Zetta Elliott's Blog, page 46

WORD! A Caribbean Book Fest 2015

Roundtable

1:00

Space on the Shelf - If you see me looking at books    
A discussion with writers, publishers, educators and caregivers exploring how to bring more diversity into the arena of children’s literature and who shapes the narratives.

Carol Ottley-Mitchell (St. Kitts-Nevis), publisher, CaribbeanReads

Daniel José Older (Cuba), author, The Shadowshaper

Kellie Magnus (Jamaica)
Hosted by the School of Liberal Studies and Education, Medgar Evers College



Young Readers


2:30
The Wonder Years - Who did not sleep to dream
Developing life-long readers with stories which excite the imagination. (Under 12 yrs.)
Tracey Baptiste (US/Trinidad & Tobago), The Jumbies
Kellie Magnus (Jamaica),
Pamela Mordecai (Jamaica)
Ibi Zoboi (Haiti), A is for Ayiti



3:40
Science Fiction to Mysteries – Coming to your house
Identifying self and claiming space in Caribbean Literature for teens and young adult.
Jewel Daniel (St. Kitts – Nevis), Zapped
Zetta Elliott (St. Kitts – Nevis), The Deep
Daniel José Older (Cuba), The Shadowshaper



5:00
Open Mic - I will not still my voice
A stage, a microphone, a poem; a world of possibilities

what really counts

Someone with whom I used to be “friends” on Facebook once claimed that self-published books “never sell over 100 copies.” My initial response was, “So what?” But last night I decided to take a look at my sales reports to see if that’s true of my own self-published books. I’ve put out ten Rosetta Press titles since November 2013 and seven of those titles have sold more than 100 copies—including one that has sold over 3,300. Do I feel vindicated? Not really, because I care just as much about the books that have sales in the single digits (for now). The fact that those books exist means they can still circulate and may yet reach kids who can’t find a story that reflects their reality. One thing that hinders sales is the lack of reviews, which is why it’s heartening when a blogger chooses to review one of my self-published titles. Last year, Cindy Rodgriguez at Latin@s in Kid Lit invited me to write about Afro-Latino identity in Max Loves Muñecas!  Yesterday Ashley Hope Pérez posted a detailed review of the book which includes some great tips for educators. Here are her “two cents:”

Max Loves Muñecas interweaves a number of topics: resisting the constraints of traditional gender roles, child homelessness, resourcefulness and resilience, and the value of cooperation and generosity. In the hands of a lesser writer, these many focal points might overpower a slim chapter book of 72 pages, but Zetta Elliott creates a richly textured narrative world and situations that give readers opportunities to pause, consider their own lives, and reflect on the power of individual choices.

Without reviews, many librarians refuse to acquire books for their collection and yet most reviewers refuse to even consider self-published books. So it means a lot when someone takes my books seriously AND takes time to publicly share their impressions. Last year Deborah Menkart reviewed Max Loves Muñecas! for Rethinking Schools and so today I sent that review along with Ashley’s to the BPL’s and NYPL’s acquisitions managers. Only four of my thirteen books are currently in their collections, so hopefully these reviews will help to get more of my books into more kids’ hands.

In April Elizabeth Bluemle featured An Angel for Mariqua on her Publishers Weekly blog, Shelftalker. Elizabeth has decided to practice what she preaches as a diversity advocate by ensuring that half the books she reads this year are by or about people of color. I’ve corresponded with Elizabeth for a few years now but we finally met in Chicago at the ALSC’s Day of Diversity; I gave her my latest self-published books and was grateful when she later wrote to say how much she enjoyed them. On her blog she wrote:

This book for ages 8-12 reminded me so much of books I loved as a fourth- and fifth-grader, the kind of books that explored in a warm and authentic way life’s problems and pleasures as navigated realistically by a young person I could identify with, even if some particulars of her circumstances were different from my own.

So much for that well-known editor who rejected An Angel for Mariqua on the grounds that readers would find it hard to identify with an angry little girl…

 

We’re the People: Summer Reading 2015

Looking for a fabulous, inclusive, summer reading list for kids of all ages? Then gaze upon this amazing list compiled by Edith Campbell, Sarah Park Dahlen, Debbie Reese, Lyn Miller-Lachmann, Sujei Lugo and Nathalie Mvondo. You can find an annotated list over at Edi’s blog:

Picture Books, Chapter Books and Early Readers

A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara. (Also available in Spanish and Swedish) Triangle Square, 2013. 32 pgs.

Big Red Lollipop by Rukhsana Khan and Sophie Blackall. Viking, 2010. 40 pgs.

Colors of the Wind: The Story of Blind Artist and Champion Runner George Mendoza by J. L. Powers, George Mendoza and Hayley Morgan-Sanders. Purple House Press, 2014. 32 pgs.

Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin by Chieri Uegaki and Qin Leng. Kids Can Press, 2014. 32 pgs.

Hungry Johnny by Cheryl Minnema and Wesley Ballinger. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2014. 32 pgs.

I Love Ugali and Sukuma by Kwame Nyong’o. CreateSpace, 2013. 36 pgs.

Imani’s Moon by Janay Brown-Wood and Hazel Mitchell. Mackinac Island Press, 2014. 32 pgs.

Jazz by Walter Dean Myers and Christopher Myers. Holiday House, 2008. 48 pgs.

Jonathan and His Mommy by Irene Smalls and Michael Hays. Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 1994. 32 pgs.

Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book by Yuyi Morales. Chronicle Books, 2003. 32 pgs.

Lailah’s Lunchbox: A Ramadan Story by Reem Faruqi and Lea Lyon. Tilbury House Publishers, 2015. 32 pgs.

Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match/Marisol McDonald No Combina by Monica Brown Ph.D. and Sara Palacios. Children’s Book Press, 2013. 32 pgs.

My Colors, My World/Mis Colores, Mi Mundo by Maya Christina Gonzalez. Children’s Book Press, 2013. 32 pgs.

My Three Best Friends and Me, Zulay by Cari Best and Vanessa Brantley Newton. Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2015. 40 pgs.

One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia by Miranda Paul and Elizabeth Zunon. Millbrook Press, 2015. 32 pgs.

Tía Isa Wants A Car by Meg Medina and Claudio Muñoz. Candlewick, 2011. 32 pgs.

The Phoenix on Barkley Street by Zetta Elliott. Rosetta Press, 2014. 32 pgs.

The Third Gift by Linda Sue Park and Bagram Ibatoulline. Clarion Books, 2011. 32 pgs.

We March by Shane Evans. Roaring Brook Press, 2012. 32 pgs.

Middle Grade

Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda. Ash Mistry Chronicles. HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2012. 320 pgs.

Bayou Magic by Jewell Parker Rhodes. Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2015. 256 pgs.

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014. 336 pgs.

Can You See Me Now by Estela Bernal. Piñata Books, 2013. 160 pgs.

Geeks, Girls and Secret Identities by Mike Jung and Mike Maihack. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2012. 320 pgs.

How I Became A Ghost by Tim Tingle. How I Became a Ghost Series. RoadRunner Press, 2013. 160 pgs.

I Lived On Butterfly Hill by Marjorie Agosín and Lee White. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2015. 464 pgs.

March: Book 1 by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin. March Trilogy. Top Shelf Productions, 2013. 128 pgs.

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams Garcia. Amistad, 2011. 240 pgs.

Revolution is Not a Dinner Party by Ying Chang Compestine. Henry Holt and Co., 2007. 249 pgs.

The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano by Sonia Manzano. Scholastic, 2012. 224 pgs.

Shooting Kabul by N. M. Senzai. Simon and Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books, 2011. 288 pgs.

The Zero Degree Zombie Zone by Patrick Henry Bass and Jerry Craft. Scholastic, 2014. 144 pgs.

Young Adult

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor. Viking Books for Young Readers, 2011. 368 pgs.

Antigoddess by Kendare Blake. The Goddess War series. Tor Teen, 2014. 352 pgs.

Ash by Malinda Lo. Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2010. 272 pgs.

Chameleon by Charles R. Smith Jr. Candlewick, 2010. 384 pgs.

Charm and Strange by Stephanie Kuehn. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2013. 224 pgs.

Chasing Shadows by Swati Avasthi and Craig Phillips. Knopf Books For Young Readers, 2013. 320 pgs.

Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend by Erika Wurth. Curbside Splendor Publishing, 2014. 288 pgs.

Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero. Cinco Puntos Press, 2014. 208 pgs.

How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon. Henry Holt and Co., 2014. 336 pgs.

If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth. Arthur A. Levine, 2014. 368 pgs.

If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan. Algonquin Young Readers, 2013. 256 pgs.

Jumped In by Patrick Scott Flores. Henry Holt and Co., 2013. 304 pgs.

Legend by Marie Lu. Legend series. G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, 2011. 336 pgs.

The Living by Matt de la Peña. First in a series. Delacorte Press, 2013. 320 pgs.

Madman of Piney Woods by Christopher Paul Curtis. Companion to Elijah of Buxton. Scholastic Press; 2014. 384 pgs.

Money Boy by Paul Yee. Ray Liu. Groundwood Books, 2013. 184 pgs.

None of the Above by I. W. Gregorio. Balzar + Bray, 2015, 352 pgs.

Pig Park by Claudia Guadalupe Martinez. Cinco Puntos Press, 2014. 246 pgs.

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older. Arthur A. Levine, 2015. 304 pgs.

Silver People by Margarita Engle. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers, 2014. 272 pgs.

Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith. Tantalize series. Candlewick, 2007. 336 pgs.

When Reason Breaks by Cynthia Rodriguez. Bloomsbury USA, 2015. 304 pgs.

Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed. Nancy Paulsen Books, 2015, 304 pgs.

Zero Fade by Chris L. Terry. Curbside Splendor, 2013. 294 pgs.

 

 

catching my breath

I’m reading again! God Bless the Child isn’t what I expected, and I’m glad my friend Rosa warned me that the book isn’t just about child abuse but molestation. I agree with her that it was irresponsible of the publisher (and various reviewers) not to mention this fact, but it’s still an interesting read—and I haven’t been able to say that about her last few novels. So I’m reading again and I’m hoping to start writing this weekend. Today I woke just after dawn and realized I had NOTHING scheduled for the entire day. And I still got up! It’s just past 8am and I figured I can blog for a minute, go for a run, and then switch over to the picture book story I’m writing about Weeksville. It’s a time-travel story, of course, but I like the idea of a ghost story, too. I have so many ideas for City Kids books—that’s my chapter book series that starts with The Phoenix on Barkley Street. I was thrilled when the Children’s Defense Fund adopted City Kids Book #1 for their summer literacy program; I taught my first history/creative writing class at a CDF Freedom School in Bed-Stuy back in 1998, so their selection of my book means a lot to me. I noticed on Create Space last night that someone else purchased almost 70 copies, which I assume is for a school. When I was in Berkeley last spring, some helpful librarians told me they’re reluctant to share a chapter book with kids unless it’s part of a series because the kids will invariably ask for more titles. So I started Book #2 last summer (The Gryphons at the Gate) and have two more storylines swimming in my head. All I have to do is sit down and write…

I wanted to share some other news. Last month I had the honor of sitting down with Renee Watson and Jennifer Baker to tape an episode of Minorities in Publishing. This fabulous podcast shines a light on publishing professionals and writers of color—if you haven’t been following Jenn, you definitely need to start now! This week I received my hard copies of the May issue of School Library Journal, which includes a shortened version of my web article on social justice and self-publishing. If you’d like a PDF of my article, let me know.

I’ve got two different covers for my middle graders’ anthology; we’ll meet one more time next week so they can vote and give me feedback on the interior design. Then we go to print! I’m slowing down but still moving forward…

 

overload

I haven’t been reading or writing lately, which isn’t good. This past week I taught eight workshops—starting on Monday morning with two up in the Bronx co-facilitated with my former BMCC colleague Yadira Perez Hazel—and then my residency wrapped up on Saturday with a fantastic reading by my BPCS middle grade students. Because I was running the event, I didn’t have time to take photos, nor did I have time to feast on the many sweets laid out for guests, which is a good thing since I’ve been eating ice cream every day. Nonetheless, yesterday I put on a new dress and walked out the house knowing that this chapter of my writer’s life is nearly over. I’ve submitted one version of our anthology to Create Space and will try to meet with the students one last time to get their feedback. Then I need to finish my picture book story and novel about Weeksville before turning in my final report. For the past two months I’ve tried to say “yes” to just about everything, and I am definitely ready to say “no” for a while. My adult class, Magic & Memory, wrapped up last Wednesday; we had a small group of eight students but we still had a great discussion about Afrofuturism and the legacy of slavery. My students wrote some touching messages in the card they tucked inside the folder containing their course evaluations; I won’t be ready to read the latter for a while yet, but the card really made me feel like we achieved something meaningful over the 5 weeks we spent together. And it was nice to know that I haven’t lost my touch in the classroom. Folks keep asking if I’ll be teaching anywhere else this summer, but right now I have nothing lined up—and that feels great! Saying “yes” to so many different gigs means I should have earned enough this spring to get me through the summer. And the fall? I don’t know. Hopefully I’ll have more author talks lined up through the BPL. They sent me to Explore Charter School in my own neighborhood on Wednesday morning. I’ve never seen 80 middle grade students enter an auditorium so quietly! And their teachers sat *with* the kids, snapping photos of my presentation (the one below was posted on Twitter).

On Thursday I did two back-to-back presentations at Weeksville Heritage Center for 70 members of Mrs. Field’s Literary Society; I met some very nice women, including the sister of my alma mater‘s current president! It’s a small world, and I hope the relationships I formed during my Weeksville residency will flourish in the future. There are so many writers with stories just waiting to be told! I did two presentations at Launch Expeditionary School on Friday and at the end, a sixth-grade student raised his hand and asked how kids can help me write my stories. I told him that talking to kids about my books often inspires me to develop new stories and/or to finish works-in-progress. But I know what he was really asking: will you come back and write something with US? I’m not sure how to make that happen; now that I’m operating without a professor’s salary, I can’t afford to do as many free school visits. But schools and libraries have limited budgets, so what’s an “artivist” to do? I suspect I’ll have to start looking into grants this summer…

parting thoughts

I’m leaving Toronto in a few hours and should have blogged days ago because now there are too many thoughts and too little time to get them down. My phone doesn’t work up here and so I took lots of photos but can’t post any online and somehow words alone don’t seem sufficient to describe this trip. What the photos show is just how happy I’ve been the past few days…usually my trips to the Great White North are fraught and uncomfortable for me. But this trip was different. I saw lots of friends and relatives but didn’t feel pressed or pulled in a dozen different directions. There was enough time to just BE with people, and I hope the memories that linger are of the times I didn’t bring my camera along—when I walked the Belt Line after dinner with my two cousins, their husbands, and their puppy Frida. Or yesterday when I spent half an hour in a small park filled with families and didn’t feel like an outsider because my other two cousins just made it seem so natural that I would be there to hold the dog’s leash or push the kids on the swing or walk home holding hands. Normally I would feel very outside myself in those moments but we were remembering the parks we played in when we were kids and somehow that anchored me. Everything this weekend felt continuous—like a continuation of old customs and traditions and habits that used to drive me nuts. Like having to put on a sweater as soon as I reach my mother’s house because the windows are wide open, letting in the cool lake air. And having three cups of tea in two hours because my mother always has the kettle on. And popping next door to see our long-time neighbors who were like parents to me when I was a child. Or chatting for three hours with my high school English teacher over a sumptuous lunch on the waterfront. We just pick up where we left off and despite my random, unplanned life, folks kept telling me they were proud of me, inspired by me! I have to head out now to meet my aunt for lunch but will try to pick this up when I get back to Brooklyn tonight. Yesterday I met a friend I haven’t seen in over ten years at the Art Gallery of Ontario. We saw the Basquiat exhibit and then talked about turning 40, leaving the academy, and building the life you want. This painting, Exu, was one of my favorites (because of the fox, of course)…

hope for Baltimore

There’s a lot going on in “Charm City” right now, but I hope that parents will bring their children to the Reginald F. Lewis Museum on May 9th for this wonderful event. Please spread the word!

3rd Annual African American Children’s Book Fair










A rare chance for children to experience the world of kids’ literature focused on African Americans and people of other ethnicities. The event is fun-filled, while exposing children to their diverse world, and kids who look like them, through childrens’ books and illustrations. Enjoy author readings, illustration workshops by illustrators, cultural performances, and craft activities. Purchase hard-to-find titles in the Book Village. Free children’s books will be distributed while supplies last.  Special guests include poet Eloise Greenfield. Celebrity reader is Dr. Gregory E. Thornton, CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools.

This program is presented in partnership with Baltimore City Schools, Enoch Pratt Free Library, and Mocha Moms Inc. Sponsored by BGE. Free museum admission 12-4pm. For all ages!

RSVP online to this free event.


Date and Time: Saturday, May 9, 12:00 pm

For more information call 443-263-1800

Activities

Deborah Taylor, Coordinator of School & Student Services of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, will lead a workshop on how to choose multicultural children’s books
Reading literacy information, provided by Reading Partners Baltimore
Live performance by Uncle Devin and Drum Tales
Toddler’s activity area, provided by The Walters Museum
Interactive story activities by teaching artist Culture Queen of Culture Kingdom Kids

Authors and Illustrators Scheduled to Appear:



Everett Todd Adams
Jerdine Nolen


Floyd Cooper
Sherika Sadler


Zetta Elliott
Jared Parks


Eloise Greenfield
Shadra Strickland


London Ladd
Kinya Shakur Travis


James A. Merritt
Linda Trice


Frank Morrison
Renee Watson


Lori Lee Nelson
Carol Boston Weatherford

self/image

I don’t cook. I know how, but I find it irritating and time-consuming and when you’re single, it’s just too much work to endlessly plan and shop and prepare your own meals. When I DO decide to cook, I have to fill my pantry with all the basic things one needs to make a meal—last month I made goulash (which is basically jazzed up Hamburger Helper) and spent $30 on ingredients that will now sit in my cupboard gathering dust. It would have been more cost effective to just buy takeout! Getting ready for last week’s salon felt a lot like cooking. I don’t own much makeup so I made do with what was already in my medicine cabinet and got a recommendation on Facebook for blush. Of course, I don’t know how to apply blush and the sales assistant at Sephora wasn’t interested in sharing her techniques with someone who clearly couldn’t be bothered to “put on her face” each and every day. Wearing makeup is agonizing—and expensive—when you don’t do it very often. After my good friend Stefanie came over to roll my bobbed hair into a 1940s Victory Roll, she helped me apply black “Sharpie” eyeliner (purchased at 8am that morning at Rite-Aid) and then gently scolded me as I sparingly applied mascara (“Is there any ON the brush, Zetta?”) and urged me not to rub off all the blush I had dabbed on my cheeks. With Stef’s help, I finally made it out the door and caught the train over to the Center. I put on my heels, which started to hurt my feet after half an hour, and wobbled back and forth along the grass path that leads out to the historic house. I still don’t feel totally satisfied with the salon, but seeing Valerie Caesar’s amazing photographs this weekend (top left and right) helped me to realize that I did achieve at least one goal: we left a record and, therefore, made history. People think I’m a perfectionist and that’s not the image I’m trying to project—and that’s definitely not how I see myself. I actually wish women were given more opportunities to just be ourselves—no makeup, no Spanx, no killer heels. When I moved to NYC in 1994 I found a place within a circle of women who were totally natural—no one permed their hair (so I stopped) and no one wore makeup everyday (so I gradually gave that up, too). We were working with kids and it felt important to be our authentic selves when we were with them—isn’t that what it means to be a good role model? Not to be perfect, but to be true to yourself. To talk honestly about your strengths but also your limitations. To be imperfect but still be THERE. I don’t have a problem with women who wear makeup or Spanx or killer heels. But my eye is always drawn to the women who defy convention and present themselves in ways that are deemed “unfeminine.” Those queer women make space for women like me who aren’t invested in upholding traditional beauty standards. It was fun to get dressed up for half a day but I am SO glad I don’t feel the need to do this every day. I’m grateful for friends who accept me as I am and point out my strengths when I can only see my limitations. And I think it matters when I walk into a school with just a little lip gloss and cropped hair. I’m very aware of the way Black and Latino girls read me, how they wait until the end of my presentation to come up and tell me that they like my eyes or my hair—no mention of my books, which are deliberately about girls who look like them. I’m about to film a video for some high school students in MA who are making a movie about colorism, and I have a LOT to say on the subject. Because it’s complicated…

My 4/21 visit to Launch Expeditionary Leadership Charter School. Photo by Dafina Westbrooks

Valerie Caesar’s wonderful group shot of the salon ladies in the 1930s historic house at Weeksville Heritage Center.

teach, learn, grow

Here I am looking carefree on my way to the salon when in reality, I was totally stressing out…

I’m not a control freak but when you live with anxiety, you do tend to over prepare. You try to think of every possible eventuality, and then you step into the classroom and all that planning flies right out the window! I think the best teachers are able to make endless adjustments—on the spot—but being spontaneous is hard for me. I’ve gotten some really great feedback about our salon last Saturday, but I left the Center feeling dissatisfied. We looked fabulous (group photos coming soon, I promise) and everyone was engaged, but the event didn’t unfold as I’d planned and I found it hard to just “go with the flow.” Then I had class with my middle graders on Monday and left feeling inadequate again. I sent the students an email reminding them to bring two drafts to class, but most of them didn’t get the email and so arrived empty handed. Only one student had a poem ready to share and we did do a brief critique, but that meant my carefully planned lesson wasn’t worth much. Several students had to leave early and so I had the remaining students do a collective list poem and then we hustled to clean up so the next class could come in. I tried out the mixer activity I used at the salon, and the students did seem to enjoy that. But now we only have one class left—will they produce enough writing to fill our proposed anthology? We have some great conversations but are the students getting anything out of this class? Why can’t I teach effectively in one hour? I’m realizing (too late, perhaps) that younger students need handouts and maybe more supervision, which means making time to write IN class. I am making adjustments but the class will be over by the time I figure out what works best. With my adult class, it’s a totally different experience. I left my Magic & Memory class last night feeling so exhilarated—we have a fantastic group of writers and everyone in the class seems open and engaged. I assigned Kindred for class but most people hadn’t finished reading it or weren’t able to get their hands on a copy. And you know what? That was ok because we were still able to have a topic-based conversation about neo-slave narratives, and not talking about the novel left us more time to share the poems they wrote last week. We took a break, had some snacks, and then continued thinking about home, belonging, and community as we read Maritcha Lyons’ account of the NYC Draft Riots. Maybe the middle graders are serving as guinea pigs—maybe testing lessons on them makes me more effective the second time around with my adult students. Maybe I just need to remember that this is a pilot program, and I’m learning valuable lessons that will strengthen the curriculum and improve outcomes for future students…

Ok, time to get back to this residency application (yes, another residency). And then I need to work on tomorrow’s faculty development seminar: “Using Journals in the Ethnic Studies Classroom.” Yes, the inadequate teacher is telling other educators how to teach more effectively!

 

home, community, & belonging

It’s hard to think about anything other than Saturday’s salon, but I need to take a moment to write about last night’s Magic & Memory class. We had fourteen participants and I didn’t spot any lefties (I always scan for my classroom for left-handed writers) but we had a fantastic conversation about home, community, and belonging. It’s so different teaching adults! I’ve missed it. And we have two hours to talk, so nothing feels rushed. Hopefully I’ll be able to strike the right balance—my goal is to share Weeksville history and then let those facts guide our creative writing. We’d just started talking about forgiveness when class wrapped up last night. What binds people together in a community? Things they have in common, including oppression. But what makes a community thrive? I’m hoping we’ll be able to talk about love next week. How do you hold onto your humanity in this country? I put my favorite Audre Lorde quote up on the board: “We were never meant to survive. Not as human beings.” Buying land, building a home, and forging a community—those are the actions of people determined to assert their humanity and their right to root themselves in the US. But can you ever truly belong in a place where you’re not wanted?

This is an activity we completed last night. Use five words or less to finish this phrase: Home is…