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PHOTOGRAPHIC: The Life of Graciela Iturbide

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“It was like coming home… only to no home I’d ever known…”
Sam Baldwin, Sleepless in Seattle

I talk about existing in the liminal spaces of identity. I am Latinx, and I am White. I have, as Albert Memmi called it, the face of the colonizer and the colonized.

Liminal space, if you are not familiar with the concept, is the space between. It is the space that is not easily defined. If you stand in a doorway between the kitchen and the living room, you are in neither room, and in both, and in a wholly new and unique space. Liminal spaces are often portals from one dimension to another and can feel unsettled and unsettling.

The idea of liminal space in Western thought and literature is often portrayed as portals, pathways, or doorways that separate different realities – look at Grimm Tales, Mother Goose, Hans Christian Anderson, C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll, and L. Frank Baum to name a few. But, in Western literature the realities are kept separate by the power of  liminal space.

But, in many Latinx narratives, liminal space doesn’t separate Oz and Kansas. Instead, realities exist, cross-over, intermix and influence each other in  constant dance. Think of La Llorona, or almost all of Isabel Allende’s books. These are the stories where familiar realities co-mingle with magic and become more than either one is capable of alone.  But, only a few can see, recognize and live within these spaces.

Isabel Quintero (author of Gabi, Girl in Pieces) and Zeke Peña explore one such artist in their graphic novel biography about photographer Graciela Iturbide. The book is written in sparse, detailed prose, using black and white images that call to and emerge from Iturbide’s photos. They also selected a few of her photos.

This is a biography of art, but not of the artist. There are few details of her youth, and personal life. Instead Quintero and Peña provide an open space for Iturbide’s photos to be studied and seen and felt.

I’d seen some of her photos in museums or art books, both in Los Angeles and in Sonora. I remember feeling confused about the work – it is beautiful and stark and rich all at the same time. She captured the Sonora desert, a place I was too young to remember but that I can sense in the back of my mind. My father admired her aesthetic voice, but was never sure her work was feminine enough. Her photos show the unrelenting beauty and majesty of the desert but she also showed people.

Image result for graciela iturbide graphic novelShe has a series that focuses on an area of East LA and photographed Cholas being proud and poor, trapped by the dream of the United Stated, and standing powerfully together.

Her photos were full of people, animals, nature and sky, objects and space. Iturbide’s most famous photo is called Mujer Ángel. I clearly remember seeing the image and feeling the warm wind, the grit in my shoes, the sweat running down my neck. I was transported to the Sonora desert, behind a woman in a flowing white dress, with a black, lace mantilla, walking through the rocky desert carrying an enormous boom-box. While describing the photo Quintero quotes Iturbide, “It’s like this: when I look at a subject, the subject must always look back. Must always agree with the shot … That is the only way I will take a photograph. It is complicity.” Peña uses parts of the image, reimagining aspects and angles of the photo to recreate, or perhaps to create for the first time, the moments just before Iturbide’s shutter clicked and an image was transported from that place to the page.

Image result for graciela iturbide graphic novel

I grew up in Southern California and spent time in and around Nogales (both sides of the border) and in the Sonora desert when I was a kid. When I read PHOTOGRAPHIC: The Life of Graciela Iturbide, I feel that world again. Her photography exists in that space between, and within multiple realities. Reading this graphic novel gave me back glimpses I have forgotten and allowed me to see parts of me that are often hidden but always felt.

Trans People Aren’t Mythical Creatures

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In research we often provide what is referred to as a positionality statement. It helps our readers understand who we are, how our experiences and identities effect our understandings of the subject we are writing about. Positionality statements help avoid the fiction that research is neutral. In the age of #OwnVoices I have come to realize, or maybe I have come to admit to the realization, that I believe an author’s identity, community, and experiences informs the work they produce.

Mermaid.jpg

Librarian Angie Manfredi (@misskubelik ), Tweeted out about a book she wasn’t crazy about. Here is a link to the entire thread. “Our library copy of JULIAN IS A MERMAID has finally arrived and it is adorable but I NEED everyone in to acknowledge it would NOT be getting this amount of love and attention if it were written by a gender non-conforming queer IPOC – it might not even have been published.” The book was written and illustrated by Jessica Love, a White, cis, woman.

For a long time I hesitated to write about Julián, a picturebook is about a boy who dreams of being a mermaid, transforms himself, and his abuela who upon seeing him dressed in a headpiece and flowing train, takes him to what I can only describe as a drag parade (the mermaid parade in Coney Island *1). The book and the author are being talked about, and will most likely win many book awards.

I did what I usually do when I’m wresting with a book that features identities or communities or content that I am unfamiliar with. I asked people I trust. I shared my thinking with them, and I listened. In many ways this essay is more about the conversations I had and continue to have while trying to come to terms, rather than some sort of clean conclusion. *I will be adding footnoted changes to this post as they happen. 

When I first read the book I thought it was beautifully drawn. Full of soft colors, and gentle edges. Like fine pastels rubbed into expensive paper. There is a lushness to the images. When reading it I saw the care of the illustrator for her art, but I also so her Whiteness, her straightness, her cis-ness. I felt it in my bones and I could not shake the fact that I did not like the book. It was like eating a big meringue – sweet, technically beautiful, but it left a cloying, unpleasant taste. I wanted to name the taste, to objectify it, to explain it, to defend my dislike. I didn’t want to simply say “It isn’t an #OwnVoices book”. That was a convenient reason but not a complete one.

Literacy is a social act, and I find that my reading of the world is better when done in collaboration with others who do not share my view of the world, my history, or my identity. So, I talked to teachers who are Dominican, to librarians, and finally, to a trans girl named Indigo.

Stacey (not a pseudonym) is a teacher and she’s Dominican. I asked her about the book because I knew I needed to get handle on the language used. There are differences in the ways Latinxs speak and act within our communities and I didn’t want my Mexican-ness to over-ride the Dominican-ness that the White author was trying to capture. Stacey’s response was helpful. At first I asked about the physical features of the women, their dress, the ways they moved, and the shoes they wore. “I found that the story depicted Afro-Carribean culture pretty well. From the shape of the abuelita, her head scarfs and dress, to the figures of the other characters, I didn’t see anything problematic.” 

Stacey was generous, and she shared an unprompted idea with me.

I may of completely misinterpreted the theme, but I don’t know how likely it is for a Caribbean grandma to to take her grandson to a drag show and give him pearls after catching him in drag the first time. I think this story minimizes the real struggle LBGTQ members face in Caribbean culture where many of them are not accepted by society as they are in America. 

The ease in which Julián’s abuela accepts and encourages him to show his whole self might be something the author put into the book as a wish or hope. But, by creating this almost immediate acceptance, Jessica Love negated the real struggle so many Latinx LGBTQ people must go through. Is that is the message the author is trying to send? Probably. But, it lands flat to me. For me, this comes from a place of privilege that would rather a mermaid trope carry the message and ignore the very real issues at work.

Which lead me to a completely different Stacy and her colleague who helped me think about the whole mermaid deal. Stacy Collins (@darkliterata), who can be found over on the blog Medal on My Mind. I had lots of questions about the book.

Was this some sort of Trans Tail (Get it? Tale … like a story? and Tail like a mermaid? Sorry, I had no choice, the pun had to be written. I don’t make the rules). I get that there is a transformative narrative to mermaids, but if we are looking at a picturebook about a trans girl, or a gender fluid child, then why is Julián gendered on the very first page as male? Public librarian and friend Kazia Berkley-Cramer (@cateyekazia) pointed out the gendering thing and the fact that it continues throughout the book, even when he puts on a fancy headpiece, tablecloth tail, and big bauble-pearls his abuela hands over to complete his ensemble. She also wanted me to know that families are finding this book helpful and that isn’t nothing. But, for me, I keep looking at this book and I don’t think it is about a trans girl, or a gender fluid kid. It is really about a boy dressing up as a mermaid. Stacy Collins very aptly pointed out, “A fish tail is not inherently feminine, unless Julián wants it to be.”

It is important to point out (which I neglected to the first time this was posted) that Kazia was, overall, an advocate for the book. Her reasons were simple and compelling – her patrons. In her library she keeps the book in the “myself” section and Julián is a Mermaid provides her patrons with a character that they can watch come into being as without being chastised. In the first posting of this piece I neglected to give Kazia’s point a view much air. Probably because it departs from my own, but the fact is, there is a scarcity of books that show any kind of gender fluidity or flexibility with gender roles without punishment. That is a huge concern and, in that case, this book can do good things. (*4)

And, that is an issue I keep running into with this book. It isn’t clear what, if anything, Julián wants to express because this isn’t really Julián’s story. It is Jessica Love’s story, a story of a young Dominican boy, playing dress up or constructing himslelf, as imagined by a White, cis woman who brings her identity to the work, and with her identity comes her outsider’s gaze.

And, I think that is what bothers me the most. It isn’t JUST that Jessica Love isn’t a trans person of color. It is that there is no where in the book where I am not aware that this is another book about looking AT a trans body. The transformation of the body is a huge fixation, almost a fetish, for cis folks. We just can’t seem to get that it isn’t only about changing the body. Being trans is too complicated to reduce to a single idea or experience – not matter how hard we try as cis folks to make it just about the ONE THING (*2). The intrusive gaze on Julián’s private transformation wasn’t obvious to me. Instead, a young woman pointed it out to me and in that moment I knew the truth of it.

Indigo, a 16 year old trans girl (ugh, when do teens stop being boys and girls? I still call my sons’ friends boys and they are 15 and 16, so I’m going to stick with girl) who tweeted out under the Children of the Glades twitter handle dropped a truth bomb that continues to stick with me. They are a group of teens that identify as “Florida Seminole & Miccosukee” who are reading children’s and YA literature and giving scholars, teachers, librarians and other literary gatekeepers some enormous things to think about.

Indigo 2Indigo looked at the objectification of yet another “brown femme” body and felt danger there. Do I think that is what the author meant? No. But, it is more important to listen to what Indigo saw and felt as she read. I’d love to ask Indigo about the way she was reading this image – what gave her the creeps? Was it the heavy lidded eyes, so often associated with “bedroom eyes”? The fact that Julián is nearly naked in his tighty whities? Maybe the blush on his cheeks? When I start reading, seriously reading this image with this and some of the other commentary Indigo put out on Twitter, I began to get an inkling. I suspect the issue is the intimacy we, as outsiders, read and bear witness to seeing Julián build his gender representation from the world of his grandmother’s house.

I had a lot of things I wanted to ask Indigo. She was generous in her critique, to let it out into the Twitter-verse for all to see and I feel especially lucky that I saw it, read it, reached out to her and the other Glade teens.

I have a lot of things I still want to ask Indigo about, a lot of books I want to know what she thinks of, like Alex Gino’s new You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P. , and Rebecca Roanhorse’s Trail of Lightning. She was excited to find out that my main interest is in comics and graphic novels, so there was a whole world that was open to us to talk about … especially the new Captain Marvel movie!

But I can’t.

I can’t because she’s gone. Because, like too many queer teens and too many Native teens, and too many two spirit teens, she saw no way to survive, to move forward (Twitter announcement) . As Alexis:18 writes, “Indigo made a split-second decision that stopped her transitioning life. I know she wanted other Native 2SQ [two spirit] teens to get there.”

And so, selfishly, I mourn (*1) Indigo’s death for what I lost. Mourning for her, a teen so close to my own son’s age, feels too large and hard for me to do all at once. For her friends and family, I cannot begin to know how they feel. If I am affected by the loss of her potential, they are living with the gravity of the loss in ways I cannot know.

So, yes, Jessica Love wrote and illustrated a book that may or may not be about a young, gender fluid child, trying to find their way in the world. But, I can’t shake the feeling that this is simply not her story to write, and in the act of writing the book, she once again laid claim to what was not hers.

Rest in peace and power Indigo.

Footnotes of changes

  1. Updated: September 24, 2018 7:48 pm
    — Added Coney Island Mermaid parade
    — Tried to better explain grief.
  2. Updated: September 24, 2018 8:08 pm
    — Not surprising, I misrepresented trans experience in paragraph 5.
  3. Updated: 9/24/18 9:57 pm — many typos.
  4. Updated: 9/25/18 1:38 pm — added more information about positive librarian views

Representation: Raising the Bar

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I write with the idea that teachers will read my scholarship. That includes peer reviewed articles, invited pieces, and this blog. So, when I write, I am always talking to teachers who are the influencers on what gets read in the classroom. Now, don’t get me wrong there are others who read my scholarship — librarians, parents, other scholars — and that’s great but I’m in teacher education for a reason.

They (who are THEY anyway?) say numbers don’t lie – but I’d say they only tell part of the story. The numbers on the teacher  representation are undeniable …. it is a White world in teacher education. The latest statistics show a little over 80% of teachers are White, and 77% are women (Taie and Goldring, 2018) and that isn’t likely to change anytime soon. At the same time, 51% of students are non-White and that number is increasing in every state. Here is what we also know, teacher expectation is a huge predictor of student outcomes, and White teachers expect less of Black and Latinx students (Boser, Wilhelm, and Hanna 2014).

What can we do? Each of us must think about how we can change education to best serve all students. For me that means I spend a lot of time developing ways to help teachers shift their ideas about literature in the classroom. One area I spend a LOT of time thinking and writing about is graphic novels – novel length narratives (both non-fiction and fiction) created in comics form.  I think of graphic novels as the grandchild of comic strips, and the child of comic books.

It is important to think about the form and the history of the form. Comics, at least here in the United States of America, have a long history of being by and for White, straight men. But, the readership has changed in the last 25 years. Although the leading comic book publishers (DC and Marvel) don’t want to face the fact that the readership has grown beyond White, straight guys, that is exactly what has happened. But, publishing is a conservative business, so changing it is like steering a cruise ship in an ocean of Jello. It is slow to change direction and takes a hell of a lot of work.

I recently saw a tweet from National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) that featured this image ….

DjNG0tLUwAA2ilY

I was excited at first and then disappointed. This is the kind of emotional roller coaster I am all too familiar with and it goes something like this ….

  1. Hey! Look! Graphic novels in my Twitter feed!
  2. Wow – from NCTE. Big dealio! Getting some traction here!
  3. That’s a really White list of books.
  4. That’s a really male list of books.
  5. Ugh … now everyone is re-tweeting.
  6. Ugh …. Dammit       stitch

Let me explain. I have been keeping a database of graphic novels published for k-12 readers. It started with a focus on books with protagonists that were women and girls, but it has grown. It is this huge pile of data that I wade into every once in a while and muck around in. I have added all sort of items – such as the race and gender of authors and illustrations; the total number of identifiable characters by gender, race, and if they speak. I’m trying to develop a way to measure the quality of representations (this is still a work in progress). It’s a lot … and I’m not sure what the data is showing me yet.

Measure for Measure – Representation 

When I saw the Tweet from Matt (no last name found) who originally posted the list on Upper Elementary Snapshots, I took a quick scan of the titles and groaned. I groaned outloud and probably grabbed my head. Why, you may ask, because the post is all about using graphic novels in all the right ways. But … But … the actual list of recommended books is just soooooooooo White, male centric …. just monolithic and typical. All I could think about was the students in the classrooms of the teachers who read the Tweet and see that NCTE tag and think, “hey, that looks like a great list!”

The Bechdel Test (Sarkeesian, 2009) is a really low bar to measure the representation of women in media – it isn’t about quality, it is only focused on the mere presence of women in media (films, TV, and in this case, books). It goes something like this:

  1. Are there at least 2 named female characters who;
  2. speak to each other;
  3. about something other than a man.

It is a really, really, really low bar. Sometimes that is what we are dealing with – the lowest of low bars and I think we really need to be doing better than this. I mean, think about the ABSOLUTE minimum you are willing to provide for your students, and then look at this list another way.

Graphic Novel Series Creators in This Classroom

Corinne Duyvis came up with the idea of  #OwnVoices in 2015. She suggested the hashtag “to recommend kidlit about diverse characters written by authors from that same diverse group.” The idea that marginalized people are better equipped to tell those stories has become much more contentious then I think anyone expected. But, when we see lists like this, it is important to look at who the authors and illustrators are, who’s voices are being heard, and who’s are not.

I waded into my database and pulled the titles Matt listed as “series” and “single story” graphic novels and created some charts.

Graphic Novel Authors – Series and Single Stories 

A IL by race

Take a look at who is writing the graphic novels that Matt uses in his classroom.

Out of the 33 creators – some books had an author and illustrator(s) – 27 are White, one Black* and three Asians. No Latinx, Indigenous, or Middle Eastern.

 

NCTE AI

In addition to the authors being overwhelmingly White, these books are primarily written and illustrated by

men. This monochromatic selection is not a reflection of what is available in graphic novels. It is a reflection of what this teacher chose for his students.

Protagonists – Series

Series Protag raceThe protagonists in these graphic novel series that Matt selected for his class and recommended for your classes, the results were just as disappointing. The vast majority of the characters were either White or NOT HUMAN. That’s right, you have a better chance of seeing yourself reflected in these books if you are a talking rabbit or a Yeti, rather than Latinx, Black, Asian, Indigenous/Native American, or Middle Eastern person.

Series Protag Gender

Additionally, looking at these protagonists I found they were overwhelmingly male. There were no gender non-conforming characters, and no LGBTQ protagonists to be had across these series.

Just … ugh.

 

 

Protagonists – Single Story

ss-by-gender-e1532917933557.jpgThe “single story” graphic novels on the list were a bit different when it came to gender. Here there are more female protagonists. There were still no no gender non-conforming characters, and the 2 LGBTQ characters (both male) were written by a straight woman.

 

SS BY RACE

There were no non-humans in these books. But, the clear majority of these protagonists are, once again, overwhelmingly White. The 3 Latinx protagonists were from the same, hugely problematic graphic novel – Ghosts. You can read about the issues here on my blog, and here on Dr. Debbie Reese’s blog.

Take Aways

Matt, the teacher who posted the list, is trying to provide interesting, engaging, and complex literature for his students. He is trying to open space for his students. But, he forgot that all literature, including graphic novels, are not culturally neutral.

Students need to read a wide range of authentic representations of genders, sexual orientations, abilities, races, and ethnicities. That needs to be non-negotiable because our students deserve no less.

 

* Thank you for the careful read Mary Reilley Clark, @SEMSLibraryLady, and the catch. I mistakenly wrote that there were 3 Black authors, there is only 1.

References

Boser, U., Wilhelm, M., & Hanna, R. (n.d.). The Power of the Pygmalion Effect. Retrieved July 29, 2018, from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-k-12/reports/2014/10/06/96806/the-power-of-the-pygmalion-effect/

Sarkeesian, A. (2009, December 7). The Bechdel test for women in movies. Retrieved August 1, 2010, from http://www.feministfrequency.com/2009/12/the-bechdel-test-for-women-in-movies/

Taie, S., and Goldring, R. (2018). Characteristics of Public Elementary and Secondary School Teachers in the United States: Results From the 2015–16 National Teacher and Principal Survey First Look (NCES 2017-072rev). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved July 2018 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.ap?pubid=2017072rev.

7% is Not a Solution

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I must confess, I have a special place in my heart for big stats. Not for the reasons most researchers will give – I don’t think the TRUTH lies within big numbers. No. But, I think massive amounts of data can give us two dimension of a story – sort of the breadth and width of things. And, in this case, the THING I am looking at today are picturebooks. To be precise – I’m looking at Great #OwnVoices Picturebooks.

The Cooperative Children’s Book Center is the children’s literature go to organization for Big Data. Publishers both big and small send books to the CBCC all year and the librarians (both staff and students) count all the things. The annual collection consists of “books typically available for sale to public schools and public libraries”.

As you can see, with a few exceptions (2004-05, 2013) there has been a steady increase in the number of children’s books published in the United States of America.
CCBC total chart
Too many publishers, scholars, authors, editors, librarians, and teachers have told us – People of Color, Native Americans, the LGBTQ community, people with disabilities, and non-neurotypical people – to wait our turn. We’ve been told that change takes times, and above all else, to give authors, editors, and publishers the benefit of the doubt. It stands to reason, if we wait for the market to grown, then the pie gets bigger, and the bigger the pie, the more share I get. Right? Right!?! RIGHT!?!?!?!?

Well, the results from the CCBC 2017 count is in and it is a freakin’ crime (thanks to Lee and Low for putting tother this infographic). I want to draw people attention to this bit, down here, near the bottom of the image …. you see that?

Childrens Books Infographic 2016

7%.
Seven. Siete. Sept. S-E-V-E-N. As in the 7 Deadly Sins kind of seven.

I’m not giving up and I know my colleagues are committed to educating literary gatekeepers to recognize the need for a rich variety of diverse #OwnVoices literature in classrooms and libraries. In addition, the authors aren’t stopping anytime soon. Providing children and young adults with a wide array of authentic representation is a change that will make us a better society – full stop.

Unfortunately, White writers and editors are freakin out about SEVEN PERCEPT! of children’s books that are published being by and about under represented communities. They are clutching pearls, and asking to see all the managers, because they are threatened by the very idea that we are demanding a wide array of representation written by the people being represented. Please see Nora Baskin’s Ted X talk for the best of this not-isolated-at-all-flaming-trash-heap of White fragility in action.

Instead of understanding #OwnVoices they decided White authors should write random non-White, non-straight, disabled, non-neurotypical characters, as long as those characters are just like them. You know, “normal”, which is White code for “White, like me.”

Instead of leaving you with this dismal state of affairs, I want to highlight some #OwnVoices picturebooks that you need for your library and classroom. In addition, I am going to URGE you to go to Goodreads and Amazon to post reviews!

Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-NealAlma, by Juana Martinez-Neal

This picturebook just made me feel good about being Latina. Alma is a little girl with a big name – Alma Sofia Esperanza José Pura Candela. This book is a beautiful and loving illustration of the ways Latinx names recognize and honor our histories.

The illustrations by Martinez-Neal are striking in their quiet grace. Using what looks like pencil and charcoal Martinez-Neal brings a vibrancy to the lives of Alma’s ancestors, as well as to the ways she identifies and connects with them.

Goodreads, Amazon

WWWA_Seals_WebWhen We Were Alone by David Robertson and Julie Flett.

I used this book with my children’s literature classes because of the complex and subtle narrative structure. This book gave me, a non-indigenous person, a small glimpse of the fallout from the cultural genocide boarding schools perpetrated on Native Americans and First Nations people. (And yes, it was genocide. Calling it anything else and you are just trying to make yourself feel better).

The book features a young girl hanging out with her Kókom (grandmother) and asking her why does things like grow flowers, wear a long braid, and laugh with her brother. The reasons are all bound to her Kókom’s time in boarding school. Throughout the picturebook there are tensions: the simple premise and the hard subject matter; the plain faces and the expressiveness of those faces; the colorful beauty of the little girl and her Kókom alongside the drab and faded look to the boarding school images. Flett’s illustrations could be used as a master class in mood – a notoriously difficult literary concept to teach across k-12 English Language Arts classrooms. The changes in color palette from the present to the past signals the changes in time, place, and mood to the reader.

Goodreads, Amazon

 

A dif Pond

A Different Pond by Bao Phi and Thi Bui

Phi’s intimate story of an early morning fishing trip with his father is told in sparse text and rich colors. The gentle ways the story unfolds keeps many readers engaged and enthralled.

The deep melancholy of the book makes it stand out among children’s book. A tired young boy and his father getting up before day break to fish is familiar story. What makes A Different Pond unique is that it takes a common story and tells it from an immigrant’s point of view. The boy references his father’s accent (Vietnamese) “A kid at my school said my dad’s English sounds like a thick, dirty river.” The father tells the baitman, who he obviously knows well, that he’s got a second job. What surprises many readers is that this family is fishing not for sport, or fun but for sustenance. They talk about how difficult immigrating to the United States has been and why it is worth it for their family. And, by taking the young Bao Phi with him, this father is including him in his love and care for the family.

Goodreads, Amazon

 

#KidLitWomen: An Open Letter to Well-Meaning White Women

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 Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.

-Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
16 April, 1963

 

In King’s 1963 Letter from a Birmingham Jail he called out the what he referred to as “white moderates”. He held nothing back when he called out white moderate BS, “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice.” Sound familiar?Today, in Children’s literature and other spaces, we deal with what I like to call  Well Meaning White Folks (WMWF) who deal with social justice issues by gaslighting, tone policing, and outright hypocrisy. These are the WMWF who support change as long as that change in no way calls for self reflection or action.

TonePolice

No, We Won’t “Calm Down” by Robot Hugs.

I can always tell when I am dealing  with WMWF by their rallying cry “be nice” or “choose kindness”, as if the act of calling out racism, misogyny, ableism and homophobia is the problem and not the act of racism, misogyny, ableism and homophobia. King was on to this BS when he wrote, “Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.” [emphasis added].

As a proud Latina lesbian and member of today’s Call Out Culture I gain solace by reading King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Lately, some horrible truths have come out, specifically, Anne Ursu’s article highlighting the prevalence of #MeToo moments in professional #kidlit spaces. The resulting fallout and backlash has been hard to watch for many reasons including the defensive reactions of  WMWF who don’t want to air out, talk about, reflect on, believe, or change the engrained male* dominated power structures.

Unchecked Entitlement, Privilege, and Power

Recently a White male author, Marc Tyler Nobleman was called out on social media for participating in an all-White, all-male panel at a Children’s literature conference in 2018. He was so hurt by the public discussion of his actions that he decided to write a blog post about it. Let me be clear, Marc Tyler Nobleman, like many WMWF, claims to be an ally. So, when he was called out, his immediate response was to pull bucket after bucket from the seemingly endless well of defensive phrases that WMWF have at their disposal. He began by defending his choice of participating in an all-male, all-White panel with the ultimate in weak-tea excuses, “I did not think to ask who else was presenting.”

He pulls suggestions right out of the Protect the White Male Status Quo! handbook, “Rather than start with public shaming or snark, instead contact the event organizer and participants directly and privately to express the concern civilly.” Let’s be clear Well Meaning White Folks are more invested in protecting their uncontested vantage point of privilege than in changing a system that keeps them there.

To be sure, the status quo in Children’s literature is that White, male, straight, and able are the norms and should be left unquestioned and unchallenged. Look at any professional Children’s literature space – from conferences to classrooms – who are the vast majority of people in those spaces? Well Meaning White Women (WMWW). And who is pretty damn quick to come to the defense of men called out in these #MeToo moments? WMWW. Perhaps White women in Children’s literature are invested in protecting the status quo because they enjoy the privilege of being adjacent to the unchecked entitlement of men.

No one is unaffected by the colonizing social structures that are in place and protected by the status quo. All of us are responsible for upholding White male dominance at one point or another in our lives. What many of us are asking for now is for WMWF to have the hard conversations, look at their own actions, and believe us when we tell you, “that is not ok and here are all the reasons why”.

Honestly, this #MeToo in Children’s lit is missing an important conversation that I suspect has been happening on a separate and parallel whisper network. I have been part of conversations about the discomfort of unchecked entitled behavior of White women, specifically towards Black male authors. I have seen White women^ (and yes, it has always been White women^) approach Black male authors and

– Stroke biceps
– Press boobs against arms and/or shoulders while taking selfies
– Touch his hair (including braids, dreads, afros, and facial hair)
– Stroke his bald head (seriously? WTF is that about?)
– Sidle up as he’s talking to a small group of people, and move a hand across his lower back/upper butt region
– Touch his butt

4016555559_0cb50599b3_z1.jpgAll of this was done silently and without consent. (There is also some really weird lesbian fetishizing but Malinda Lo covered that over on Twitter). And, before the pearl clutching begins, I know this is NOT the same as the #MeToo incidents in Anne Ursu’s piece, or the ones in the comment section of the School Library Journal piece. The reason this is important for our professional community to think about is that Black men live with the very real memory of Emmet Till and the White woman who’s statements got him killed. They live with the fetishizing of Black bodies by White people. This is another, different, way unchecked entitlement makes us all lesser.

Actions We All Need to Take

I am not going to ask you to sign a petition, or put on a pin or buy a ribbon. Instead, I am going to provide some helpful and actionable items for all of us.

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First, if you think someone is on the receiving side of unwelcome attention and fetishizing you can open a safe space for them. Here is a helpful comic by Maeril. It is specific to Islamophobia but I think it works in pretty much every situation when people are behaving with unchecked entitlement.
– Make eye contact with the person BEING intruded upon
– stand next to or near the person BEING intruded upon
– Engage the person BEING intruded upon in conversation

And what should you do if you find yourself wanted to subject someone else with unasked for physical attention? You should ask for consent. This seems like a good plan for everyone in professional spaces … or any space, really. Ask before handling anyone, even if the handling is under the guise of flirting, humor, or as a result of that heady mix of alcohol and hotel keys.

And just in case you are confused, consent means saying the words that specify what you want to do and waiting until you get enthusiastic, verbal agreement. It would look something like this;
– “May I stroke your bicep?”
– “Ok if I put my arm around you and rest my hand on your ass?”
– “Can I rub your bald head?”
– “Is it ok if I press my breasts up against you?”

If you, Well Meaning White Women, feel embarrassed by asking a Black man for consent at a public book signing or other professional space thus putting your desire for physical contact with him into the of “light of human conscience and the air of national opinion” then you should not be doing it at all.

*I know not all men. And, I also know some women. Don’t start with that.
^I know not all White women. Don’t start with that, either.

 

The Single Story of “Part-Time Indian”

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Everyone agrees with Chimamanda Adichie when she warns of the Danger of a Single Story in her oft cited, taught, and shared TED Talk. The talk was released in 2009 and took the progressive world by storm – which means lots of sharing on social media, thumbs upping, and echoes of “absolutely” across micro-breweries and small batch coffee shops alike. On this morning (March 7, 2018) there are 14,607,326 views on the TED Talk site  putting her at #24 of the top 25 most popular talks of all times.

Keep in mind, this list is not about the TED Talks that have been produced, instead it is what we, the viewers and sharers watch and show that we value. There are 10 women and 15 men – if your reaction is “great!” please think about the fact that this is still less than half, and none are gender non-conforming. In addition, the list is ridiculously White. Like, I laughed and then I got mad, and then I started to laugh again but not in a good why WHITE.  Adichie is the ONLY Black speaker on the list and the ONLY Woman of Color on the list, and one of only two people of color, along with Pranav Mistry. In other words, TED talk viewers love the single story of people of color.

I bring this up because of there is an extremely popular single story about THE Native American experience published in 2007. You know the one. The author, Sherman Alexie has been shown to be a repeat sexual harasser. If you want to read through the whole  bunch of ugly go to Debbie Reese’s open letter.  She has done an excellent job collecting and cataloging the big deal.

I want to address the wailing I have seen that come down to “Well, if I can’t teach that book what am I going to do?!?!?!”

First off, DON’T PANIC. There are other books by and about Native Americans. Historical fictions, memoir, realistic fiction … all of it. The fact that you do NOT know about anything besides Alexie’s books is your responsibility. You had one book and you stayed with it. It was your comfort zone or Zone of Proximal Comfort (ZPC) (yes, that is a Vygotsky riff^). It is time to break out of your own ZPC and by doing so you are going to be able to  begin (or continue) dismantling the single story about Native American and Indigenous communities that is comfortable.

Here are some books that you should read and bring into your classrooms:

Trickster Cover

Trickster
Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection

I reviewed this book 5 years ago and I still use it (here is a link). In my original review I wrote,  “The individual stories are short, disruptive in the brevity of language and the wide array of artistic styles. The stories follow each other, bouncing from an almost creation story about Coyote disrupting the arrangement of  stars in the sky, to a tale of a mean crow kicking sea anemones,to a Choctaw tale about how rabbit got a tiny tail. And many other stories, all providing another tale, another style, another look at the world.” and that pretty much still stands. Buy it. Read it. Share it.

NotYourPrincess_Cover

Looking for something for older readers? Look no further than #NotYourPrincess edited by Lisa Charlieboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale (here is my review). In my original review I wrote, “This is truly a multimodel text. The images are integral to this collection. They are not separate from the words. Instead, both interact in familiar ways and I found myself using the same kinds of strategies and skills I use to read graphic novels. Many of the photos feature Indigenous women looking directly at the reader, along with narratives that directly address the reader, thus breaking the 4th wall. This is a powerful choice to make, to draw the reader in and now allow the comfort of detachment.

If I ever get out

How about a buddy book, set in the 70s, for middle schoolers? If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth is that book. It deserves so much love, as well as a second or third read. Gansworth weaves music like Queen, David Bowe, and Wings into the lives of two pretty normal, if not completely different, teen boys. It is a quite and elegant treatment of Native American reservation life as nuanced, loving, and complicated instead of simply violent and desperate. In addition, there is a military kid, dads and sons, lots of conflict and a fair amount of cooperation.
Best of all there is a sequel! Give Me Some Truth will be coming out in May, 2018! Here is your chance to pre-order.

NR logoI’m reading and will be reviewing two books by published by Native Realities Press. They have been on my “to read” pile and I am finally getting to them. The first one is Tales of the Might Code Talkers which I have read and I will be teaching this semester. The second is a wordless comic, The Wool of Jonesy by Jonathan Nelson which a few of my students have read and been moved by the complexity and heartbreak of it.

If you want to do some of your own exploration, I suggest you head over to Debbie Reese’s blog American Indians in Children’s Literature. There you will find what you have been missing because you have been resting, comfortably, in your single story.

 

^ Vygotsky was a psychologist who came up with a way of looking at learning with and without help. He called it the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), which can be thought of as the difference between what a learner can do with no help and what they can do with help.

Graphic Novels to Share: Bingo Love

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Comics are the medium or form – images and words working together, bounded by panel, to communicate. Any story can be told using the comics form, just as any story can be told in paintings, film, poetry, or traditional print-text novels. I study graphic novels, but lately I am not sure that term means what I think it means.

When I say graphic novels I mean long-form comics that are not Manga or comic books (sometimes known as floppies). But, the problem of defining a form that is constantly changing and evolving, like graphic novels, is that it is like trying to determine a toddler’s shoe size while chasing them around Disneyland. There is so much movement, excitement, fear, and joy that the point of the event (defining, this gaining clarity) is sometimes lost on the need to impose a structure.

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The issue I am butting up against this week is what about trades? Trades are usually comic book story arcs that are originally  published as a set of floppies and then is published – without all the ads and previews – in a “graphic novel edition”. Examples are DC Comic’s Batwoman: Elegy (Rucka, Williams, & Jones, 2010), and more recently Marvel’s AMERICA: The Life and Times of America Chavez (Rivera et al., 2017). In other words, the big two (Marvel and DC) are putting out trades by the truckload (all the while canceling comic book series that feature people of color – but that is for a later post).

Trades are also being published by smaller presses and independent comic artists with the help of crowdsourced funding. One such project is Tee Franklin and Jenn St-Onge’s graphic novel Bingo Love  (published by Image Comics).

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There is a lot to love about this graphic novel (I’m writing this post, so I’m calling it a graphic novel). The book opens with a large panel showing a young woman crying and being comforted by an older woman. The scene takes place in “Jenkins Home for Seniors in 2038”. The young woman has been kicked out of her home for “liking girls”. I have to admit that this opening had me worried. But, the older woman, Hazel, begins talking about when she first met the love of her life, Mari in 1963 at church bingo.

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The story is told from Hazel’s point of view and so we see her attraction burst forth beginning with the first time she sees Mari. Although they are in middle school, it is clear to Hazel that she doesn’t simply like Mari as a friend. Instead she realizes pretty quickly that she’d like to marry Mari and live happily ever after.

The pacing of the book is the only thing that keeps it from being great. There are quick jumps in time that are accomplished by collages that show the progression. These quick jumps in the emotional narrative are a bit jarring and I wish Franklin took more time and space to develop the characters, including the minor characters, and the setting.

The girls grow up as best friends, but their friendship does’t change until they are older, perhaps seniors in high school. One day they have their first kiss, they confess their mutual love for each other, and get in trouble for that love. Both girls are told they cannot see the other. Hazel is ready to run away with Mari and make a life. Mari hesitates and all is lost.

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We see Hazel get married to James, and by the time she was 38 she had three kids, was miserable and still dreaming of Mari. We see Hazel and James’s kids grow, have kids, and then, one Mother’s Day she goes to bingo with her daughter and then BAM … Mari enters the story again. The two women who shared a first kiss almost 50 years ago are reunited. But, not everyone is happy about the reunification of lost love … especially Hazel’s daughter, Marian.

This time Mari is ready to commit. The next section of the book is amazing. Love blossoms but it isn’t without complication. Hazel deals with her feelings, goes to therapy (which is something we rarely see PoC do in any sort of media!). Hazel begins to move away from the life without Mari and begins building a new life that includes love and her family.

The narrative focuses on women’s lives and their humanity. One woman is shown breastfeeding, another as her water breaks as well as just after she gives birth (there is even an umbilical cord!). Perhaps most importantly Hazel and Mari are shown as fully realized people with desires, humor, hunger, and even stinky feet.

One panel brings tears to my eyes every time. I want to spend some time on it here to explain why this book is important – important to bring into the classroom.Wedding_BL.jpg

Look at all these women. Look carefully. What do you see? I see a multitude of shades, body types, ages, and sexual identities in one space enjoying life and celebrating love. This graphic novel celebrates the loving relationship of two older, black lesbians.

Books: Keep or Toss (Vol 4)

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I use the term Booktoss as a way to communicate to the Literary Gatekeepers that we need to be willing to see the problems with books and toss some of them aside.

Decelerate Blue by Adam Rapp and Mike Cavallaro

There are a few consistencies in my life. Truisms about myself that I take for granted.  I have always looked White and been Latinx. I’ve always been really strong and fat. I have been gay since before I knew what it meant to be a lesbian. I grew up expecting NOT to see my stories, but always in the lookout. I swooned when the Bionic man kissed the Bionic Woman – not because I wanted to BE him, but I sure as hell wanted to kiss her.

Constantly searching for signs of LGBTQ life, characters, and yes, even romance was a constant. Discovering #ownstories published by small presses and sold out of lesbian bookstores that smelled of candles, hemp, and essential oil, sold non-ironic macramé, and specialized in the production of purple clothing was a rite of passage. It was rare to see any representation of LGBTQ folks existing in media and when we did make it to the page or the screen there were a few, consistent tropes: we were single and funny, a murderer, crazy and destined for some institution, or dead (sometimes combos). And, overwhelmingly White.

So, yeah, I came of age when the bar for LGBTQ representation is pretty low.

We are all products of a homophobic, racist, and misogynistic society so these tropes are hard to recognize and even harder to de-colonize from our minds. If you are looking for a graphic novel that breaks from these expected tropes don’t bother with Decelerate Blue.

ToD Blue Cover be honest, it looks promising. The cover is a study of blues. There is what looks like a human heart in the center, with two young women facing each other, touching foreheads, in an embrace. The young women are flanked by much more violent images that make up a slightly recessed background and are colored in a darker blue. On the left, three people are holding long knives and looking determined, above their heads are hands grasping something between thumb and for-finger. On the other side, there are people in riot gear, attack dogs, and a young man getting arrested.

For those who have read Jane Yolen’s Foiled! and Curses! Foiled, Again!! you might recognize Mike Cavallaro’s illustrations. Angela, the 15-year-old protagonist, looks similar to Aliera from Foiled.

Angela lives in a future that values speed above all else. Movies last 15 minutes and are positively reviewed as hyper! Quick isn’t good enough, things have to be fastest! Literature is reduced to “brief lit”. This hyper existence is punctuated by short bursts of dialogue with each speaker signaling the end of an idea with “GO!”. This active and distracted life results in less time spent digesting what they consume – both mentally and physically. Heart rates are monitored, sleep is modified to keep everyone sped up, hyped up, and distracted.

Angela is a rebel and, as rebels often do, she finds herself in a literal underground community that values slowing down and is attempting to disrupt the hyper-commercialism, speed driven society. They practice meditation, eat farm to table, and crave a slower pace. Angela finds Gladys and romance blooms – in three days they are ready to declare their love, spend all their time together, and plan art projects. Seems pretty on par with most lesbian relationships.

SPOILER!!!

At some point things get creepy – and not in a good way. The underground rebels decide to take an experimental drug – Decelerate Blue – that quickens the slowing of their physiology – including their heart rate. Get it? They can’t wait to slow down, so they have to take a drug to make the process of slowing down go faster. When the three leaders tell the entire community to take this drug – which no one has ever heard of – they all comply. The followers are willing to take a drug, en mass, because their leaders tell them to. This was too much like the People Temple mass suicide/murder overseen by Jim Jones in 1978. The image of a bunch of young people ingesting a drug on the say-so of their leaders is only one of the serious issues I have with this graphic novel.

Just after feeding each other the pill and laying down to wait for the effects to take hold the underground compound is attacked by security forces in riot gear wielding batons and dogs. The attack is vicious, and to no lesbian’s surprise, Angela and Gladys are separated. Angela sees Gladys taken down by a dog, her hand outstretched, her eyes fading. Angela is saved, the underground caves are filled in with ultra-quick drying cement thus sealing the fate of the entire community. After that, Angela is told her parents have arranged for her to be institutionalized to help her get over her behavior. She escapes, heads back to the entrance of the underground compound, and overdoses on the remaining Decelerate Blue.

Yeah. So that happened.

We, as adults, need to demand better from the books that represent mis- and under-represented communities. We need to insist on more substance than this tired collection of damaging tropes. Lesbians deserve to live. Period. We deserve books that show our lives are worthy and worthwhile. This is not that book.

Books: Keep or Toss (Vol 3)

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I use the term Booktoss as a way to communicate to the Literary Gatekeepers (read that as adults with money to spend on books) that we need to be willing to see the problems with books and toss some of them aside. There are always books I want to keep, and hold, and reread, and share. Those are the ones I pass along to parents, teachers, librarians, and most importantly children. Books that provide authentic views of lives and people and events. Books that are complex, complicated, heartfelt and heartening. Because there are authors who don’t find it necessary to tear down, dehumanize, objectify, or rely on tired stereotypes about mis- or under-communities for their books.

As a child, growing up in Southern California in the 70s, I saw no books that featured Chicano, Mexican, or Latinx characters. None … zero. When my own kids came along in 2002 and 2005 I looked for picturebooks with latinx  characters, but ended up settling for books with non-white characters. There still wasn’t much.

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The official news from 2015 still isn’t good. There aren’t a lot of picturebooks that feature Latinx characters. In fact, you are more likely to see a talking rabbit than a Chicano kid in a book. Even given the scarcity exemplified in the CCBC infographic above the quality of the characters are also a HUGE question mark.

And, if the words … “But, what about SkippyJon Jones?” are about to come out of your mouth, just stop. SkippyJon isn’t Latinx. There is no connection between Latinx culture and a talking Siamese cat that goes into the closet, dons an outfit, and then hangs out with a gaggle of imaginary dogs. There just isn’t. If you want to read about the problematic nature of the inauthentic representation in the books, read these blogs:

Skippyjon Jones: Transforming a Racist Stereotype into an Industry

The problema with Skippyjon Jones

Speaking “Mexican” and the use of “Mock Spanish” in Children’s Books (or Do Not Read Skippyjon Jones)

So, what should you be reading? You may ask? I’ll show you ….

Princesa and the Pea CoverLa Princesa and the Pea written by Susan Middleton Elyr and illustrated by Juana Matinez-Neal.

It is a retelling of a popular tale – the princess and the pea – set in a Peruvian village. The authors use mostly English with some Spanish throughout the book. The queen is la Reina (Spanish for the Queen) and she’s got some serious control issues around her son, el Príncipe  (the Prince).

The story aligns with the familiar time worn tale. Elyr uses a simple and effective rhyme scheme to move the story along.  She seamlessly includes  Spanish words into the rhymes and, perhaps most importantly, the words are not translate them on the page. Instead, they are red and there is a glossary at the end of the book, if you need it. I would not go as far to say this is a bilingual book, but I would say it is a book that appreciate the Spanish language.

What elevates this book, for me, is Juana Matinez-Neal’s illustrations. They are gorgeous, intricate, and funny. I mean, really, laugh out loud, funny.

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First there is la Reina, she is not pleased. She wears a red llicila (shawl) with a repeated pattern of little people on it, and a deep red montera (hat) that often hosts her cat, who is equally unimpressed. No woman is ever going to be good enough for her son, and she seems always on the verge of pinching or throwing a shoe (although, I may be giving her some of my own abuela’s attributions).

Juana Matinez-Neal has lovingly given us a book that reflects her culture. She includes a vast array of woven patterns, deep reds and oranges throughout. But, most importantly, she provides people who represent a spectrum of Peruvian-ness.

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Some of the characters wear chullos (hats with ear flaps) while some women are wearing montera (wide brimmed hats that form a sort of bowl). The peoples skin tones are all different shades which shows the reader diversity even within a single ethnicity. Oh, and the chickens, roosters, and guinea pigs that are in constant motion provide yet another reason to come back to this book over and over again.

So, if, and when you are willing to ditch SkippyJon Jones in favor of actual latinx representations, start with La Princesa and the Pea.

After reading La Princesa, you’ll be ready for even more authentic Latinx kid literature! Among my favorite is Yuyi Morales’s Niño Wrestles the World, and the followup Rudas: Niño’s Horrendous hermanitas! 

I found a YouTube video of the author reading her book and it is wonderful.

This, again, is not strictly a bi-lingual book but Morales uses Spanish throughout the book, and again without translations. In addition, she uses iconic Mexican characters, like Cabeza Olmec which looks like the huge Olmec heads found in Veracruz, Mexico. I love the energy, silliness, and wordplay combined with authentic cultural icons – not fake cats and mock accents.

Yuyi Morales is one of those authors who’s books I go back to over and over again. Her books are great for young readers … and anyone else who needs a laugh.

Books: Keep or Toss (Vol 2)

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I use the term Booktoss as a way to communicate to the Literary Gatekeepers (read that as adults with money to spend on books) that we need to be willing to see the problems with books and toss some of them aside. There are always books I want to keep, and hold, and reread, and share. Those are the ones I pass along to parents, teachers, librarians, and most importantly children. Books that provide authentic views of lives and people and events. Books that are complex, complicated, heartfelt and heartening. Because there are authors who don’t find it necessary to tear down, dehumanize, objectify, or rely on tired stereotypes about mis- or under-communities for their books.

NotYourPrincess_Cover#NotYourPrincess:
Voices of Native American Women

Edited by Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale, published by Annick Press

This book is a collection of poetry, essays, and interviews, as well as visuals that include photos, paintings, and collages. Each page or two brings another voice, another  face, another story to the reader.

This is marketed as a YA collection and I think that makes sense for the content. Authors take on many facets of being Indigenous women with an unflinching gaze at the rest of society. At times the images and stories were hard to read, some were funny, some showed a wariness, while others illuminated a way of being and seeing the world. The essays and poetry were fairly easy to read which makes this a great collection to give to older struggling readers and ESL readers.

I did look up the Lexile rating for the book and was surprised to see it set at 910, which loosely translates, to a sixth grade reading level. Remember, reading levels have NOTHING to do with the content, nor with images. They only measure word, sentence and paragraph length, punctuation, and familiarity of words used. My own estimate would have put this collection around a 3rd or 4th grade level, so I was surprised by Lexile’s measure. One reason may be the formatting and grammar in the poetry might be skewing the measure. Another reason may be the use of tribal names such as “Dane Zaa/Cree” (p. 43), and “Haudenosaunee” (p. 65), and even the use of indigenous languages.

Should that affect the reading level? I am not sure. I must admit that as a reader who is unfamiliar with many of the Nations and languages in the collection I had to make a choice – to take the words as they came and assign little meaning to them, or to take the time to look them up, make note, try to understand the regions, tribes, nations and history. I choose the latter and I believe the reading experience was better for it.

This is truly a multimodel text. The images are integral to this collection. They are not separate from the words. Instead, both interact in familiar ways and I found myself using the same kinds of strategies and skills I use to read graphic novels. Many of the photos feature Indigenous women looking directly at the reader, along with narratives that directly address the reader, thus breaking the 4th wall. This is a powerful choice to make, to draw the reader in and now allow the comfort of detachment.

The book can be found here, at Annick Press. I plan on using it in my children’s literature class to show the kinds of poetry that abounds today and to help my students learn the skills they need to read across cultures.

Buy #NotYourPrinces. Support #OwnVoices.