StreetLiterature Blog Interview

Vanessa I. Morris, University Professor and the country’s leading Street Lit. scholar recently interviewed me on her Street Literature blog.  During these interviews I discuss my love of Street Lit., how it affects tweens/teens, how the industry views the genre and the future of the genre.  It was truly an honor and pleasure to appear on her blog.  This interview was broken down in three parts and the links are listed below:

Part I  -  http://t.co/LwGPe9h

Part II -  http://t.co/xc3WLxT

Part III - http://t.co/750rb7k

On Another Note...
During the month of February, there has been a lot of discussion about Street Lit. on a popular listserv that I subscribe to.  Just in time for Black History month….hmm.  After reading several of these posts, I concluded that a good number of the librarians and teachers have really invested the time and effort to explore and learn how this genre can be used with tweens/teens.  On the other hand, I have also concluded that there are still a number of librarians and teachers that are still confused about the entire Street Lit. genre and which books should be classified as Street Lit.  Moreover, some of their opinions of their students of color really concerns me.  My heart goes out to the students of some of these school librarians.  These librarians lack professional development and understanding in this area of their collection and quite frankly should enroll in some diversity training. 

Suggestion:  Some of these librarians should purchase Vanessa I. Morris “The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Street Literature.”  The book is scheduled for a November release and will be an excellent reference for professors, librarians and lovers of the genre.   You can also learn more about the genre by subscribing to her RSS feed and follow her posts.  The articles are thought provoking and insightful.

I said it, I proclaim it, and I will defend what I believe.

Until next time, K.C.  

Black Weblog Awards

It’s that time of year again to nominate your favorite African-American blog ! Nominations are open until July 25, 2010 so head over to BlackWeblogAwards.Com and vote today.

The mission of the Black Weblog Awards is to capture more of the Black blogosphere, increase awareness of one of the fastest growing demographics on the web, and ensure their success in the years to come.

In order to do this, they need help from the online community.   The awards committee would like to have a live awards ceremony with trophies, live streaming video, and a private reception in 2011.

This will not only give the Black Weblog Awards a heightened visibility, but also bring much needed attention to the bloggers that demonstrate their depth of knowledge, experience, and cultural awareness. They need your help!

Visit the Kickstarter campaign page at Kickstart-the-2011-Black-Weblog-Awards and donate today. A donation as small as $5 will help them reach their goal.

Creative Library Advocacy Tools

     It's Saturday morning and I'm up early getting ready for the live telecast of the Harlem Book Fair on CSPAN. Actually to tell you the truth, I’m a little ticked off that I'm unable to attend this year. I’ll get over it. I decided to do a little internet surfing and ran across an interesting article from the Huffington Post.

     Andy Woodworth aka 'wawoodworth' on Twitter has started something: a new fun library advocacy campaign featuring Isaiah Mustafa, 'The Old Spice Guy.' Yes you know him, that good looking guy with the Barry White voice, six pack abs and the ability to look so cool riding bareback on a horse. We’ve all seen his commercials on television and enjoyed the hilarious interview spot on Oprah about him.

      Recently, Mustafa responded to Woodworth's request to say a few words about libraries, and that he does well. In my opinion, this video is one of the creative advocacy tools I've seen in awhile. The video is humorous, hip and simply reminds viewers how important libraries are in our society. Personally speaking, I plan on using this video as an ice breaker for presentation I'm giving next week; I can't wait to see the reactions from the attendees.

     As Woodworth points out on his Agnostic Maybe Blog  post, the video is a humorous message about why libraries are great contributors to society. Just grin with Woodworth, myself and supporters of the spot when Mustafa says, “I’m handsome. You’re pretty. Let’s eat peanut butter. Stop throwing pigeons. Jump onto that giraffe.” For those that chose to complain, get over it and develop a sense of humor. To be critical about the video takes up too much time in one day.

     If you have a Twitter account, please support and re-tweet A petition for The Old Spice Guy to do READ poster - "I'm at a library. Reading a book." ...on a horse.  Ahh, The Old Spice Guy on a READ poster, I can just see it now......Hey Andy, I'm grinning as I write this post.


Now everyone, don't forget to watch the Harlem Book Fair today on CSPAN.


Video - The Old Spice Guy Supports Libraries

In My Spare Time

There are many of things I like to do in my spare time: sleep, sleep and more sleep, just kidding.  Seriously, one of the things I really enjoy doing is reading the blogs written by other librarians.   When I find myself logging onto these blogs, I eventually add them to my google reader page and read them from my desktop or Blackberry. 

One of my favorite blogs is Crazy Quilts . This blog is written by Edi Campbell, a high school librarian in the Indianapolis Public School System.  The focus of her blog is to provide information to improve the literacy of teens and preteens of color.  Along with reading interesting reviews of books, I enjoy reading the articles about scholarships, library news, interviews and trends in technology.  My favorite posts are the 'Sunday Morning Reads' and pictures of her beautiful quilts.

 

Let me say that I found her blog by accident.  About two years ago, I decided to start quilting after attending a interesting University of Chicago seminar about the history of African-American Quilts.  I wanted to continue the tradition of my great-grandmother Odessa who made quilts in her modest northern Louisiana home.  I found the Crazy Quilts blog and immediately bookmarked it on my computer for future reading.  Let me tell you, I was excited!  I finally found a blog that discussed books that appeal to people of color.  Unfortunately the quilting had to be put on the back burner due to the demands of work but logging onto the site has become a weekly practice and I've passed the site to the librarians I support.

I was shocked when I was recently approached by Edi to be interviewed on her blog.  I had one of those, "Little ole me moments!"  Check out her post, "Going to ALA" and become a follower of her blog. 

Thanks again Edi!