African Americans and Children's Literature: ON TOUR
Services provided by Ms. Afrika Abney
Esther Productions Inc., in partnership with The Black Student Fund and The Institute for African American Writing presents two authors Sharon Bell Mathis and Brian Gilmore on Mar 16, 2024 from 1:30 PM – 3:30 PM at 3660 Alabama Ave SE, Washington, DC 20020, USA.
Sharon Bell Mathis will read from her book One Hundred Penny Box, discuss her celebrated career as a children's author and provide details of DC's rich literary history.
Award-winning poet Brian Gilmore will read excerpts from his upcoming book "No More Worlds To Conquer: The
Black Poet in Washington DC Since Paul Laurence Dunbar."
"AFRICAN AMERICANS AND CHILDREN'S LITERATURE ON TOUR, presented by Esther Productions Inc. in partnership with The Black Student Fund and The Institute for African American Writing, is a humanities project that captures DC's rich literary history and the role played by Black writers in building canon and fortifying community. Supported, in part, by a grant from HumanitiesDC, the project includes a historical exhibition and conversations with some of the city's most acclaimed African American authors."
Info: aachildrenslit2023@gmail.com
Register: www.estherproductionsinc.com/events-1/african-americans-and-childrens-literature-on-tour
(Photo credit from Esther Productions, Inc's programs)- https://www.estherproductionsinc.com/aachildrensliterature
From March 5, 2024 - March 15, 2024, Ms. Afrika Abney provided services for African Americans and Children's Literature: ON TOUR. Information about the event was posted widely on social media and sent via email to schools, colleges, universities, student groups, community organizations, youth and parent groups.
African Americans and Children's Literature: ON TOUR
Mar 16, 2024, 1:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Washington, 3660 Alabama Ave SE, Washington, DC 20020, USA
Esther Productions Inc., in partnership with The Black Student Fund and The Institute for African American Writing, presents an informative, provocative and entertaining afternoon with Sharon Bell Mathis, one of the leaders of the Golden Age of Black Children's Literature. "Sharon Bell Mathis (born 1937) is an American librarian and author who has written books mainly for children and young adults.
Mathis was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She started writing at an early age, and her love of reading was fostered by her parents. Her mother, a poet, encouraged her to write. In 1958, she earned a degree in Sociology from Morgan State College and, in 1975, went on to earn a master's in Library Science from the Catholic University of America.
Mathis has written many books for children and young adults, and has received many accolades in her career. Her book Ray Charles, a nonfiction biography of Ray Charles, received the Coretta Scott King Award. The Hundred Penny Box received a Newbery Honor Award and is a recipient of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award and also an American Library Association Notable Children's Book. English Journal placed Mathis alongside writers such as Toni Cade Bambara and Nikki Giovanni, characterizing them as "describing a black consciousness of self- celebration rather like that which flowered during the Harlem Renaissance and was somehow lost, at least in literature, in the intervening years of social upheaval." Teacup Full of Roses was a New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year. It was described, also in English Journal, as "a celebration of black family life, not of the stereotypical enduring parents, but of the children who find their strength in giving to each other.""
Brian Gilmore will also present at this every special program on March 16 at the Francis Gregory Library. Gilmore is a poet and author of the soon-to-be-released book "No More Worlds To Conquer: The Black Poet in Washington DC Since Paul Laurence Dunbar," which is a cultural history of the Black poetry scene in DC since Paul Laurence Dunbar came to the city to live and write in 1898. Gilmore has also written four books of poetry and numerous essay. He has won several awards, including the 2020 Michigan Notable Book Award for his book, come see about me marvin (Wayne State University Press). He is a Senior Lecturer in the Law and Society Program at the University of Maryland - College Park.
www.estherproductionsinc.com/events-1/african-americans-and-childrens-literature-on-tour