by Cynthia M. Pease
Book festival season is well upon us, and they are going online.
Somehow I’ve tapped into book festivals I didn’t even know about, such as the Decatur (GA) Book Festival. It runs through the month of September, and it didn’t take me long to sign up for three very different author interviews.
The first was Saturday morning and featured author Derrick D. Barnes (www.derrickdbarnes.com) and illustrator Gordon C. James (www.gordoncjames.com) and their latest collaboration, I Am Every Good Thing.
As the father of four sons, Mr. Barnes said he wrote I Am Every Good Thing to “tap into all Black boys’ experiences, from the Midwest to the inner city,” and let them know there is nowhere they don’t belong and no dreams they can’t pursue. “I was thinking about how restricted people were. I wanted Black boys to have a feeling of freedom to go everywhere and be anything.”
Gordon C. James is an illustrator of children’s books as well as a fine arts painter.
Mr. James drew a picture of his son Gabriel for the cover illustration. He too has thought much about the need to let young Black boys be children and to let readers know that they are just like any other children. The book is dedicated to seven unarmed Black boys murdered by adults, in most cases the police, who saw them as threatening rather than as boys.
Among the significant pages and illustrations in the book is one showing a group of boys swimming. There are two factors here: One is the memory of segregated community pools where the pools would be completely drained and “cleansed” after the Black children were in them. The other is the trope that Black people can’t swim.
Of course, in a world where Black boys (and girls, I’m sure) have been restricted in their movements, there were many who couldn’t swim. So the delightful illustration of happy faces taking the plunge includes an older boy wearing floaties. Mr. James said his intention was to show that no one should be ashamed if they’re just learning to swim no matter what their age.
Derrick D. Barnes is the award-winning author of many books for children.
The pair’s earlier book Crown is a poetic sketch about “how great our sons look when they come from the barbershop,” said Mr. Barnes. It shows a very proud and confident young boy sporting his first haircut. He has a look on his face that you would love to see on every child, one of knowing he or she is every bright thing and that the world will give that child the right to prove it.
I can’t tell you exactly why the presentation made me so happy and put peace in my soul. Perhaps it was the generosity of the author and illustrator. Mr. Barnes read I Am Every Good Thing and showed the illustrations as Mr. James worked on a charcoal drawing of a boy. Maybe it was being one of 180 attendees including a diverse group of women (lots of grandmothers) who were sharing their delighted comments in the “chat.” Maybe it was that, even as they talked about uplifting their own precious Black boys, they spoke as if they wanted to uplift me and the rest of the audience somehow by showing us how society should and can be.
The pair is currently working on a novel with the tentative title Do It for the People, about Black athletes who have protested injustice. Mr. Barnes also has a book coming out next June about Tommy Smith, one of the two Olympians in the iconic photograph showing their firsts raised.
Both men have worked with other authors and other illustrators, so do check out their websites. If you live in Charlotte, NC, where they both live, you can probably find them presenting at a library there. Otherwise, go to the Boston Book Festival website (www.bostonbookfest.org) and check out when their appearance will be in October.
The National Book Festival, sponsored by the Library of Congress, is also coming up from September 25 to 27; go to the LoC for more information.
The Moral Universe 