another way forward

A while back I wrote a post about “queering kidlit” in which I critiqued the attempt to prove that books by/about people of color are “just like” books by/about whites. I later asked my friend for some further reading and she pointed me to this article by Cathy Cohen. This was JUST the quote I needed:

transformational politics…a politics that does not search for opportunities to integrate into dominant institutions and normative social relationships, but instead pursues a political agenda that seeks to change values, definitions, and laws which make these institutions and relationships oppressive.” ~Cathy J. Cohen, “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens

I plan to cite this article in my Kidlitcon presentation in October. It looks like a really great line-up; if you’ll be attending, please let me know. Right now I’m trying to prepare a short video statement about the relationship between the crisis in Ferguson and the crisis within the children’s publishing industry. I’m struggling because I don’t know what language to use—can’t be too angry or bitter (and lose the softness that makes me a woman people will listen to) but I’m not feeling optimistic these days. Yet to write for kids, you do have to have hope—and all artists do, right? Otherwise why create? So my bit of sunshine for today is the cover for my 9/11 story The Girl Who Swallowed the Sun. When systems fail, you have to find another way forward…