great day

The Brooklyn Museum Book Fair was FABULOUS!  Kudos to the thoughtful organizers and thanks to everyone who came out to support so many wonderful authors and illustrators.  We sold nearly all the books at our table, and sitting with Shadra and Greg Christie made the time (four hours!) fly by.  Afterward I went to the [...]

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sacred ground

This morning, despite going to 26 Broadway instead of 26 Wall St., I took a wonderful tour of lower Manhattan led by the African Burial Ground Museum’s Ranger Doug.  It can be hard to imagine New York as it used to be, hundreds of years ago…now there are mostly skyscrapers, and business types, and tourists [...]

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a painted fable

Hurray!  Diary of an Anxious Black Woman is blogging again!  And I have to share her latest post, of course.  Stop by her site to see a sweet fable written & painted by Faith Ringgold about how the world became colorblind…

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African Burial Ground Memorial

For all those who were lost
For all those who were stolen
For all those who were left behind
For all those who are not forgotten
If you’re ever in NYC, make sure you stop by the African Burial Ground Memorial.  It’s another one of those things that has been on my To Do list forever…so this morning I [...]

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Halloween comes to Brooklyn

I missed out on the cupcakes, but did score some mini chocolate bars in “the green room” (for artists only!).  More importantly, I met some super nice people and at least one woman bought a copy of Wish for her niece…I gave my copy to the security guard who sees me in the garden all [...]

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in living color

In our Writers Against Racism series, we’re asking members of the kidlit community to reflect on their personal experiences of racism and its impact on their professional work.  Swing by Amy’s SLJ blog and meet Jesse Watson, an amazing illustrator who grew up determined to be an ally to black people in his community.  His [...]

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old dog/new tricks?

Is this better?  Susan at Color Online just let me know that Bloomsbury is switching the cover for Justine Larbalestier’s YA novel, Liar.  Find out for yourself at Publisher’s Weekly.  The article says a cover has not been selected, but this image appears next to the old cover featuring a white model.  If the main [...]

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enter & win!

Miss A is having her very first contest over at Reading in Color–enter to win a copy of my YA novel, A Wish After Midnight! I’m reading up on Five Points right now, and can feel a chapter or two forming in my head…plus the debate rages on over whether Genna should choose Judah or [...]

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RACISM: an American family value

It’s as American as apple pie…

These are two postcards I picked up tonight on my way out of the Center for Book Arts.  I met my friend Rosa there to see a film on Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr., whose work wasn’t familiar to me; he’s “a lowly printer from Alabama” and the curator of an [...]

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Asa

When asked to name their favorite African artist, people gave answers that ranged from author Ben Okri to Afrobeat musician/activist Fela Kuti…I’ve had Fela’s music in my head ever since, but remembered a new artist another respondent mentioned: Asa.  Check her OUT—I just bought the album…

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