Yo, this coming Black History Month I will be speaking at the "African American Read In" for the Pierce County public library in Tacoma Washington. You can join virtually from anywhere in the world. I will be speaking with two Washington based authors and the owners of the shop "Parable Tacoma". I met some of the librarians organizing this event at the Seattle Urban Book Expo and I'm juiced to be a part of this.
I remember hearing about Alvin Irby many years ago and loving his mission for Barbershop Books because he's passionate about reading and you could tell he cares. In this episode of Lurie Daniels Favors radio show she interviews him about how he started, what drove him, and what advice he has for making readers out of your kids.
Yo, it's that time. The annual "Life is Living Festival" is upon us once again next week in Lil Bobby Hutton Park (DeFremery Park) in West Oakland. It's been back in person in all it's glory, so come through with that good vibe.
About the fest: The 2022 Life is Living Festival, presented by Youth Speaks is Saturday, October 8, 2022 at Lil Bobby Hutton Park in West Oakland (1651 Adeline St., West Oakland). Join us for activations from The Peoples Kitchen Collective, Town Park, Oakhella, ArtEsteem, the City of Oakland’s Cultural Affairs Commission, Dark Star Universe, BAOBOB, Edutainment for Equity, Emily Butterfly's Kid's Zone and more of your favorite local CBOs.
This multi-generational, multi-disciplinary festival celebrates and highlights everything that is beautiful about Oakland – the joy, diversity, adversity, and revolutionary spirit that vibrates through the streets of the city. Join us as we continue the legacy and tradition of celebrating The Town.
As with so many years, Emily Butterfly is welcoming children in the kids zone. I will be there reading at 12:30 alongside other authors and performers. For 14 years, the LIL Kids Zone has been creating a safe and nurturing space for young children and their families at the Life Is Living Festival. Produced and hosted byMs. Emily Butterfly (@ms.emilybutterfly) the Kids Zone welcomes the Jr. Art And Science Center, The Attitudinal Healing Collective, Social Justice Story Tent, Face Painting, Games, Snacks, and Story Tent.
This is the schedule for the Kids Zone:
10:30AM Kendo Martial Arts 11:00AM YGB 11:30AM Jill Guerra 12:00PM Alphabet Rockers 12:30PM Robert Trujillo 1:00PM Iwalani 1:30PM West Oakland Library 2:00PM Emily Butterfly 2:30PM Mr. Limata 3:00PM Iwalani
I will also be participating as a visual artist w/ a piece in Brett Cook's Gardeners of Belonging. It's a big painting and I'm honoring the. "People's Kitchen Collective". Among some of the other artists painting- Erin Yoshi, Evan Bissell, DJ Agana, Nick James, and Johanna Poethig.
I released this print set in 2019, and I'm just updated it and re-sharing it. Check it out for your classroom, library, organization, or home. Why did I do these? I made these to illustrate children of color reading or being read to to foster an environment that is welcoming and encourages reading for fun.
Today I'll be speaking with Sol Collective and their community talking about literacy!!! The jist of the presentation is : To develop a love of reading takes teamwork and ganas (desire). The absolutely awesome stories you seek are out there, you just have to work together to find and share them. In this short workshop, Robert will share his experience going from a nonreader to a lover of books and stories.
Hosted by: Me! Robert Liu-Trujillo, father, husband, artist, and author
For the past 11 years, Emily Butterfly has devoted herself to producing the Kids Zone at the Life Is Living Festival at Little Bobby Hutton (aka: Defremery) park in West Oakland. Creating a safe and fun environment for the children and elevating some of the best children's entertainers in the Bay Area!! I will be there reading to the babies for story time!
Our 13th annual Life Is Living Festival is happening online this year!
I invite the entire family to tune in to this fabulous free event this Saturday!
The Kids Zone offers a fabulous lineup of storytelling, music, singalongs and puppetry including:
*Storyteller Kanyon Sayers-Roods. Kanyon is Costanoan Ohlone and Chumash; she also goes by her given Native name, Hahashkani, which in Chumash means "Coyote Woman". Cozy up. with Kanyon and enjoy her word weaving imagery through her wonderful storytelling.
*Music with Everyday Party.This dynamic musical duo is composed of the crafty tune collaborators: Iwilani Venerable and Monica Hastings Smith. They are both music educators in the Bay Area who will keep your body moving and vocal chords crooning to their totally fun and educational songs.
*Storybook wizard,Robert Trujillo will be sharing the beautiful books that he writes and illustrates!
*The Oakland Public Library will be represented by the West Oakland branch's new children's librarian, Mikal Hemingway!
* Musical virtuoso, Gabby La La will delight you with a totally sweet and inviting singalong!
* Ms. Emily Butterfly and her puppet friends edutain with a faery magical story that encourages unlimited devotion and joyous stewardship of the Earth.
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The entire program is FREE dollars and Free cents and can be safely viewed from the comfort of your home!!
Just made this care package for you to send to a Black Boy anywhere. You can send this as a gift to a child, family, etc to encourage them to keep reading even in amidst the quarantine times we're living in.
In this care package you will get:
-An 11" x 14" Read print
-A copy of Furqan's First Flat Top (Bilingual/hardbound ) a picture book about Black hair, imagination, and a father & son written and illustrated by Me!
-A copy of 13 Ways of Looking at a Black Boy (hardbound) written by Tony Medina, illustrated by 13 illustrators, including me.
Started this set of new art prints back in March and here are all four prints. Whats the point of these art prints? To encourage reading and literacy and to provide a mirror for some kids to see themselves.
For this this print I imagined a South East Asian Girl. This is the third in a new series of prints with a simple concept, encourage reading and illustrate an array of young people reading, focusing on children of color. If you'd like to get a print of this one
I wish I could go back to reading at schools! Hopefully again in the future. I was invited by author and friend Justine Villanueva (Jack & Agyu) to come read at this school. I read to six classes and as always it was lots of fun. I handed out book plates to all the students and then they asked me for my signature. They had lots of funny questions.
Here is the next READ print in a series of them. I have no idea how many of these I'm going to do but I'm enjoying making them and I hope you like them as well. If you'd like to get a print for your classroom, office, or library please go here. BUY A PRINT!
Hey, this is a new event happening at the end of this month, Black History Month. "Community Reads" is a new book fair focused on African American authors and illustrators based in the Bay Area. It is being organized by Tamara Shiloh of Hilltop Mall's "Multicultural Children's Bookstore", the brick and mortar store with the most diverse selection of children's books in the Bay Area. The store opened up in 2017 with Robin Wilson and Tamara Shiloh and is now owned by Tamara who is also an educator and author. Myself and author Angela Dalton will be helping to spread the word about this one. You can see the lineup of authors above. Please stop by or tell a friend about it. If you consider yourself a Black author please reach out to Tamara about tabling. We currently have kid lit and adult novelists coming through.
Check this out, just saw this from my friend and fellow author Cathy Camper, Tonga now has its first public library! Click on this LINK to read and hear the story.
Hey, just made some new bookmarks which I'll be getting printed up soon. Here is the first one. I wanted an image of a young Black boy reading a graphic novel. If you missed my last post about the importance of graphic novels check it out here. If you'd like to cop one of these new bookmarks go to this:
It's been a minute since I made some new merchandise so here's something new. This is the fourth in a series of "Story time" posters. This one features my wife and daughter as models sitting in a chair reading.
Here's a new book mark. An educator asked me to take my story time poster and make a bookmark out of it, so I did and it looks great. You can cop one here. Here are some other images of it.
Happy new year y'all. This is the third print in the series of "story time" pieces. Why do them? To make art that encourages young people to read. You can see the other prints here on the blog.
I'm passionate about literacy and I hope that this artwork will make it into a classroom, library, organization, day care, or home near you. The subject of this piece is a young father of color and his child reading. Thats it.
This is a shot and throwback to me and author Laurin Mayeno reading "One of a kind, like me" to a school audience in Oakland. I believe it was taken by Innosanto Nagara. If you still haven't gotten the book you can get it HERE.
And here is a recent review of the book by Neely's news
Peace, my name is Robert Liu-Trujillo. I write and illustrate stories. I design characters, and I paint murals occasionally too. Parenthood, Ethnic Studies, Storytelling, Music, Social Justice, Film, Science Fiction, Design, & Publishing are regular thoughts. To contact me for commissioned art, freelance, or collaboration. Email me: info@robdontstop.com
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