Sherri Winston's Blog, page 4
August 23, 2020
SUNDAY MUSINGS
MY AMERICAN DREAM
It’s Sunday morning and my little sister is drinking her tea. The dog is chewing his bone. A soothing background-noise video is on television. Jazz playing. Skylines and vistas slipping past.
My sister has been trying to convince me to move to Alabama. Our older brother has lived their for a decade, at least. He left Florida to be able to buy the kind of home and have the type of lifestyle he felt impossible as a retired United States’ Air Force veteran.
As single women of college-aged children living in Florida, my sister and I have accepted that home ownership is next to impossible.
I’m warming to the idea of moving, but I’ve been teasing her about me becoming a “real southern lady” if we do.
And she keeps threatening to bust up my imaginary tea parties with my equally imaginary church ladies, using less than lady-like behavior. It’s a humorous, yet comfortable image. Me sitting in my Alabama home, living closer to my older brother, enjoying the company of other women as we share tea and fellowship.
However, I can’t buff away images, dark and grainy and scary, from my childhood. News footage that my toddler eyes didn’t understand. And later, the frightened whispered conversations. My mother and father, Kool cigarettes burning intensely as they crouched in front of news reports.
Alabama.
“ …they don’t want us to succeed,” my father, a normally soft-spoken man, growled into the smoky air of our living room.
“…hate us. It’s not safe trying vote there,” my mother, normally a tiger of a woman, puffed with visible agitation. The fear hung above them like smoke. The anger, too.
My sister was born in the ‘70s and grew up in the ‘80s. She doesn’t remember that. She didn’t know my parents when they were younger, fun, relaxed and just trying to make it. Or when they were apprehensive and worried for our futures because of the increasing change of our political landscape.
Alabama.
While the country has been celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the Suffrage Movement, little has been mentioned of black women and our right to vote. We’ve been left out of the discussion, same as we were left out of the fight. Even though black suffragettes date back to the late 1800s and earlier, leaders of the Suffrage movement feared their visible involvement could compromise the cause.
In a Time magazine article (Aug. 14, 2020), writer Olivia B. Waxman talks with author/historian, Martha S. Jones, about the long struggle of black women voters. Asked if black women were kept out of the campaign to secure voter rights for all, Jones states in the article:
Yes, Black women are set at a distance quite intentionally because, in order to hold onto thesupport of many white southern women, it’s necessary to keep the organization distant from African-American women. And it’s also the case, that, implicitly, the promise is that the amendment will not interfere with the disenfranchisement of African-American women—so it’s not a campaign premised in women’s universal voting rights, but it’s a campaign premised in the process of selective voting rights for white American women.
And that brings me back to Alabama.
The 1965 Voters Rights Act followed shortly behind the Bloody Sunday massacre of unarmed black citizens by armed Alabama State Troopers in Selma, Ala. However, with the Trump administration and the Supreme Court’s gutting of the ’65 Act, which had been further strengthened in 2006, means that states no longer face restrictions on the type of limits they may impose on voters without Federal scrutiny.
In a 2018 New York Times article, Maggie Astor writes:
Alabama has enacted a slew of restrictive laws and policies, many of which disproportionately affect African-Americans, Latinos and other marginalized groups. In this, it stands out only in degree, not in kind: All over the country, state legislators are making it harder to vote. State officials say the voting measures are intended to prevent election fraud.
I can still see my father staring vacantly at the TV screen. Cigarette burning down to the filter. We lived in Michigan, but he grew up in the Jim Crow South. Vicksburg, Miss. His Adams apple would bob as he gulped back outrage I was too young to understand. I tried to soothe it with a kiss on the cheek or running my fingers through his soft, curly black hair. Band-Aids on an open wound.
So now I wonder …
If we buy homes in Alabama to be near my brother in 2021, am I stepping into my future, or turning the clock back to a desperate, ugly time? Florida may not be a Civil Rights safe haven, especially under current leadership, but then again, mommy never whispered, soft as a lullaby, “…they kill black folks in Alabama. It’s a terrible place.”
That’s a memory that’s hard to shake, little sister. Hard to shake.
I want to buy a home again, but I also want to exercise my right to vote. Can “Sweet Home Alabama,” really become my Alabama?
*Martha S. Jones, mentioned above, is the author of, Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All.
August 11, 2020
BESTSELLER
The Quest Continues. No, not a title for my next book–it’s my lifelong pursuit of The List! Is James Patterson writing down my number? “Yoo-hoo! Mr. Patterson! Call me!”
I want to write a bestseller! Wanna write a bestseller! Want. to. write. a. bestseller. Ahhh! There, I’ve admitted it. I do, I do, I do. Sure, I write because the voices whisper their stories in my ear and then the stories take shape and I have to write. I just wish one of the whisperers whispered, “Pssst! Come here! This story is guaranteed to make the NYT Bestseller List. My goal doesn’t come from some lofty, self-less place. Not even really a commercial place. More like validation. I write because THEY LOVE ME. *sigh* Someday.
Until then, check out the latest NYT List with a few comments from yours truly:
[image error][image error][image error][image error]
New York Times Children Hardcover Middle Grade Bestseller List/Aug. 9/20
The One and Only Bob , by Katherine Applegate, illus. by Patricia Castelao/HarperCollins (13 weeks) Wonder , by R. J. Palacio/Knopf (259 weeks) Little Leaders , by Vashti Harrison/Little, Brown (40 weeks) The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs , by America’s Test Kitchen Kids/Sourcebook Jabberwocky (68 weeks) Refugee , by Alan Gratz, Scholastic (105 weeks) Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid , by Jeff Kinney/Amulet (68 weeks) Wings of Fire: Legends: Dragon Slayer , by Tui T. Sutherland/Scholastic (21 weeks) A Wolf Called Wander , by Roseanne Parry, illus. by Monica ArmiÑo/Greenwillow (40 weeks) Look Both Ways , by Jason Reynolds/Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy (14 weeks) Ali Cross , by James Patterson/jimmy Patterson (28 weeks)
I like to see not only the books that are on the list, but how long they’ve been there. No. 2 blows my mind–Wonder, by Palacio, 259 weeks! Are you kidding me? It’s a juggernaut. A list hog. Make room for someone else, Palacio! And what about Refugee? It’s fifth on the list, but has been on the list for 105 weeks!
Now Patterson, who has always been a friend-in-my-head, is No. 10 with Ali Cross, 28 weeks on the list. I am a huge Alex Cross fan, as well as a devotee of several other Patterson titles. I even signed up for his MasterClass, which was really helpful in reminding me to take care of the basics of good writing before applying them to thriller or suspense genres.
Truthfully, I hold no grudge against Palacio. It’s a great book with a great following. Same for Refugee. Still, in my heart, I’ve been waiting for that day when my buddy, Patterson, would wake up and realize he needs a little Black Lives Matter in his life. I’ll be here, James, when you’re ready. Call me!
August 6, 2020
THROWBACK THURSDAY
I’m working on self-portrait.. I was 6-years old. I’m missing my front tooth. I was very shy. It’s a first draft, but how am I doing?
July 27, 2020
WHY SCHOOL LIBRARIES ARE GRRRRRRRRRREAT!
[image error]
A Fort Worth, Texas, school library that made me wish to be a kid again!
[image error]At this school, thanks to a generous grant, the school library is transformed into Hogwarts.
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
GOOD TROUBLE
Celebrate the life of a man who spent his helping others. John Lewis was the legend you never knew.
John Lewis (Feb. 21, 1940-July 17, 2020) was a trouble-maker. Good trouble. He’s one of the most famous, most influential people you may not know. He’s the guy in the background, but always pushing forward. Over the shoulders of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. President Barak Obama. Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.
[image error]
Leiws was the last remaining leader from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ‘60s. He will lay in State in our nation’s capital this afternoon. An auspicious send off for a man who preferred leading the action rather than racing to limelight.
If you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something about it.
–John Lewis
Lewis ascended from humble son of a sharecropper to a 17-term Congressman. His fearlessness and tirelessness allowed him to face beatings and monstrous police brutality in order to achieve the greater good.
[image error]John Lewis relished his mugshots as a badge of honor.
Understanding Lewis’ passion, his life’s work, will increase understanding the Black Lives Matter movement. Much like BLM and the death of unarmed George Floyd, the Civil Rights Movement, in a march led by Lewis, took a pivotal turn because of the protest against a police killing.
On March 7, 1965, Lewis solidified his dedication to the movement with a rebellion whose images captured changed American perceptions. He led 600 non-violent marchers across a bridge in Selma, Ala., before being brutally attacked by local State troopers.
[image error]
Much like Black Lives Matter, the marchers were protesting the death of an unarmed man. Jimmy-Lee Jackson, a 26-year-old church deacon, was shot and killed by white state trooper, James Bonard Fowler.
While the comparisons to George Floyd’s death are undeniable, Lewis liked to caution those who felt little change had been made
Sometimes I hear people saying, ‘Nothing has changed.’ Come and walk in my shoes.
–John Lewis
Recognizing the passion and promise of this new generation, Lewis gave Black Lives Matter his blessing. It was a symbolic gesture. Passing the torch.
July 24, 2020
IS YOUR CHILD READING READY?
B&N Summer reading program continues. So many great books so little time!
Young readers grades 1-6 can earn a free book through the Barnes & Noble Summer Reading program! Learn more: https://bit.ly/BNSummerReadingJournal #BNSummerReading
While I’m proud that my book, President of the Whole Fifth Grade is on the list, I know there are many other great books waiting for you. No matter what your taste is, there’s a book for you and your young reader!
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
July 22, 2020
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!
Today I celebrate the 20th Anniversary of my 36th Birthday! Celebrate with me by showing love to someone in need. My greatest, warmest, sincerest thanks to my beautiful Lauren, who crafted my hand-cut letters and sign and to all my well-wishers.
In these challenging times, I feel blessed to have another birthday to share with my loved ones.
[image error]One of my favorite memories of the last year–my first trip to Paris and and chance to meet new friends. (Ricki Stevenson, Black Paris Tours-r)
July 19, 2020
SWEET, SWEET SOUND
Showing sweet, sweet love
What better time than a Sunday morning to show love to a book about a young gospel star-in-the-making.
Starring Cadence Mariah Jolly, The Sweetest Sound is the lyrical journey in the life of a kid who had to claim the right to speak her mind. And believe me when I say, it’s one of my most personal works to date. So show some love to the book whose writing style brought me the greatest joy—They Sweetest Sound.
July 18, 2020
5 REASONS TO CELEBRATE YOUNG ACTIVISTS
The hardest thing about waiting for the next book in the sequence is anticipating the new cover.
I love you, Marley Dias! At 11, this little firecracker blew some folks minds with her #1000booksforblackgirls campaign. Now 15, she’s still fighting for change. Get ‘em, girl!With five days until my birthday, my wish is for you to remember these every day heroes.Old Navy’s latest tv campaign is awash in color, style and substance. The new “We Are We” campaign celebrates five young activists speaking out for change.
Hats off to Old Navy for embracing the movement and lending a voice to change.According to Campaign Online (Lindsey Stein), the tv and digital spots will feature five people actively involved in making the world a better place.
When the spot came on my tv last night, I was drawn to its bright colors and snappy graphics. But I immediately recognized the face and voice of one of my favorite young people, 15-year-old Marley Dias.
Dias created the movement #1000blackgirlbooks when she was 11. What started as a simple attempt to bring more diverse books into classrooms soon turned the New Jersey native into a national darling. Dias made the media circuit, including several morning shows. And god bless her if wasn’t seen several times with copies of my books, including President of the Whole Sixth Grade. I felt honored to be shown among other well-know authors of color such as Jacqueline Woodson, Sharon Draper, Sharon Flake and Rita Williams-Garcia.
Five cheers for:1. Feminist, activist, and leader, Marley Dias. @iammarleydias
2. Ja’Mal Green, a father, entrepreneur, and community activist in Chicago fighting for change. @JaMalGreen
Chicago activist and former mayoral candidate committed to fighting for change. (photo/Chicago 2 News online)3. Sara Mora, 22, an immigrant rights activist, knows the struggle first-hand. She is an immigrant from Costa Rica, part of Deferred Action for Children’s Arrival Program (DACA), and is fighting to help young voters see the power of being woke and taking action. @misssaramora
4. Dawn Bozeman, school superintendent for eight years in Dunlap, I’ll., according to her Facebook page, is active in local activism and championing the cause of education.
Dawn Bozeman, wife, mother, educator, activist./Facebook 5. Sharene Woods, a native of Harlem, supporting Boys & Girls Clubs of Harlem and is a Black Women Black Girls board member.
5 REASONS TO CELEBRATE YOUNG ACTIVISTS
With five days until my birthday, my wish is for you to remember these every day heroes.
Old Navy’s latest tv campaign is awash in color, style and substance. The new “We Are We” campaign celebrates five young activists speaking out for change.
[image error]Hats off to Old Navy for embracing the movement and lending a voice to change.
According to Campaign Online (Lindsey Stein), the tv and digital spots will feature five people actively involved in making the world a better place.
When the spot came on my tv last night, I was drawn to its bright colors and snappy graphics. But I immediately recognized the face and voice of one of my favorite young people, 15-year-old Marley Dias.
Dias created the movement #1000blackgirlbooks when she was 11. What started as a simple attempt to bring more diverse books into classrooms soon turned the New Jersey native into a national darling. Dias made the media circuit, including several morning shows. And god bless her if wasn’t seen several times with copies of my books, including President of the Whole Sixth Grade. I felt honored to be shown among other well-know authors of color such as Jacqueline Woodson, Sharon Draper, Sharon Flake and Rita Williams-Garcia.
Five cheers for:
1. Feminist, activist, and leader, Marley Dias. @iammarleydias
2. Ja’Mal Green, a father, entrepreneur, and community activist in Chicago fighting for change. @JaMalGreen
[image error]Chicago activist and former mayoral candidate committed to fighting for change. (photo/Chicago 2 News online)
3. Sara Mora, 22, an immigrant rights activist, knows the struggle first-hand. She is an immigrant from Costa Rica, part of Deferred Action for Children’s Arrival Program (DACA), and is fighting to help young voters see the power of being woke and taking action. @misssaramora
4. Dawn Bozeman, school superintendent for eight years in Dunlap, I’ll., according to her Facebook page, is active in local activism and championing the cause of education.
[image error]Dawn Bozeman, wife, mother, educator, activist./Facebook
5. Sharene Woods, a native of Harlem, supporting Boys & Girls Clubs of Harlem and is a Black Women Black Girls board member.
