Carole Boston Weatherford & Jeffery Weatherford, author-illustrator, mother-son duo behind children's and young adult books: diverse, anti-racist nonfiction, biographies, poetry, historical fiction on African American heritage, culture, social justice. STEAM programs for K-12 and all ages.
When my first children’s book, Juneteenth Jamboree, debuted in 1995, it was the first picture book about Juneteenth. The first African-American holiday, Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the date in U.S. history when the last enslaved people were freed. For decades, the observance was regional to Texas and parts of Louisiana, Oklahoma and Kansas. Eventually, other areas joined the celebration. And, in 2021 Juneteenth became a federal holiday. Since 2020, Jeffery and I have kicked off summer with virtual and in-person Juneteenth celebrations–minus the barbecue.
Feast on these exciting programming options to engage young people all summer long.
Juneteenth Jamboree
RAP IT UP!
KIN Genealogy Camp
Scratchboard Art Workshop – Color your world with rainbow scratchboard
Illustrated by Khalif Tahir Thomspon, A Crown of Stories is a praise song written in second person. I chose that point of view not to put young readers in her shoes but to pen a love letter to Ms. Morrison herself. I completed the manuscript before Ms. Morrison became an ancestor. I had hoped, of course, that she might read the book and be pleased by my exultation.
Besides being a Nobel Laureate, Toni Morrison is the most frequently banned author. Her books have been on the list of the 100 most banned titles in each of the previous three decades, reaching the top 10 between 2010 and 2019.
As one whose work has also been banned or challenged, I agree with Ms. Morrison’s assertion:
The best art is political and you ought to be able to make it unquestionably political and irrevocably beautiful at the same time.
The is year is off to a great start with an NAACP Image Award finalist, CROWNING GLORY: A CELEBRATION OF BLACK HAIR, a new book,IF KAMALA CAN: . . . YOU CAN TOO! (illustrated by Ariana Pacino) and a one-in-three chance that our family history, KIN: ROOTED IN HOPE, will be the One Maryland One Book selection for 2025. If chosen, this would be a first for me and Jeffery. Fingers crossed!
IF KAMALA CAN is not a biography but instead an inspirational book meant to affirm young readers’s aspirations by following former Vice President Kamala Harris’s example. If you’ve read BE A KING: DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.’s DREAM AND YOU, you’ll know what I mean.
In Nashville, Tennessee, a professional development on my books inspired music teachers to create an original composition celebrating BROS. More than 200 students played, sang and danced to the piece in the district’s first Elementary Music Festival at Tennessee Performing Arts Center–a first for the district. I also visited three schools where students performed music and dances based on BROS and JAZZ BABY. Student art on the themes in BROS was displayed on folded cafeteria tables, The production, which was beyond my imagination, was the brainchild of Franklin Willis, Metro Nashville Public Schools Director of Music, and Dr. Tiffeni Fontno, Director of Peabody Library at Vanderbilt University. Way to extend the literature!!!
Jeffery kicked off the new year by conducting his popular RAP IT UP! workshop for BAAM (Building African American Minds), a youth agency in Easton, Maryland. The all-male group produced a rap that is absolute fire!!! This transformative workshop is a mainstay of our summer offerings. Formerly known as Hip Hop Tech for its S.T.E.A.M. connections, it has been renamed after our upcoming how-to book and first co-authored collaboration, RAP IT UP!, illustrated by Ernel Martinez. Pre-order now.
Our next stop is Singapore American School–our first international visit since the pandemic. Wherever you are, we would love to visit your school, library or community with books and programs that spark curiosity, creativity, consciousness and confidence. Our K-12 presentations and workshops connect to the ELA, social studies, STEAM and SEL curricula. Themes include biographies, primary sources, social justice, and jazz. We also headline family literacy/parent involvement events. Here are a few options to whet your appetite:
RAP IT UP! presentation, workshop or residency
Genealogy Camp for ages 12-up
Jazz, Justice, Joy &JUNETEENTH JAMBOREE (Focus on enslavement, segregation/civil rights or Black music)
Leading up to the American Library Association Youth Media Awards, I was of course pulling for my books. Perhaps Outspoken: Paul Robeson, Ahead of His Time-A One-Man Show or Whriligigs: The Wondrous Windmills of Vollis Simpson’s Imagination would get a Sibert nod, or Crown of Stories: The Life and Language of Beloved Writer Toni Morrison would be recognized by the Coretta Scott King Award committee, or Crowning Glory: A Celebration of Black Hair would clinch another Caldecott for illustrator Ekua Holmes. It’s a good thing that I am not a betting woman because I was dead wrong.
I never dreamed that it would be me, not my 2024 books, being honored this year. When I got the call from the award committee of the Association for Library Service to Children, I was in shock. The biggest thrill, though, was hearing the applause when my name was called during the award announcement at ALA Lib/Learn X in Denver.
After streaming the announcements, I looked heavenward and whispered, “Mommy and Daddy, I did it.” Their spirits will be with me when I accept the award this summer in Philadelphia.
