Tag: identity

Have we got a celebration for you!

Say Their Names National Award Celebration and Community Art Event
with Author Caroline Brewer and The Capitol Hill United Methodist Church

Saturday, October 12, 2024 * 1 p.m. – 3 p.m.

Capitol Hill United Methodist Church

421 Seward Square SE
Washington, DC 20003

FREE Event! Free Books! (Limited Supply)
Meet an award-winning author!
Get your book autographed!
Make –and take home –art!

Click HERE to RSVP

We will celebrate the Anna Dewdney National Read Together Honor Book Award
by reading together, performance-style, with Author Caroline Brewer

This means come prepared to sing, clap, dance, and celebrate

the uplifting story of the Say Their Names picture book, illustrated by Adrian Brandon.
The performance will be followed by a reception and community art event – the making of a butterfly memorial. Registration is required and deeply appreciated. Feel free to spread the word!

Click HERE to RSVP

Learn more at www.carolinebrewerbooks.com

September 19, 2024
Back to school — and everyday life — with SAY THEIR NAMES. Join us!

Every day in America someone is killed by police. Many of those killed are unarmed. A disproportionate number, of course, are Black, Latino, and Native American. Children are among the many victims. In the fall of 2022, it was announced that three Philadelphia police officers would stand trial for a shooting that killed 8-year-old Fanta Bility as she was riding in a car they mistakenly thought carried a criminal suspect.

An NPR investigative report in 2021 by Cheryl Thompson suggests that lack of accountability, and fear-driven policies by police departments, are key reasons the number of killings remains steady.

Even with, and perhaps because of, this depressing trend, authors are producing works for children and people of all ages to help us imagine news ways forward. And we’re doing it with faith, hope, love, peace, power, and positive Identities, or as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called it, “somebodiness.”

As a children’s book author, I’ve spent the past year sharing SAY THEIR NAMES with more than a thousand children, parents, teachers, librarians, and adults from many walks of life and diverse racial and ethnic heritages.

They’ve read with me, sang with me, cried with me, and been willing to enthusiastically spread the word about the importance of saying their names. I hope, as the magnificent Illustrator Adrian Brandon, Reycraft Books, and I celebrate the first book birthday of SAY THEIR NAMES, that you will support us. You can support us by buying books, posting about your experience with it, and inviting us to read, speak, and sing this country, this world, into a new day where we no longer, prematurely, have to say their names.

August 21, 2023
Celebrating MLK Day with Rarely Seen Martin Luther King, Jr. Speech to Philly Students

On the 40th Anniversary of the MLK Jr. Holiday, I am delighted to share RARELY seen footage of Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking to students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia on October 26, 1967. There, he delivered his powerful, thoughtful, heartfelt speech, “What Is Your Life’s Blueprint?” I strongly urge you to view in its entirety. Below are a few excerpts.

“Number 1 in your life’s blueprint should be a deep belief in your own dignity, your own worth, and your own somebodiness. Don’t allow anybody to make you feel that you are nobody. Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth. And always feel that your life has ultimate significance.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

CLICK HERE to watch the entire video. Thanks to Beacon Press and the Philadelphia School District for making this video available. Photo credit to Stephen F. Somerstein—Getty Images.

January 16, 2023
Children are Embracing Priceless Gifts in SAY THEIR NAMES

Media Opportunities December 6 & 7

Immediate Release – December 5, 2022

Contact Caroline Brewer, caroline@carolinebrewerbooks.com for more information

Washington, D.C. – When Children’s Book Author Caroline Brewer speaks to children about her new picture book, Say Their Names, she brings priceless gifts. Some are on the backs of a bookmark, or a special card, inside a gift bag printed on paper, or made of sparkly icing emblazoned on a sugar cookie. The gifts are words, such as hope, courage, peace, love, and light – representing some of the 30+ “gifts” readers can find inside the story of Say Their Names. The new picture book by Reycraft Books features the fictional 7-year-old Aliya on her quest to lead a love-inspired Black lives movement. Aliya’s gifts, Brewer says, are the elements of a positive identity, which researchers say can lead to smoother transition to adulthood. “A positive identity is what Say Their Names is all about, and it’s a gift that couldn’t be more appropriate given the challenges our children face today,” she added.

Children, parents, and educators agree.

“And what I really like about it is how you put a little kid on there and you made (Aliya) strong and brave and independent to do what she got to do and she’s wonderful,” Andreya, a 5th grader at Simon Elementary in D.C., wrote after Brewer’s author visit in November.

” Teaching the value and dignity of all is at the heart of our school’s mission and this book says to our scholars that their lives matter and that they, even in their youth, are powerful and can transform the world,” said Nicole Peltier Lewis M.Ed, Principal of Annunciation.

Brewer, a DC resident and literacy consultant, will visit two schools this week to offer gifts that children can make their own:

9:30 – 10:30 a.m. – Tuesday, December 6, 2022 – Annunciation Catholic School, 3810 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington D.C. 20016

1:00 – 1:45 p.m. – Wednesday, December 7, 2022 – Truesdell Elementary, 800 Ingraham St. NW Washington, D.C. 20011 (Pen-Faulkner Author Visit)

December 5, 2022
SAY THEIR NAMES – FREE Guide for Parents, Teachers, Youth Leaders

AUTHOR CREATES SAY THEIR NAMES
IMAGINATION GUIDE

NEW picture book offers many gifts,
including a Positive Identity

Author Caroline Brewer is leading highly inter-active and musical conversations with students, educators, parents and community groups about her new book Say Their Names, with Reycraft Books. In Say Their Names, a fictional 7-year-old Aliya responds to the aftermath of George Floyd’s death with poetry, history, and an invitation to a love-inspired future. Brewer says the book comes with more than 30 “gifts” for children, such as hope, courage, and empowerment, which all work together to form a positive identity. (See page 5 for the list and student-youth engagement opportunities).

“As we have seen, especially since September 11, 2001, traumatic incidents, such as school shootings, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, racist and religious attacks, wars, pandemics, and the like, keep happening, seemingly with greater frequency, here and all over the world,” said Brewer, “In the face of the world’s ugliness, we’ll be counting on today’s youth to one day stand tall and lead our families, communities, and countries. So it’s critical that we – and they — are equipped with the confidence, language, empathy, mental and emotional stamina to handle the hard stuff. If I could give a child any gift, it would be the gift of a positive identity, and that’s what Say Their Names is all about,” says Brewer.

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Goals of the picture book, Say Their Names: To be a channel for children’s agency, positive identity, strength, intellectual stimulation, healthy, self-actualized communication, to expand supportive communities, to be a source of hope, and a tool for imagining ways forward.

Click here to get your FREE Imagination Guide!

November 15, 2022