i am disappointed with myself for posting this today, i should have posted it two weeks ago when i checked it out. but in my defense, i had a sub job for three weeks and forgot about my plan to check out books in honor of black history month. i promise i will do better next year. (i even missed lincoln's birthday, i wanted to read "abraham lincoln: vampire slayer" but alas, next year.)
this is a poem written about coretta scott, dr. martin luther king, jr.'s wife. it is written by ntozake shange, who also wrote the play "for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf". it opened with how as a child coretta had to walk to the colored school while white children took a bus to theirs. it shared her dream for equality and how she met martin luther king jr. and their shared dreams for a better world resulted in their marriage. they then started their mission for equal rights based on the teaching of ghandi (which MLK jr. introduced her to). the poem covered the sit-ins, bus boycotts, and million man march. and its show how they never gave up and always had faith in their cause.
the poem is lovely but what caught my attention was the cover and it is filled with more beautiful paintings. the paintings are by kadir nelson and here are my favorites:
beautiful, right?
the book is absolutely lovely and i recommend it for mlk jr. day or for black history month reading.
The illustrations does look beautiful! Allow me to jump on a soapbox really quick:
ReplyDeleteI used to work at an African American historical museum and we constantly encouraged people to read African American literature and non-fiction all year round, not just during Black History Month. This has more to with the fact that we had our highest attendance in February but then we would struggle year round to keep schools interested in black history. I hope the people who read this blog will consider all types of historical and cultural literature all year round, not just in the month assigned.
/Juliana