:Hey You! An Empowering Celebration of Growing Up Black

Abstract

Previous articleNext article FreeBook ReviewsHey You! An Empowering Celebration of Growing Up Black by Dapo Adeola. New York: Nancy Paulsen Books, 2022. 48 pp. US$18.99 (cloth). ISBN 978-0593529423. The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander and Kadir Nelson. New York: Versify, 2019. US$17.99 (cloth). ISBN 978-1328780966.B. J. McDanielB. J. McDanielResearchers Exploring Inclusive Youth Literature (REIYL), Atlanta Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreTwo picture books that connect themes of Black joy and communal resistance are The Undefeated, written by Kwame Alexander and illustrated by Kadir Nelson, and Hey You! An Empowering Celebration of Growing Up Black written by Dapo Adeola and illustrated by 18 Black artists from around the world. Though Alexander and Nelson are both Black American and Adeola is Nigerian-British, each book specifically underlines the impact of Black Lives Matter on the development of their respective texts. In Hey You!, Adeola writes in his author’s note that the “book grew out of an emotional response to the events of 2020: the tragic story of George Floyd and the global protests that followed: the mass awakening to the impacts of structural racism.” Likewise, although The Undefeated took root in Alexander’s mind in 2008, he makes it clear in his afterword what the book is about: “Black. Lives. Matter. About Black. Lives. Matter. About Black. Lives. Matter. Because we are Americans. Because we are human beings.” Alexander and Nelson’s book highlights Black American experiences ranging from the “unspeakable” horrors of chattel slavery to the “unforgettable” heroes and martyrs of movements. Adeola’s book is a lush landscape of affirmations for young Black dreamers—the “you” alluded to in the title—with a spectrum of social identities intersecting their Blackness illustrated by various authors to push against monolithic narratives.These books are not just texts for story time. They are powerful educational tools that connect experiences of Black lives mattering across generations and great distances. Components such as the authors’ notes, glossaries to explain the importance of the images, and other back matter are intentional, layered devices that provide context in and out of classrooms for deeper engagement and learning. For example, Alexander’s list of historical figures and events discussed in the book includes dates and signposts that could be helpful in creating interactive supplementary activities, such as a Black American history timeline, to engage further with the text. It takes research and review to ensure that these materials and resources are not solely reflections of the emotional and intellectual movement of the artists behind the books. It also takes time to thread symbols and patterns into the text visually, which is why picture books are a particularly impactful medium. The audience for picture books is generally younger, but the inclusion of myriad spaces in which to engage multimodal literacy allows for these texts to be studied by wider audiences as well.An important difference in the execution of the illustrations in each book highlights the importance of diverse representation in art styles and aesthetics. Adeola’s intentional representation of the Black diaspora via 18 Black illustrators from around the world in one book, which is an enormous publishing feat, means that readers of Hey You! are exposed to more unconventional styles of illustration, including cartooning, digital drawings, and collages. The various styles are opportunities to build visual literacies in new genres and pique the interest of readers encountering them for the first time.Both texts create balance as they acknowledge the dangerous reality of being Black in a world conditioned to despise Blackness along with the necessary hope that is a big part of the mobilization of the Black Lives Matter movements. This hope for continued change and the opportunity for Black folks to be able to just exist is extraordinary in its presentation in books submitted to an international industry, children’s book publishing, that will not come to terms with its role in perpetuating stereotypic images of Black people from around the world. These images are exported into classrooms via curriculums that assign these books or choose not to assign counterstory texts in protest of misunderstood representations of Critical Race Theory and raise generations of scholars whose social conditioning is shaped by racist caricatures. As Adeola explains in his author’s note: “When I was growing up, there was a sense that Black people couldn’t achieve in creative industries, and there were limited examples of Black success. Black people were rarely at the heart of stories- the hero.” I want to underscore that both books make sure to present and celebrate the known and unknown stories of courage and care that connect not just Black lives, but so many human lives across the globe. They are dedicated to all Black lives and their intrinsic worth and wellness.In Hey You! and The Undefeated, the inclusion of Black Lives Matter alongside an emphasis on the contributions of well-known celebrities and your “everyman” Black citizen of the world is notable. Even though Black Lives Matter exists as part of our contemporary collective vocabulary, so many people still think of it as an exclusive assertion of the sole importance of Black lives instead of seeing it as a movement to assert that Black Lives Matter too. Bringing in a specific focus on the contributions of celebrities shows that, even though the artists behind the text understand the power of the mundane, they also know the power behind emphasizing the humanity of influential Black people connected to messaging around Black Lives Matter.In both texts, a collective consciousness also speaks about hope, using symbols like the ever-present cranes shown from beginning to end throughout The Undefeated and variations on the brilliance and resilience of the sunflower rendered in the different styles of the illustrators in Hey You! Every instance of the cranes in Alexander and Nelson’s book shows them in flight, Nelson’s oil paintings creating exquisite movement in their wings mirroring the reminder from Alexander in the text that no matter what readers come up against even the trauma that is unforgettable and unspeakable, we must continue to “keep rising.” The sunflowers that are included in every single illustrated page of Hey You!, including on the endpapers, ensures that brightness blooms everywhere, even in the spaces where it’s necessary to reflect on pain and resistance, like the full-page spread in which Adeola proclaims: “Our struggle unites us. We must raise our voices up against those who want to silence us” (38). The illustration accompanying these words was created by Caribbean American artist Camilla Sucre and shows a group in protest, with a dark-skinned protestor foregrounded in the image carrying a sign that reads: “Black Lives Matter! Black Lives Matter!” The protestor is wearing a white shirt with simple sunflowers adorning it while they gaze directly out at the reader.Another illustration by Nigerian artist Kingsley Nebechi places one scene of celebration, actress Regina King winning her 2019 Oscar, next to one of another Black person being violently arrested by police officers, with both scenes ensconced in the silhouettes of two faces. In one full-page spread in The Undefeated, Nelson created a memorial, with portraits of Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown (22–23), and just like with Nebechi’s illustrations, these names and their pictures are ingrained in our minds. They won’t leave us, and they become beacons for us to follow, reasons to keep fighting even through the tears, because our Black lives, our triumphs, and our challenges all matter. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Comparative Education Review Volume 67, Number S1February 2023Black Lives Matter and Global Struggles for Racial Justice in Education Sponsored by the Comparative and International Education Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/722331 Views: 25Total views on this site HistoryReceived August 25, 2022Accepted August 25, 2022 For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.