On Saturday, October 27, beginning at 9:00 am, North Carolina Central University in Durham will host Celebrating Our Voices: Black Children’s Literature Symposium and Book Festival.
The North Carolina Writers’ Network is proud to be a sponsor of this day-long event that is free and open to the public.
The morning will offer speakers and panel discussions on the importance of Black children’s literature. In the afternoon, there will be a Book Festival where attendees can meet authors and illustrators and purchase books.
Alan Bailey will give the Keynote Address. Alan is the Chair Elect for the Coretta Scott King Book Award Committee and a professor at East Carolina University. He is the author of Building a Core Print Collection for Preschoolers.
Additional guests include:
Wade and Cheryl Hudson (Co-founders, Just Us Books)
Tameka Fryer Brown (Around Our Way on Neighbors’ Day and My Cold Plum Lemon Pie Bluesy Mood)
Gordon C. James (Crown, Campy, Scraps of Time series)
Keith Knight (Jake the Fake Keeps It Real)
Kelly Starling Lyons (Jada Jones series, One More Dino on the Floor, Hope’s Gift)
Johnny Ray Moore (The Story of Martin Luther King, Jr., Meet Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Eleanora E. Tate (Celeste’s Harlem Renaissance, Just sn Overnight Guest, The Secret of Gumbo Grove)
Carole Boston Weatherford (How Sweet the Sound: The Story of Amazing Grace, Freedom in Congo Square, Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer)
Jeffery Weatherford (You Can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen)
The following day, Sunday, October 28, the celebration continues with a panel discussion at Quail Ridge Books. The discussion will focus on the anthology We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices edited by Wade and Cheryl Hudson. Many of the weekend’s 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.
Come on out and support this important event!