WEE THE PEOPLE

If you're a parent or educator of color, chances are you grew up rarely (or maybe never) seeing yourself reflected in the books that filled your local library or classroom. But today, in 2021, we are witnessing an #ownvoices movement - a renaissance of children's literature by Black, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous creators.

 

Join us for a deep dive into the world of powerful, affirming, and gorgeously illustrated children's books by BIPOC authors and illustrators. Geared for audiences of color, this workshop will hold space for parents, caregivers, educators, artists, activists, clergy, clinicians, and others to share experiences as we explore a wide range of characters and themes in children's books, from Radiant Child to My Hair Is a Garden to I Am Every Good Thing.

Through immersive, high-impact programming, Wee The People is charting new ground in social and racial justice education. The work we do in community can look different depending on the setting: a classroom, a school assembly, a parents’ group, a town forum, or a professional development session.

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This introductory presentation offers organizations an opportunity to learn more about our approach, our partnerships, and the range of workshops we offer. 

From cradle to grave, by every metric of well-being we can measure -- education, employment, health, housing -- research tells us that deep racial disparities persist in our society. Research also tells us that children begin to notice and assign meaning to skin color by the age of 2. This makes racial literacy a critical part of preparing our children to lead lives as engaged, equity-minded problem-solvers in the world.

 

Geared for White or multiracial audiences, this workshop explores fundamental concepts of systemic racism, the barriers that block us from engaging with kids around race and racism, the social science of race awareness in children, and strategies to start and sustain antiracist and action in school and at home.

More and more, education leaders are awakening to the urgent need to teach for racial equity. But for the vast majority of US schools, this poses an enormous challenge: It requires teachers to adopt approaches and build content knowledge that they themselves were never taught, either as children or as adults. And it requires them to unlearn dominant narratives that have long distorted history and devalued people of the global majority.

 

In this workshop, educators will take a deep dive into curriculum and begin the work of radically reframing the received knowledge, assumptions, and lenses that serve to maintain inequity and injustice.