2017 MIDWINTER HIGHLIGHTS ISSUE              COGNOTES 5

“Freedom Ain’t Never Been Free!”

By George Eberhardt, American Libraries

The annual Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observance and Sunrise Celebration has been a staple each Monday at the ALA Midwinter Meeting for the past 17 years. Sponsored by the Social Responsibilities Round Table and the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, the celebration’s theme in Atlanta was “Freedom Ain’t Never Been Free!” and featured short readings from King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and other sermons, speeches, and writings. Some 200 turned out at 6:30 a.m. on January 23 for the observance.

The keynote speaker was Daina Ramey Berry, associate professor of history and African and African diaspora studies at the University of Texas at Austin and author of The Price for Their Pound of Flesh (2017), a history of the economic value of slaves from birth to death.

“Slavery does not stop people from fighting for freedom,” Berry said. In her book she wanted to explore the “faith and hope of those held captive. What can we learn from them?” One of her sources of inspiration was a slave named Mingo, who was thrown into prison prior to being sold and separated from his family. He wrote a moving poem on a beam on the walls of his prison. It began:

“Good God! And must I leave them now,
My wife, my children, in their woe?
‘Tis mockery to say I’m sold!
But I forget these chains so cold,
Which goad my bleeding limbs; though high
My reason mounts above the sky.”

(The full poem can be found at http://bit.ly/2jTrQ2N).

Berry explained that Mingo escaped the night after he wrote those words, but was torn to pieces by bloodhounds. His wife helped preserve this and other poems that Mingo had written. She said that the “creative optimism that strengthened Martin Luther King” and others in the civil rights movement was founded on the faith of the enslaved to “ignite the spirit of hope for a better day. King reminded me of these connections to slavery, and for this I thank him.”

Patty Wong, county librarian and chief archivist of the Yolo County (Calif.) Library System, was the call-to-action speaker at the celebration. Her message to librarians was to “focus on the work” in the face of the “most difficult and unexpected change in our history.” When people seemingly have “permission to say anything, without regard to facts or feelings or impact, we cannot accept this as the new normal.”

Wong recounted two instances in her life when she encountered burning crosses in California in the 1970s and 1980s, adding that today “we see many metaphorical crosses disseminated across our media. It comes as a continual shock that what we have built together through tears and blood and legislation seems to be disappearing before our eyes.”

“Don’t let burning crosses deter you from your work,” Wong said. “Create safety in your communities. Library work is community work, and they need you more than ever. Have faith to know that there is good in this world – just take a look around this room.”

The celebration closed with the audience joining hands and singing “We Shall Overcome.”

New Novels Address Common Childhood Emotions

By Michelle Kowalsky, Rowan University, NJ

A panel of popular elementary, middle-grade, and young adult authors and illustrators offered their analysis of new genres during the Auditorium Speakers Series on January 21, sponsored by Macmillan Children’s Group. Moderator and author Daniel Kraus received several compliments from the panel on his intriguing questions about the writing process.

The panel analyzed the differences in authoring processes between text-only and graphic novels, as well as the synergies of story pacing between authors and illustrators which can result from close collaboration.

New author Susan Tan commented on the challenges of working in teams “to bring to life other people’s memories, much like choreography.” Her new novel, Cilla Lee-Jenkins: Future Author Extraordinaire, speaks to childhood issues of dealing with a new sibling and negotiating differences in a mixed-race family.

Tan’s main character is also a biracial Asian American, but the author insists that this is not an example of a childhood “issue” that must be addressed in youth literature. She hoped that librarians promoted books that told good stories and tackled universal childhood emotions, rather than recommending works solely based on the heritage of the protagonist.

Illustrator LeUyen Pham spoke at length about the conversations she has with her husband, Alexandre Puvilland, also an illustrator of children’s and YA books. “Conversations between the author and artist certainly become part of the revising and interpretation process when they happen,” she said. Pham has illustrated Shannon and Dean Hale’s chapter books in The Princess in Black series, as well as several other picture books helping children think about problem-solving and identity.

Puvilland is also illustrating Scott Westerfeld’s newest graphic novel series, Spill Zone, which chronicles a teenager’s life after escaping a catastrophic disaster in her town. Addison, the adventurous 19-year-old main character of Spill Zone, deals with trying to parent her 10-year-old sister after the town tragedy killed their parents. Westerfeld is the author of the widely-known Uglies series, and is a previous winner of ALA’s Best Books for Young Adults award.

“Graphic novels have some affordances of a traditional novel and some of a film,” he explained. “They really have the ability to convey the world-crushing emotions of childhood in ways that are relatable.” Westerfeld’s science-fiction contexts encourage young readers to experience and learn about literary point of view in different ways (see video on page 12).

COGNOTES
ISSN: 0738-4319 • Volume 2017 Issue 6

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