Who is She? 6-Marley Dias

Two things come to mind when I think of Marley. 1. Each one teach one-an old saying. By doing what she's doing, she is using lessons she was taught i'm sure and she is teaching the next generation. 2. Do the work. There are a lot of people out here talking about solutions and problems, far less people actually doing the work to solve the problem.

Marley Dias, if you're off social media is an 11 year old young lady from New Jersey. Marley loves to read, and was tired of seeing the lack of books in her circle that reflected her face and her life. So rather than just complain about the lack of diversity in the books she was seeing, she did something. It was for her, but more importantly it is for other young people so they too can see themselves or see someone they don't know yet. Her campaign to get 1000 books featuring young black girls was started and quickly caught the attention of local and national media. The hashtag for it is #1000BlackGirlBooks. If you have written or illustrated a book that features a young black girl as a protagonist, send it to Marley, and her homies Briana, and Amina at welovebam.com/1000-black-girl-books/

When She Rises-This saturday in Oakland

When she rises is this Saturday 

When: Saturday March 12th, 8-11pm

Where: Studio Grand Oakland

Who: Cece Carpio, Erin Yoshi, and Nisha K. Sembi (Trust Your Struggle Collective)

Why/How?

In honor of International Women's Day, Studio Grand Oakland and Galeria de la Raza are pleased to bring Cece Carpio, Nisha K. Sembi, and Erin Yoshi, the women of the Trust Your Struggle Collective, together at Studio Grand for this show honoring the stories of women and their resilience. This exhibit specifically looks at the countries of origin of the three artists - Philippines, India, and Japan. Come out and celebrate at the Exhibit Opening :: When She Rises on Saturday, March 12, 8:00pm-11:00pm. DjLeydis DeCuba will help us bring the show in. So much love to Cece, Nisha, Erin, Ani Rivera, Melanie Cervantes, Galería De La Raza, Trust Your Struggle Collective, and the good folks over at the Akonadi Foundation for helping us make this happen. Together, We Rise!

Who is She? 5 - Debby Tewa

Debby Tewa is a solar electrician from a Hopi reservation in Arizona. She grew up without electricity or running water until the age of 10, and when she was in high school decided to enroll in an electrician's program; even though they geared it towards boys. She started with a Hopi company called Native Sun and has worked with many Indian families in reservations of Arizona and New Mexico. She is also a college professor that teaches at Central Arizona College. There she teaches students how to measure their use of electricity at home, how to reduce it, and how to install solar panels for their homes. I love the idea of folks being able to have some independence from a larger grid of electricity, and to be able to use a renewable source of energy.

Source: "Heroes of the Environment" (book), Sandia.org (website)

Dig this? Check out this drawing supporting No DaPL or this one celebrating Dolores Huerta

Who is She?4 - Pura Belpre

Pura Belpre was NYC's first Puerto Rican librarian. She was a storyteller, educator, and a pioneer in library programming and learning for children. She was born in 1899 in Puerto Rico and came to the US in 1920. In 1921 she began working in the New York City public library system. She has been called a pioneer because of her outreach to the Latino community offering programming in spanish. She founded a mobile puppet company that went around the neighborhood performing her stories. She looked for and purchased books in spanish for the library when multicultural literature was not a thing. As a storyteller she brought stories from her country like "Perez y Martina" and shared them with the children uptown, while also translating them and publishing them in books for the first time. Because of the amazing work she did as an advocate for literacy and education in the community an award has been named in her honor by the American Library Association. I did not hear a single thing about Ms Belpre until I was in my 30's. But, her dedication to engaging children and getting them to read inspires me. And I hope that more about her life is uncovered and that we as kids and adults learn about stories like hers. Check out the book "The Storyteller's candle" and the documentary by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College called "Pura Belpre" https://vimeo.com/30837106

Sources: Wikipedia (website) and "Colorin Colorado" (blog)

Did you see the image of Arturo Schomburg?

Who is She? 3 - Keiko Fukuda

Mrs Judo as they called her lived from 1913 to 2013. She was born and raised in Japan and came to the US in 1966 establishing her own dojo in San Francisco. She began her study in martial arts at the age of 21 and had over 70 years experience as a practitioner and then teacher of Judo. She was the highest ranking woman in Judo history (10th degree blackbelt). She was the last living student of Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo. As a martial artist, and as an unmarried woman she faced much struggle, sexism, and strife from traditionalists. But through it all she lead the life that she wanted to live and taught many many people. She started Keiko Fukuda Joshi Judo Camp the first Judo camp dedicated to women.

Source: http://keikofukudajudofoundation.org/

Dig this? Check out Sara Khoshjamal Fekri (Taekwondo)

Who is She? 2- Merata Mita

Merata Mita was an indigenous Maori filmmaker from new Zealand. Born in 1942, she was thr first woman in NZ to direct a documentary film. Patu! , her first film was about the protests and acts of civil disobedience that many New Zealanders exhibited when a rugby team from the then apartheid state of South Africa came to play matches in NZ. She went on to direct and act in several films, saying that she wanted to tell stories instead of give foreign filmmakers the key to Maori lives. She was a pioneer in NZ pushing the filmmaking forward in the country. A documentary by her son about her life is in the works and Sundance has named an award for film after her. 

Sources: The Independent UK (blog), Interview by Karin Williams (youtube)

Who is She? 1- Alice Augusta Ball (Women's History Month)

I've decided to do a series of drawings for women's history month entitled "Who is She?".

Here is the first one of a scientist named Alice Augusta Ball, born in Seattle Washington in 1892. She was a chemist who developed a drug to aid in the treatment of Leprosy by isolating a chemical compound of Chaulmoogra oil. Her research lead to an effective treatment for countless people before a cure was found in the 40s. She died very young and credit for much of her work was taken by a man. Later another doctor uncovered what she'd done and she was recognized by the University and by the state. She was also the first Black person to receive a masters degree from the University of Hawaii.

Information found via "Women Rock Science (Tumblr)" and "On the shoulders of giants (youtube)".

Array & CAAM

Please go see Ashes & Embers in the theater or watch it on Netflix. This is one of Array’s (formerly Affirm) first films for “Array Classics” which is an effort to restore and redistribute films from the past that either did not get the attention they deserved, or need to be revisited for new audiences. I include myself, because I’ve never seen the film either. Pass it on. 

More info

In case you're in the Bay Area and you're not hip to CAAM, it is an annual film festival held in SF and other cities in the Bay highlighting and showing new films by Asian and Asian American filmmakers from across the world. This year greats like Ang Lee will be there, alongside new directors such as Sanjay Patel of the Oscar nominated "Sanjay's Super Team". Go check out the films and the live discussions w/ the filmmakers.

Thinkbeat Radio + Under the Sign of the Rainbow (interview)

This month I was interviewed by Simon Abramowitsch, my brother since high school about Black History Month. He has been working on a series of podcast shows talking about multicultural literature and history. The segment is featured halfway through the "Think Beat Radio" show which airs on kpfa on fridays from2-4 am i think. Please listen here and share. You can hear more of the interview on the Under the Sign of The Rainbow site.


DJs Wonway Posibul and Dion Decibels have been doing "ThinkBeat" for many moons spinning Hip Hop, electronic, soul, jazz, funk, salsa, and everything in between for radio and live audiences all across the Bay Area and in various other cities.

School Library Journal Feature

This is pretty awesome. I am Sausal Creek one of the books I illustrated was featured in School Library Journal by Amy Martin. I'm excited and very blessed to be included among some great artists and writers such as Janine Macbeth (Blood Orange Press), Zetta Elliott (Rosetta Press), Innosanto Nagara (A is For Activist), and Melissa Reyes( I am Sausal Creek). I hope this means SLJ and other industry veterans will take notice of the quality work independent author/illustrators are putting out focusing on diversity.
LINK to article by Amy Martin (Town librarian)