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We Are Here Lit! attended an inspiring session by two Black male authors changing the narrative of young Black boys and the Black male identity.
Ali Kamanda and Jorge Redmond, college friends, and fathers of Black sons discussed the August release of the upcoming book Black Boy, Black Boy. Vibrantly illustrated by Ken Daley, the hope of this book according to the authors is to widen the perspective of young readers by introducing them to Black males from the Diaspora beyond the athletes and MCs. The author's hopes were that young Blacks males see their possibilities as endless and beyond the narrow perspectives and options expected or given to them. We wish Kimanda and Redmond much success with their new release and hope as authors they share more stories for kids from the Black male perspective.
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Join us this Black Music Month with special guest Bakari Kitwana and let's talk about 'Leveraging MC Dreams Towards Literacy'.
Black culture encapsulates a colorful oral tradition that can be seen in the West African tradition of the Griot, the Black Arts Movement, to today's Hip Hop Generation, as recently seen in Kendrick's Mr. Morale & the Big Stepper. We have continually seen the 'Us vs. Them' Hip Hop history debates. How can we better create The Bridge to work collectively to create intergenerational ties to Black oral and written stories and literary traditions to build strong young black male communicators of The Message? Bring your thoughts, opinions, pedagogy, scholarship, and questions as we discuss our music and literary history to build our young Black Brotha's voices. Monday, June 27th, 7-8pm EST on the We Are Here Lit! Facebook & YouTube Live pages. Please share with those who might be interested. A Day for Rememberin': Inspired by True Events of the 1st Memorial Day by Leah Henderson and illustrated by the award-winning Floyd Cooper.
The story of Eli, who with his family and community, on May 1st, 1865, memorialized Union soldiers in Charleston, North Carolina. Black, Brown, and White people singing "John Brown's Body", walking in procession with flowers and crosses to the town cemetery, the town is sad yet, celebrates, the soldier's graves for contributing to those who gave their lives freely to those who were enslaved. The back matter includes an author's note about the roots of Decoration Day, a timeline,, archival photos, and a bibliography. This is a necessary purchase for classroom and home libraries to include regarding the roots of Memorial Day. Can be used for K-12. We Are Here Lit! interviews Award-Winning Author Carole Boston Weatherford in honor of Women's History Month! We will celebrate her space in children's literature as an author who has given voice to Black historical people and places for all to learn. We also learn about her influence on her son Jeffery who is a Poet, MC, and Illustrator.  Although our history truly begins in Africa, if people teach about Black history from enslavement, it must include resistance. It must include courage, determination, perseverance, ingenuity AND LOVE.
Speak of people of African Descent and Identity with an asset-based approach. The industry of slavery in American history is the deficit. Discriminatory laws and segregation are the deficit. Redlining denying the right to opportunities and education is the deficit. If you are not teaching and learning from that lens of an asset-based approach, what are you teaching and learning? Are you incorporating ethical philosophies in your teaching? The picture books in this post are a few of the books available on this topic. Please list other titles in the comments, including middle-grade and high school-aged resources. Let's learn from one another. Share your books titles and thoughts below. Site recommendation: Mr. Ernest Crim III, an Illinois Teacher & Author of the book 'Black History Saved My Life', has been bringing the whole Black Culture & History to social media. Everytime this 'Brotha speaks, he engages us with oftentimes history we do not hear about in classrooms. There are moments listening to Mr. Crim, I can connect a book to his lesson. This one 'William Still and His Freedom Stories: The father of the Underground Railroad' by Author and Illustrator Don Tate more detail and context to how William Still was abke to document the stories of the 'freedom seekers' he met traveling the Underground Railroad. This is an excellent book. Pair Mr. Crim with your local library to create an identity building experience for Black youth and also unearthing Black history for other students, ensuring the human experience is shared within the 'mirrors/windows/prisms' concepts. Thank you Mr. Crim and Mr. Tate for providing such valuable resources for learning! Site recommendation: Mr. Ernest Crim III, an Illinois Teacher & Author of the book 'Black History Saved My Life', has been bringing the whole Black Culture & History to social media. Everytime this 'Brotha speaks, he engages us with oftentimes history we do not hear about in classrooms. There are moments listening to Mr. Crim, I can connect a book to his lesson. This one 'William Still and His Freedom Stories: The father of the Underground Railroad' by Author and Illustrator Don Tate more detail and context to how William Still was abke to document the stories of the 'freedom seekers' he met traveling the Underground Railroad. This is an excellent book. Pair Mr. Crim with your local library to create an identity building experience for Black youth and also unearthing Black history for other students, ensuring the human experience is shared within the 'mirrors/windows/prisms' concepts. Thank you Mr. Crim and Mr. Tate for providing such valuable resources for learning! The ABC's of Black History by poet Rio Cortez and illustrator Lauren Semmer, takes us on a information-packed ride through movements, history, and people from Africa to America.
With lively collage illustrations, including different hues of Blackness, this poetic text is engaging and affirms the Black experience. With such rich coverage of events and people, events, and literary device, this book can be used as an anchor text to create text sets, mentor text, writing prompts, or pair with primary sources. Emphasizing resilient themes, this book is a necessary purchase!  More Than Just A Game: The Black Origins of Basketball
By Madison Moore and Illustrated by Lonnie Ollivierre Share this story about Bball and Black culture. Moore shares the growth of the sport through avenues like HBCUs and club teams...the Black Fives. Segregation didn't hold us back. This book gives recognition to Edwin Bancroft Henderson and Cumberland Posey and other unsung heroes of basketball in the back matter, as well as, information about the Black Fives Foundation, and additional resources. That is the motto for the country in Africa called Ghana.
We are bringing you two books recently published to share more about the significance of this country. The first book is called ‘Kwame Nkrumah’s Midnight Speech for Independence’ by Useni Eugene Perkins and Illustrated by Laura Freeman. This is an insightful biography detailing the life of the 1st Prime Minister and the 1st elected President of the Republic of Ghana. Here are a few facts from this book that can be ties to additional instructional concepts: Colonialism, Independence, Self-Rule, & Liberation Kwame Nkrumah, Ghanian nationalist leader who led the Gold Coast's drive for independence from Britain and presided over its emergence as the new nation HBCUs Dr. Nkrumah went to Lincoln University, before earning his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania Civil Rights Nkrumah engaged with Civil Rights activists, like the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell and W.E.B. Dubois, Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King, A. Phillip Randolph, Ralph Bunche among others Revolutionary Leader Kwame was instrumental in progressing the movement for the liberation of the Gold Coast from the British. Although not in this book, he met with leaders, like Che Guevara, who was also working to liberate African and South America from the term they coined ‘neocolonialism” Collectivism Kwame Nrumah galvanized momentum for freedom through groups in the Gold Coast like the United Gold Coast Convention and the Convention People’s Party. Internationally he helped organize the 5th Pan African Congress with African and International leaders who were fighting for independence in Africa. This book also includes a timeline, Adinkra Symbols with explained meanings, and a timeline. Also included to provide historical knowledge about Ghana’s past is a historical fiction novel called ‘We Are Akan’ by Dorothy Brown Soper and illustrated by James Cloutier. This story about the 3 boys living in the Asante Kingdom, the most powerful nation in West Africa. As they learn adult skills they are invited to Kumasi for an important festival. They become intertangled in a rebellion that changes their trajectory.  Critical literacy is a strategy used to help young people think deeply about how a text is constructed. It asks the for the reader to examine language and the power of the text through purposeful questions, discussion, and writing.
It also can help students learning the counter-narrative, and to compare and contrast, especially with informational texts. Diverse cultural knowledge should also be shared to provide context and for young people to learn about additional viewpoints. Cultural artifact, multimedia, and multimodal resources can be used to provide contextual information. An example of a counter-narrative or diverse cultural knowledge is the book example in today's post. Green, Amanda Jackson. Hidden Black History : from Juneteenth to Redlining. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 2021. This book discusses Black history that is often not discussed in classrooms and the 'two histories' concept. |
AuthorSWE ARE HERE will provide you book reviews, discussions, news, and programming about literature and literacy by and about Black males. This site will also feature vlog conversations on topics related to the promoting literacy and voice for Black boys and young men. Archives
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