Event: Black Children’s Literature Symposium

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You are invited to “Celebrating Our Voices: Black Children’s Literature Symposium & Book Festival” at North Carolina Central University’s H.M. Michaux Jr. School of Education Building.  This free, open-to-the-public event will be held on Saturday, October 27, 2018, and will feature distinguished Black children’s literature scholars and award-winning Black authors and illustrators from around our state and nation.  This event is co-hosted by: Kelly Starling Lyons, author; local history librarian Olivia Raney; archivist, Judy Allen Dodson, and; NCCU Professor of Library Science, Director of the Office of University Accreditation, and Immediate Past Chair of the Coretta Scott King Book Award Committee, Dr. Pauletta Brown Bracy.

The day will be broken into two parts.  Here is the schedule:
9:00 am – 12:00 pm • Symposium: keynotes and panels on the importance of Black children’s literature
1:00 pm – 4:00 pm • Book Festival: meet and greet with authors and illustrators, books available for purchase and signing

Here is a list of featured presenters with their titles and/or a few of their books in parentheses:

  1. Professor Alan Bailey (opening keynote, Chair Elect for the Coretta Scott King Book Award Committee, ECU professor and author of Building a Core Print Collection for Preschoolers)
  2. Wade & Cheryl Hudson (closing keynotes, founders of Just Us Books – http://justusbooks.com, editors of anthology, We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices)
  3. Tameka Fryer Brown (Around Our Way on Neighbors’ Day and My Cold Plum Lemon Pie Bluesy Mood)
  4. Gordon C. James (Crown, Campy, Scraps of Time series)
  5. Keith Knight (Jake the Fake Keeps It Real)
  6. Kelly Starling Lyons (Jada Jones series, One More Dino on the Floor, Hope’s Gift)
  7. Johnny Ray Moore (Silence, Please, The Story of Martin Luther King, Jr., Meet Martin Luther King, Jr.)
  8. Eleanora E. Tate (Celeste’s Harlem Renaissance, Just An Overnight Guest, Secret of Gumbo Grove)
  9. Carole Boston Weatherford (How Sweet the Sound: The Story of Amazing Grace, Freedom in Congo Square, Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer)
  10. Jeffery Weatherford (You Can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen)

The following day, Sunday, October 28, we’ll keep the celebration going with a panel discussion at Quail Ridge Books of the powerful anthology, We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices edited by Wade & Cheryl Hudson. Many of our featured authors and illustrators are also contributors to this important book that answers through art, poems and prose the question: “In this divisive world, what shall we tell our children?” Details here: https://www.quailridgebooks.com/event/weriseweresist.

October 31 kicks off the 38th annual National Association of Black Storytellers Festival & Conference. This year, it’s in Cary! Yes! Learn more here: https://www.nabsinc.org/.

Please spread the word and save the dates. Thank you for celebrating Black children’s literature.