rotation. But Black History Month is a good time to give your collection of African American titles a little extra love–or updating, if it needs it.
LEE & LOW is proud to offer a number of different Black History Month collections. Check them out below:
Black History Month Collection, Grades K-2
This paperback collection features a mix of historical fiction and biographies from African Americans who excelled in arts and politics for young readers.
Featured Books:
Love Twelve Miles Long, written by Glenda Armand and illustrated by Colin Bootman – Frederick Douglass’s mother travels twelve miles late at night to visit him in another plantation. Mama recounts why every step of the way is special to her.
Knockin’ On Wood, by Lynne Barasch – Clayton “Peg Leg” Bates, a legendary 20th century tap dancer, lost his leg in an accident at the age of twelve. He taught himself how to dance, first with crutches and then later with a peg leg.
Black History Month Collection, Grades 3-6
This collection explores the lives of great African Americans with a wide range of picture book biographies and historical fiction books for young readers.
Featured Books:
Little Melba and Her Big Trombone, written by Katheryn Russell-Brown and illustrated byFrank Morrison – This award-winning biography follows the life of Melba Liston, a trailblazing musician and a great unsung hero of jazz.
Ira’s Shakespeare Dream, written by Glenda Armand and illustrated by Floyd Cooper -Ira Aldridge dreamed of being on stage one day performing the great works of William Shakespeare. Due to little opportunity in the United States, Ira journeyed to Europe and through perseverance and determination became one of the most respected Shakespearean actors of his time.
Black History Month Collection, Grades 7-12
This collection is perfect for a wide range of middle to high school level readers. Readers will be able to explore the history of African American music, Civil Rights, and sports.
Featured Books:
i see the rhythm, written by Toyomi Igus and illustrated by Michele Wood – This book explores African American music throughout history, starting with its roots in Africa.
I and I Bob Marley, written by Tony Medina and illustrated by Jesse Joshua Watson – This book of poems explores the life of famous musician Bob Marley.
Black History Month Special Collection This collection features a mix of award-winning hardcover and paperback biographies of great African Americans at a range of reading levels.
Featured Book:
Love to Langston, written by Tony Medina and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie – Fourteen original poems explore the life of Langston Hughes, one of America’s most beloved poets.
Black History Month Paperback Collection
This collection features hand-picked award winning books, available in paperback.
Featured Book:
In Her Hands, written by Alan Schroeder and illustrated by JaeMe Bereal – Augusta Savage enjoyed sculpting with clay, despite her stern father thinking it was a waste of her time. To pursue a career as an artist, Augusta leaves everything she knows behind and journeys to New York.
Further Reading:
Why Remember Florence “Baby Flo” Mills?
Storyline Online: Catching the Moon
Seven Core Values to Celebrate During Black History Month
Katheryn Russell-Brown on the Research Behind Little Melba and Her Big Trombone
Protesting Injustice Then and Now
Resources for Teaching About Wangari Maathai and Seeds of Change
Three Ways to Teach Etched in Clay
The Origins of the Coretta Scott King Award
More Resources
The Problem with Ethnic Heritage Months
African American History Month (Library of Congress)
By: Ayana Young,
on 2/28/2015
Civil Rights icon Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was also a theologian and pastor, who used biblical texts and imagery extensively in his speeches and sermons. Here is a selection of five biblical quotations and allusions that you may not have noticed in his work (in chronological order). 1. “And there is still a […]
The post Five Biblical remixes from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Ayana Young,
on 2/25/2015
What do opera singer Leontyne Price, activist Victoria Gray Adams, civil rights organizer Bayard Rustin, and Harvard sociologist William Julius Wilson have in common? They all attended or graduated from Wilberforce University. Located outside of Dayton, Ohio, Wilberforce was the first institution of higher education to be owned and operated by African Americans.
The post Wilberforce University: a pioneering institution in African American education appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Connie Ngo,
on 10/17/2014
Scholars have written a lot about the difficulties in the study of religion generally. Those difficulties become even messier when we use the words black or African American to describe religion. The adjectives bear the burden of a difficult history that colors the way religion is practiced and understood in the United States. They register the horror of slavery and the terror of Jim Crow as well as the richly textured experiences of a captured people, for whom sorrow stands alongside joy. It is in this context, one characterized by the ever-present need to account for one’s presence in the world in the face of the dehumanizing practice of white supremacy, that African American religion takes on such significance.
To be clear, African American religious life is not reducible to those wounds. That life contains within it avenues for solace and comfort in God, answers to questions about who we take ourselves to be and about our relation to the mysteries of the universe; moreover, meaning is found, for some, in submission to God, in obedience to creed and dogma, and in ritual practice. Here evil is accounted for. And hope, at least for some, assured. In short, African American religious life is as rich and as complicated as the religious life of other groups in the United States, but African American religion emerges in the encounter between faith, in all of its complexity, and white supremacy.
I take it that if the phrase African American religion is to have any descriptive usefulness at all, it must signify something more than African Americans who are religious. African Americans practice a number of different religions. There are black people who are Buddhist, Jehovah Witness, Mormon, and Baha’i. But the fact that African Americans practice these traditions does not lead us to describe them as black Buddhism or black Mormonism. African American religion singles out something more substantive than that.
The adjective refers instead to a racial context within which religious meanings have been produced and reproduced. The history of slavery and racial discrimination in the United States birthed particular religious formations among African Americans. African Americans converted to Christianity, for example, in the context of slavery. Many left predominantly white denominations to form their own in pursuit of a sense of self- determination. Some embraced a distinctive interpretation of Islam to make sense of their condition in the United States. Given that history, we can reasonably describe certain variants of Christianity and Islam as African American and mean something beyond the rather uninteresting claim that black individuals belong to these different religious traditions.
The adjective black or African American works as a marker of difference: as a way of signifying a tradition of struggle against white supremacist practices and a cultural repertoire that reflects that unique journey. The phrase calls up a particular history and culture in our efforts to understand the religious practices of a particular people. When I use the phrase, African American religion, then, I am not referring to something that can be defined substantively apart from varied practices; rather, my aim is to orient you in a particular way to the material under consideration, to call attention to a sociopolitical history, and to single out the workings of the human imagination and spirit under particular conditions.
When Howard Thurman, the great 20th century black theologian, declared that the slave dared to redeem the religion profaned in his midst, he offered a particular understanding of black Christianity: that this expression of Christianity was not the idolatrous embrace of Christian doctrine which justified the superiority of white people and the subordination of black people. Instead, black Christianity embraced the liberating power of Jesus’s example: his sense that all, no matter their station in life, were children of God. Thurman sought to orient the reader to a specific inflection of Christianity in the hands of those who lived as slaves. That difference made a difference. We need only listen to the spirituals, give attention to the way African Americans interpreted the Gospel, and to how they invoked Jesus in their lives.
We cannot deny that African American religious life has developed, for much of its history, under captured conditions. Slaves had to forge lives amid the brutal reality of their condition and imagine possibilities beyond their status as slaves. Religion offered a powerful resource in their efforts. They imagined possibilities beyond anything their circumstances suggested. As religious bricoleurs, they created, as did their children and children’s children, on the level of religious consciousness and that creativity gave African American religion its distinctive hue and timber.
African Americans drew on the cultural knowledge, however fleeting, of their African past. They selected what they found compelling and rejected what they found unacceptable in the traditions of white slaveholders. In some cases, they reached for traditions outside of the United States altogether. They took the bits and pieces of their complicated lives and created distinctive expressions of the general order of existence that anchored their efforts to live amid the pressing nastiness of life. They created what we call African American religion.
Headline image credit: Candles, by Markus Grossalber, CC-BY-2.0 via Flickr.
The post What is African American religion? appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Roger Sutton,
on 6/9/2014
This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Freedom Summer, a touchstone in the civil rights movement. The following nonfiction books highlight important turning points in African American history. And for more on Freedom Summer, read Kathleen T. Horning’s Five Questions interview with Don Mitchell (author of the new The Freedom Summer Murders, Scholastic, 14–17 years) along with Deborah Wiles’s picture book Freedom Summer (illus. by Jerome Lagarrigue, Atheneum, 5–8 years) and her novel Revolution (follow-up to Countdown, both Scholastic, 10–14 years).
Freedom Summer: The 1964 Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi by Susan Goldman Rubin provides a useful and informative look at the event’s organizers, the volunteers, the voter registration drives, etc. Rubin conducted many interviews, in person, by telephone, and by e-mail, with people who were directly involved, and their firsthand accounts—along with copious archival black-and-white photographs — bring the events to life. (Holiday, 11–15 years)
The Port Chicago 50 was a group of navy recruits at Port Chicago in California doing one of the few service jobs available to black sailors at the beginning of the Second World War: loading bombs and ammunition onto battleships. When there was an explosion that left more than three hundred dead, fifty men refused to go back to work, occasioning a trial for mutiny. Steve Sheinkin’s 2014 Boston Globe–Horn Book Nonfiction Award winner The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights focuses the events through the experience of Joe Small, who led the protest against the dangerous and unequal working conditions. This is an unusual entry point for the study of World War II and the nascent civil rights movement. (Roaring Brook, 11–15 years)
According to Albert Marrin’s A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown’s War Against Slavery, Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry helped “set the stage for the Civil War.” The book begins with a chapter on Brown’s life, then takes a broader look at the history of slavery. The final chapter, “Legacy,” offers a brief commentary on Brown’s influence on the militant arm of the American civil rights movement. His violent actions raise an issue that still resonates today: to what extremes may a person go to change an unjust law? (Knopf, 11–15 years)
The Mason-Dixon Line dates from colonial times: while the Calverts and Penns left England to found religiously tolerant colonies (Maryland and Pennsylvania, respectively), they feuded about the border’s exact location. The surveying team of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon was hired in 1763 to solve the problem once and for all. In Boundaries: How the Mason-Dixon Line Settled a Family Feud & Divided a Nation, Sally Walker provides meticulous detail about surveying and about colonial-era sociopolitics. She ends with a discussion of the cultural relevance of the Mason-Dixon Line to the North and the South, and modern-day interest in the preservation of its history. (Candlewick, 11–15 years)
From the June 2014 issue of Notes from the Horn Book.
The post Freedom Summer and Black History appeared first on The Horn Book.
By: keilinh,
on 2/28/2014
As February comes to an end, we round out Black History Month with a guest post by Pamela M.Tuck, author of As Fast As Words Could Fly. We asked her if there was one person she could choose to be as well-known or remembered as Rosa Parks, who would it be and why?
In a segregated all-black school, a young student was empowered by an African American motivational speaker from Washington, DC. It was 1960s North Carolina and this speaker, in the student’s mind, was famous. The young student was my mother, Pauline Teel, and the speaker was Cortez Peters.
Cortez Peters, Sr. taught himself to type, at the age of 11, on a used typewriter his father had received in a trade. His “hunt and peck” system later developed into a fast and accurate method that garnered him the title of World Typing Champion, with speeds over 100 words per minute. He was the founder of the Cortez W. Peters Business School, which debuted in 1934. It was one of the first vocational schools in Washington, DC to prepare African Americans for business and civil services. The opening of his school became a pivotal point in history for African Americans.
Cortez Peters, Jr. began typing at the age of 12. He eventually surpassed his father’s world record with a typing speed of 225 words per minute with no mistakes.
Both Peters Sr. and Peters Jr. made a career out of teaching their craft to others.
At that unforgettable school visit, Cortez Peters awed my mother and the other students with his rhythmic typing finesse. My mother remembers how his typing mimicked the tunes of many songs, and how he made artistic configurations on his paper. She stated, “He would use all A’s to form the letter A, and all B’s to form the letter B.” His phenomenal typing ability was an amazing entertainment for the students, but his accomplishments as an African American entrepreneur made him an empowering role model.
Cortez gave his formula of success to the students in 3 simple words: Determination, Inspiration, and Perspiration. Determined not to let anyone or anything stop them from reaching their dreams. Inspired to do whatever it takes to accomplish their dreams. And work hard (Perspiration) to make those dreams come true.
Cortez Peters’ formula for success became ingrained into my mother and was one of the driving forces that helped shape her into the successful woman she became. Enough so, that she passed the formula on to me and I have passed it on to my children.
With the impression Cortez Peters made on my mom, I guess it seems fitting that her high school sweetheart, my dad, turned out to be a local typing champion. Ironically, Cortez Peters and my dad unknowingly shared the same formula for success, and As Fast As their Words Could Fly, change was taking place, history was being made, and dreams were coming true.
By: Mayra Calvani,
on 3/13/2012
By: Lucy,
on 2/7/2012
It’s Black History Month, and that means another giveaway from Lee & Low Books! We’re giving away three sets of three books featuring African Americans, and the contest will run through February 29, 2012.
You may have noticed that the winners won’t get their books until after Black History Month. We think Black History Month is important, but black history is part of American History, and shouldn’t get relegated to one month out of the year. So enter below to win three great books to enjoy all year long!
Here’s how it works:
Author Glenda Armand (Love Twelve Miles Long) gave us food for thought in her BookTalk when we asked her if she thought her book could only be used during Black History Month. Here is her response:
“I think it can be read at any time of year: it is a story about mother-child relationships, about slavery, about American history, and about a great statesman. It is a story about family and tradition. And it’s a bedtime story.
I can think of two aspects of Love Twelve Miles Long that give it timelessness and universality: one is the mother-child relationship and the other is separation anxiety. There are many reasons that a parent might have to be separated from a child: divorce, financial problems, illness. Children in circumstances such as these can relate to Frederick’s situation. And they can learn that there are ways—traditions, rituals—that can strengthen the bond with the absent parent.”
To enter this contest, answer this question: What do you think about Black History Month? -or- How do you celebrate Black History Month? -or- How do you call Black History Month to the attention of your kids (students or otherwise)? Write your answers in the comments section below to enter, and we will select a winner* at random. All answers have to be in by midnight on February 29th. You can also gain additional entries by subscribing to our blog, following us on twitter, and liking us on facebook. If you’ve done any of these, please note it below in your comment, otherwise your additional entry will not be counted.
Here are some of the books you could win:
*Winner must reside in the United States
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By: Adrian,
on 1/31/2010
Today we kick off Black History month with an interview with Nancy I. Sanders, author of the new book America’s Black Founders.
This is also Day 1 of Nancy’s virtual tour for this book.
In the world of publishing, sometimes a publisher locates images and sometimes an author does. According to my contract with Chicago Review Press, the author is responsible for finding and paying for any image used in a book in their “For Kids” series. I had never done this before, so it was a brand new adventure. Here are some of the steps I went through to gather images and make this book the best it could be.
Explore: I set up a separate e-mail account to handle the contacts I made to collect the images. This made my search so much easier to track. Then I explored various ways to acquire the digital images my publisher required. I looked for the “photograph credits” listed in the books I was using as research. I discovered there are professional repositories of images that charge over a thousand dollars for use of one of their images in my book. I contacted large historical societies and discovered that they charge over $100 for use of one of their digitized images in my book. Small historical societies and state archives had smaller fees such as $10 to $35 per image. Some offered the use of their images for free. Since I also wanted to include images of a variety of historic sites, I went on Flickr.com and found that many generous individuals were willing to offer free use of their photographs at these sites in my book in exchange for a line of credit next to the image. I also went through my own photographs that I had taken sightseeing at various historic sites to see if any were good enough quality to use in my book. I was happy to discover that many were.
Budget: Since I had to pay for every image out of my own pocket, I made a priority list of images I wanted to include in my book. The more important, obscure images were at the top of my list and were ones that I was willing to pay more for permission to use. Any key images that were free, especially original documents or paintings from the 1700s and 1800s, were automatically slotted for use in my book. These included images from the Library of Congress that stated “No known restrictions on publication.” The images of lesser importance were carefully evaluated regarding their cost as to whether or not I decided to include them.
Permissions: Organizations usually had their own permission form for me to fill out and sign, and then they countersigned. Some organizations and most individuals didn’t, so I used a permissions form provided by the publisher for them to sign. To obtain permission
By: Kyra,
on 1/16/2008
The Brown Bookshelf, a group organized to "shine the spotlight on the varied African American voices writing for young readers," announced the featured authors and illustrators for it's first national initiative, Twenty-Eight Days Later, a Black History Month celebration of children's literature. Enjoy! Feb 1 Christopher Paul Curtis - Elijah of Buxton Feb 2 Michelle Meadows – The Way The Storm
By: Betsy Bird,
on 5/27/2007
The website Something Awful has a Photoshop Phriday piece of mildly twisted children's book covers. What I appreciate about these is that with a couple exceptions here and there they've limited themselves to just changing the titles. There are the usual groaners and infantile natterings, but I do appreciate some here and there. Particularly "Sly Little Bear Undresses You With His Eyes" and "A Child's Guide to the Eurovision Song Contest".
Thanks to Boing Boing for the link.
)
Dear Nancy,
It's a pleasure having you on my blog today. From from post, I can tell you're living the writer's dream! :-)
Question: you say you work on your desktop and also on your laptop. Do you carry an ISB stick with you where all of your work is contained or--?? I always find working in alternating computers a little confusing because I may not remember later where my 'latest' version of something is located. How do you deal with this?
Wow, from 6am to 6pm! I assume you take short breaks to stretch or do other stuff? Do you have any secrets to keep your eyes from getting too tired? Mine hurt so much at the end of the day.
Thanks, Nancy!
What a delightful interview. Reading how your writing day works is like opening a window--it's a breath of fresh air!
Thanks for sharing.
Linda Della Donna
www.bookorbust.blogspot.com
www.griefcase.net
That writing table with the big project spread out on it sounds great, as do your long writing hours. Thanks for sharing your work environment.
Nancy, this looks like a beautiful book. It would fit perfectly in my homeschool.
Thank-you so much for sharing a bit of your world!
Kathy
http://kathleenmoulton.com
Nancy,
I'm not an envious person, but I do envy you having all that time to write. Not that I could ever write from 6.00a.m to 6.00 p.m., but it would be nice to have that much time available. All the best with your tour and other projects.
Hi Nancy:
Your writing schedule obviously works well for you. Glad you have various spots you work in. Once I finally got into gear and started writing first thing my day flowed much smoother.
I always enjoy learning more about you. Great pics!
Best regards,
Donna
The Golden Pathway Story book Blog
Nancy, you're my writing idol! :) My daughter is a 4th grade public school teacher also!
It's such a joy to be here on your blog today, Mayra! Thanks for waiting for me to hop in (I'm on late California time compared to all you early birds across the states and around the world :o)
And yes, Mayra, it can get confusing working on 2 different computers. I used to carry an ISB or flash drive stick back and forth. But now we have wi-fi so I just e-mail my projects back and forth. I always number or date my manuscripts so I can keep track of which is the most current. But even easier than that is that I try to keep each project on its own computer. So if I'm working on the actual manuscript, say it's on my desktop. But the research is on my laptop. And shorter projects like magazine articles and picture books tend to be on the laptop. I e-mail everything to an online e-mail account every day as backup so I can also retrieve any project from anywhere.
It's such a joy to be here on your blog today, Mayra! Thanks for waiting for me to hop in (I'm on late California time compared to all you early birds across the states and around the world :o)
And yes, Mayra, it can get confusing working on 2 different computers. I used to carry an ISB or flash drive stick back and forth. But now we have wi-fi so I just e-mail my projects back and forth. I always number or date my manuscripts so I can keep track of which is the most current. But even easier than that is that I try to keep each project on its own computer. So if I'm working on the actual manuscript, say it's on my desktop. But the research is on my laptop. And shorter projects like magazine articles and picture books tend to be on the laptop. I e-mail everything to an online e-mail account every day as backup so I can also retrieve any project from anywhere.
And yes, Mayra, the eyes are an issue, too! I definitely take short breaks every hour or so when I do something physical like the dishes or ironing or gardening or play with the cats. (That's their first choice of course!) And when my eyes start to bug me I avoid both computers entirely for an hour or so and sit and brainstorm or outline or research the old fashioned way...with pen and paper.
And thanks for all your kudos everyone! If you want to join in a contest, just hop on over to my blog and follow the steps to get your name in the hat. The winner gets a $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble! My blog is at www.nancyisanders.wordpress.com
And may all your writing dreams come true!
That makes sense, Nancy, to keep specific projects on either your laptop or desktop. Thanks for sharing that.
Best of luck with the rest of your tour! Your book looks awesome!
I have a laptop and computer also. I use the laptop when I'm babysitting at my daughter's. I use Dropbox to keep my files synced on both. This way no matter which one I'm using the file is updated.
I also have a zip drive, but with Dropbox I don't use it as much.
This is a great post with tips that I can use for organizing my work. Love learning from the professionals and Nancy is such a help. Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks for this great interview and letting us get to know Nancy better. What an awesome author!
Thank you for all the interesting insights. It was a great interview.I'm hoping to retire soon and have all that time to write, too.
I am wondering what a drop box is. That's a term I haven't heard before.
Marge
A lovely post which revived my determination to be (at least slightly) better organized. Thank you for sharing all your tips, Nancy, and thanks too to Mayra for this inspirational blog.
Marge, Drop Box is a website to which you can upload files for safekeeping, share them, encrypt them for transfer or keep them private. Someone else may well have a better explanation. I am with Box.net which is also cloud computing, and I back up my important files there weekly. People use these instead of Google docs as some say Google may index the docs on its search engines.
You certainly have a wonderful writing situation now, and you sound very organized. Thank for sharing your writing story!
Monti
Mary Montague Sikes
I love Nancy's books. How neat that she has writing groups in her home. I would love to do that one day too.
It's good to hear about box.net, too, Annie! Thanks for sharing. And Cheryl...hopefully you can invite some writer friends over. Right now the 2 groups that meet are small...5 of us who are mentoring each other writing picture books and 5 different gals who are mentoring each other trying to break into writing for the big magazines. You can even invite just 1 for starters! I look forward to these so much and they're so motivating and inspirational.
Mayra, thanks for hosting my VBT today. You've got a fantastic site and lots of enthusiastic readers. Hip hip hooray! Hugs, Nancy
Alternating between the desktop computer and laptop sounds like a good idea. I haven't used my laptop one as much since I've been at home over the past year and a third. I think I'll try that.
I used to have a nice couch similar to the one in the picture, but the dog before the latest ruined it. Now I have a plain blue one, and Rascal, whom we've had for about 6 years now, doesn't get to sleep on it.
Morgan Mandel
http://facebook.com/morgan.mandel