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LSU Young Adult Literature Conference 2015 - Day Five Recap

6/5/2015

2 Comments

 

Author Sharon Draper Closes the Conference on Day 5

Sharon M. Draper closed out this year's conference with a very personal keynote address in which she talked about honoring her later grandmother and father through her novel, Stella by Starlight.

"I didn't know the value of my grandmother at the time," she shared of her childhood summers spent visiting her father's mother. "She was remarkable. When she was forced to drop out of school in the 5th grade, she kept a journal for the rest of her life."

That same journal influenced the story line of Stella by Starlight.

"The art of storytelling, especially black storytelling, is something we are losing," she said. "It's so important because storytelling is what pulls us all together."

In that same line, Draper shared her own longing for diverse characters in the books she read as a child.

"We've been talking all week about diversity in books. When I was a kid, there was none because children of color were not considered," she shared. "And it's not that we weren't considered important, we just weren't considered at all. We were invisible."

Still she found ways to discover the diversity she craved, citing a book about a Chinese empress as her first eye opening experience into a world and character that wasn't strictly white.

"There needs to be more books like this, so there are no more little girls like me who say there isn't a book in this whole library that reflects me," she said. "We also need diverse experiences. And most of all, we need diversity of new writers to write those diverse books."

Draper reiterated that diversity went far beyond merely more black characters and stories in circulation.

"My dream is to have diversity be put out there, but I want it to be done so well and to have so much of it that we don't even notice it anymore. The idea of a black or asian character should no longer be remarkable or novel. We aren't there yet, but it's the direction we are heading. We aren't yet to the point where we can assume that there is a book out there for everyone to see themselves in. I want children to have a vision of the world in which they are included regardless of what they look like or where they live. I want everyone to be able to dream in color."

For more info on Draper's work, click here.
Follow Draper on Twitter at @sharonmdraper.
2 Comments
Abbie Smith
3/28/2016 11:33:35 am

I went to a predominately white high school, and, sadly, most of the novels in our library reflected that demographic. I was (and still am) a very avid reader and went through our library's books like candy. One day I stumbled across Sharon Draper's novels in our library and, since I had yet to read anything by the author, I checked two out, not knowing anything about her or them besides what I read on the back cover. After beginning the first novel, I realized that the characters were all African American. I was surprised that a) (gasp) my library had a novel about someone who did not look like me and b) how terrible it was that I had read so few YA books throughout my high school career with non-white protagonists. As I finished the book (November Blues--which I loved) I realized the importance of diversity in YA literature. How would I have felt if I was African American and visited a library like mine where only a select few novels represented my life and family? I continued to read Draper's novels and my experience with those texts helped me to see out past my white, high school bubble. I love her statement that she wants diversity in literature to "be done so well and to have so much of it that we don't even notice it anymore." How great would it be if today's high schoolers were not surprised like I was when a character in their novel is not white?

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הפקת אירועים link
5/22/2018 09:29:44 am

Hi, thanks for sharing. very important stuff

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    Dr. Gretchen Rumohr
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    Gretchen Rumohr is a professor of English and department chair at Aquinas College, where she teaches writing and language arts methods.   She is also a Co-Director of the UNLV Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature. She lives with her four girls and a five-pound Yorkshire Terrier in west Michigan.

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    Dr. Bickmore is a Professor of English Education at UNLV. He is a scholar of Young Adult Literature and past editor of The ALAN Review and a past president of ALAN. He is a available for speaking engagements at schools, conferences, book festivals, and parent organizations. More information can be found on the Contact page and the About page.

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