Cultural Studies

Poetry Friday: ABC of African American Poetry

August 27, 2010 in Poetry Friday

In this audio clip about his book (Ashley Bryan’s ABC of African American Poetry, S&S, 1997) Ashley Bryan presents the alphabet to introduce the contributions of Black American poets, including Henry Dumas and Langston Hughes. He hopes you…

Nick’s Picks: Teaching books about social justice

June 16, 2010 in SLJ/Nick's Picks

In late April I attended the Jane Addams Book Award announcement at Chicago's Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, the actual location where the crusader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient supported immigrants and advocated for social justice and racial and gender equality.

Poetry Friday: Angela Johnson

April 16, 2010 in Poetry Friday

Some poems in Angela Johnson’s book The Other Side: Shorter Poems (Scholastic 1998) were written when she was a teen, and others when she was older. It’s inspiring that poems written during Johnson’s teenage years were eventually published and…

Nikki Grimes on Writing From the Inside Out and Back Again

March 22, 2010 in Guest Author Blog Posts

Nikki Grimes is an author of fiction and poetry who has received five Coretta Scott King Book Award recognitions. In this column she discusses her writing process. Whether it’s her focus on character development, the story behind Bronx Masquerade (Penguin, 2001), or her personal experiences that influence her research and writing, Grimes’s insights reveal the dialectical nature of writing.

Poetry Friday: Margarita Engle

March 19, 2010 in Poetry Friday

In this audio clip, author Margarita Engle shares the backstory for her 2009 Newbery Honor book and 2009 Pura Belpré-winning book, The Surrender Tree: Poem’s of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom (Henry Holt, 2008). Learn about the life of the character,…

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