Exploring Contemporary Caribbean Children’s and Young Adult Literature: Implications for Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Education
Melissa L. García Vega, Ph.D.
Alison Lehner-Quam, MSLS, MSEd
Cecilia M. Espinosa, Ph.D.
CUNY, Lehman College, Bronx, NY
NCTE, 2022
Faculty @ CUNY-Lehman College
Melissa García Vega | Alison Lehner-Quam | Cecilia M. Espinosa |
Assistant Professor Department of Early Childhood & Childhood Education (ECCE) PhD in Caribbean Literature | Assistant Professor, Education Librarian, MSLS (Library Service), MSEd (Early Childhood) | Professor Department of Early Childhood/Childhood Education (ECCE) |
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Caribbean Children’s Literature
Culturally & Linguistically Responsive
and
Sustaining Education
Contemporary
Caribbean Children’s
Literature
Learners & Teachers in
Early Childhood
Elementary & Young Adult
What forms the Caribbean?
As you view the following illustrations jot down notes in these two categories.
Observations
What questions come to mind?
What do you notice?
What do you notice?
Octopus Stew (2019) by Eric Velazquez
What
do
you
notice?
Jessica (1998) by
Christine
Leo & Kim
Harley
What do you notice?
A Likkle Miss Lou: How Jamaican Poet Louise Bennett Coverley Found Her Voice (2019) by Nadia Hohn
What did you notice?
Observations
What questions come to mind?
global
region
ecology
culture
community
teacher
learner
21st Century
Communities
Spheres
of
Influence
on a
Quality of Life
“how individuals and communities, … are perceived, and how they are respected and valued or silenced and dehumanized” (Maria Acevedo, 2017, p. 16)
�
El Museo del Barrio - Queens Museum of Art - The Studio Museum in Harlem
AArnaldo Roche Rabell,1986
Rigaud Benoit, 1962
“Caribbean: Crossroads of the World”
Exhibit (2012-2013)
A Children’s Book Collection at the College: Reflecting the Community
In the Bronx:
56% identify as Hispanic or Latine
Origins in the Bronx :
23.1% Dominican Republic
19.5% Puerto Rican
.61% Cuban
7.1% Other Caribbean Countries
e.g. Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbados
United States. (2022). American Community Survey. https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=Hispanic%20in%20the%20Bronx&tid=ACSDT5Y2019.B03001
https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=country%20of%20origin%20in%20the%20Bronx&tid=ACSDP5Y2019.DP02
Research Grants Transformed the Children’s Book Collection
Baseline: Library Children’s Collection
Grants Provided Opportunity for:
Books for
Latino and Bilingual Children
Collection Highlights:
What happens when we engage young children in multimodal experiences with culturally and linguistically relevant books?
Books focused on bilingual titles and works by Latine authors.
July 2016-December 2017
Affirming Identities: The Power of Diversity
Collection Highlights:
What can we learn about diverse stories and reading experiences of education students at the college?
Books focused on identities.
July 2018-2019
BIPOC Authored and Illustrated Nonfiction Children’s Books
Collection Highlights:
Which areas of current nonfiction publishing are well-represented by diverse authors and illustrators? In which areas are diverse voices missing?
July 2020-2022
Contemporary Caribbean Children’s and Young Adult Literature
Who is speaking to children and adolescents and their experiences today with stories that come out of a rich oral tradition?
Books from/about Caribbean region, featuring Caribbean individuals, and by Caribbean and Caribbean diaspora authors and illustrators.
July 2022-2023
Collection Assessment
What did the library have?
Where were the gaps?
(1973)
(1994)
Publishing Resources
Some Publishers:
Blue Banyan Books: https://bluebanyanbooks.co
Caribbean Reads: https://www.caribbeanreads.com/books/
House of Anansi and Groundwood Books: https://houseofanansi.com/
Red Sugarcane Press: https://www.redsugarcanepress.com/
Reycraft: https://www.benchmarkeducation.com/reycraftbooks/ (sponsored writing contest for Caribbean youth)
Sugar Apple Books: https://sugarapplebooks.com
Some Awards:
Americas Award: http://www.claspprograms.org/pages/detail/37/Americas-Award
Bocas Children’s Book Prize: https://www.bocaslitfest.com/awards/childrens-book-prize/
Burt Award for Caribbean Young Adult Literature (up to 2019): https://www.burtaward.org/burt-award-caribbean
Pura Belpré Award: https://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/belpre
Collection Scope and Access
Scope: Languages include:
Access: Library Discovery Tool: https://libguides.lehman.edu/ChildrensBooksThemes
A Theoretical Framework for �Caribbean Children’s Literature
Antonio Benítez Rojo (1931- 2005) Cuban novelist and essayist discussed the Caribbean in terms of a “big bang theory” where fragments of culture will land in different directions “fragments of diverse kinds that, in their endless voyage, come together in an instant…” (Benítez Rojo, 1996). | Kamau Brathwaite (1930 -2020) Barbadian poet & academic who called upon “content curriculum research and its relationship to the embodying culture” (Brathwaite, 1975). |
Ibrahim Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) Martinican psychiatrist and political philosopher called to recognize that “Beside phylogeny and ontogeny stands sociogeny” (Fanon, 1967). | Edouard Glissant (1928-2011) Martinican novelist, essayist, poet & playwright linked identity with community seeking a legitimate right to a place or territory through the “revealed word” (Glissant 2000). |
Wilson Harris (1921-2018) Guyanese novelist & essayist questioned “a uniform kind of way, a uniform kind of narrative, a uniform kind of frame” (Harris 1995). | Sylvia Wynter (1928 - ) Jamaican writer & cultural theorist explored a natural world in flux and the transcendence of culture. (Wynter 2001). |
Copernican (15th century) Christian
Darwinian (19th century) European
Fanonian (20th century) Western
21st Century
Beyond colonial culture
After Man, Its Last Word: Towards the Sociogenic Principle
(Wynter, 2001)
Sylvia Wynter labels “three intellectual revolutions that define our ‘modern’ world:
the Copernican, the Darwinian,[and] the Fanonian” (2007, p. 253, Gagne )
If Dominican Were a Color (2020) by Sili Recio
Under the Mango Tree (2021) by Valdene Mark
Auntie Luce’s Talking Paintings (2018) by Francie Latour
Clemente! (2010) by Willie Perdomo
�
Shirley Chisholm is a Verb!
Ontogeny
developmental
history of an
organism
19th century
21st
Century
Reader
Phylogeny
a group of organisms
evolving
15th century
Sociogeny
the origin or development of a person or thing as a result of social factors
20th century
Humanism
in the
21st Century
Shirley Chisholm Dared: The Story of the First Black Woman in Congress
Children’s Literature transforms curriculum as a decolonizing pedagogy.
Junot Diaz
Dominican Republic
Edwidge Danticat Haiti
Olive Senior Jamaica
Caribbean & Caribbean Diaspora
Developing Critical Perception in multi languages and literacies fosters a decolonizing pedagogy�
En la Bahia de Jobos:
Celita Y El Mangle Zapatero (2004)
by Ana Lydia Vega
“La Arboleda Ancestral Africana”
Osain sculpture by Samuel Lind in
Botanical Gardens in Caguas, Puerto Rico
How does story link and stimulate the young, developing imagination to a sense of community that extends to the realities of current worlds?
How does story invite
self-identification and
new perspectives?
Tulipán
series by
Ada Haiman
(2014)
Imagination requires an ability to consider and foster �culture as dynamic Raquel M. Ortiz ��
Veronica Chambers
Using Key Text Qualities | |
Themes What big questions does the text explore? | Growing Up -Independence Family Tradition |
Identity How does the child protagonist evolve? | as a sibling family elders |
Orality & Language How does the text sound and/or use sound to tell story? | positive action verbs |
History What facts does the text expand on or address? | migration, school, key community figures accomplishments & in public service |
The Natural Environment as Setting How does the context of place and time deepen meaning? | Barbados, Brooklyn rural/ urban indoor/ outside |
Artifacts What objects/tools connect readers to the characters and their stories? | postcards, legislation, photographs, campaign documents |
Themes What big questions does the text explore? Identity How does the child protagonist evolve? How are identities reflected? (2003) | |
Orality & Language How does the text sound and/or use sound to tell story? | |
History What facts does the text expand on or address? | |
The Natural Environment as Setting How does the context of place and time deepen meaning? | Under the moon & over the sea : a collection of Caribbean poems |
Artifacts What objects/tools connect readers to the characters and their stories? | |
Caribbean Authors
“... [we] must think of engaging the reader so that ultimately the story that happens between you both - in your [and their] imagination - will be like a lasting friendship based on what goes without saying...So you must know your reader. You must respect and appreciate [them]. Write your story with this specific reader in mind.”
(Belpre & Sánchez-González, 2013)
Pura Belpré
Pura Belpré
Emma Otheguy
Emma Otheguy
A Sled for Gabo -
Remind us what it is like to:
Emma Otheguy
Sofia Acosta -
Marie Arnold
Marie Arnold
The Year I Flew Away
Gabrielle, the main character, left all that she knew in Haiti
Moved in with her uncle and his family in Brooklyn
Struggles with being a newcomer.
She almost loses herself when she makes a deal with Lady Lydia, who promises her assimilation
I Rise - Set in Harlem - A story that asks the reader to experience though Ayo what it means to be Black under the gaze of racial profiling and systemic racism.
A teeneger whose mother had started a movement “See Us.”
This teen had no choice but to become a leader.
Baptiste Paul
“The use of Creole words, adds that joyfulness and makes the story complete. When we played [futbol], these were the words we yelled out and being authentic to the story meant I had to use Creole words. The Creole words in the text might look simple but they are alive and they have emotions.”https://thispicturebooklife.com/an-interview-with-baptiste-paul-and-jacqueline-alcantara-author-and-illustrator-of-the-field/
Baptiste Paul
The Field
To Carnival!: A Celebration in Saint Lucia
Baptiste Paul
Climb On!
Peace
Theme: The Environment- Ecology
What does a sustainable culture look like?
“critique of anti-ecological effects”
Lehman Children’s Book Research Guide
Key Take Aways
Contemporary Caribbean Children’s and Young Adult Literature
child;
Questions / Comments
Handout available at: https://libguides.lehman.edu/ncte
References
Acevedo, M. (2017). What does it mean to be Puerto Rican in children’s
literature? Bilingual Review/Revista Bilingüe, 33(5).
Anansesem.(2020, January 31). The Caribbean children's literature ezine.
Anansesem. http://www.anansesem.com/
Belpré, P., & Sánchez-González, L. (2013). The stories I read to the children:
the life and writing of Pura Belpré, the legendary storyteller, children's
author, and New York Public librarian. Center for Puerto Rican Studies.
Benítez Rojo, A., & Maraniss, J. E. (1996). The repeating island: The
Caribbean and the postmodern perspective. Duke University Press.
Brathwaite, E. K. (1975). Caribbean man in space and time. Savacou, 11–12(3).
Down, L. (2015). Engaging mindfully with the commons: A case of Caribbean
teachers’ experience with ESD. Applied Environmental Education &
Communication, 14(2), 105–111. doi: 10.1080/1533015x.2014.974852
El Museo del Barrio; Queens Museum of Art; & The Studio Museum in Harlem.
(2012). Caribbean: Crossroads of the World. New York City, NY.
Fanon, F. (1967). Black skin, white mask. Grove, 1967.
Glissant E. (2000). Poetics of relation. Trans. Betsy Wing. University of Michigan
Press.
Hunt, P. (2018). International companion encyclopedia of children's literature.
Routledge.
Harris, V. J. (1993). Teaching multicultural literature in grades K-8.
Christopher-Gordon Pub.
Harris, W., & Cudjoe, S. R. (1995). History, fable, and myth in the Caribbean
and Guianas. Calaloux Publications.
James, C. (2005). From orature to literature in Jamaican and Trinidadian � children’s folk traditions. Children's Literature Association Quarterly,
30(2).
Kahn, R. (2008). Introduction. Green Theory & Praxis: The Journal of
Ecopedagogy, 4(1). doi: 10.3903/gtp.2008.1.1
McKittrick, K. (2014). Sylvia Wynter on being human as praxis. Duke University � Press.
Moura-Koçoğlu, M. (2009). "Re-gaining the past and shaping the present:
Indigenous children’s fiction from Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada and the
United States. In M. Meyer (Ed.), Word & Image in Colonial and
Postcolonial Literatures and Cultures (pp. 305–25). Brill.
Spencer, A. (2021). 'Let every child run wild': Cultural identity and the role of � the child in Caribbean children's and young adult fiction. In R. Cummings
and A. Donnell (Eds.), Caribbean Literature in Transition, 1970–2020 (pp.
64–180). Cambridge University Press.
Teague, L. T. (2021). Not American enough: African diaspora, unfinished
migrations, and transnational children’s literature. Journal of Children’s
Literature, 47(2), 35–47. https://doi.org/ISSN 1521-7779
Wynter, S. (1972). One love: Rhetoric or reality? Aspects of Afro-Jamaicanism.
Caribbean Studies, 12(3), 64–97.
Wynter, S. (2011). Africa, the west and the analogy of culture: The cinematic
text after man. In J. Givanni (Ed.), Symbolic narratives/African cinema: audiences, theory and the moving Image (pp. 25–79). British Film Institute.
Wynter, S. (2001). Towards the sociogenic principle: Fanon, identity,
the puzzle of conscious experience, and what it is like to be "Black.". In A. Gomez-Moriana & M. Duran-Cogan (Eds.), National identities and socio-political changes in Latin America (pp. 30-66). Routledge.
Zapf, H. (2016). Literature as cultural ecology: Sustainable texts. Bloomsbury � Collections.