{"id":19456,"date":"2018-10-18T00:01:25","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T04:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=19456"},"modified":"2018-10-26T11:11:29","modified_gmt":"2018-10-26T15:11:29","slug":"34th-annual-virginia-hamilton-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2018\/10\/34th-annual-virginia-hamilton-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"34th Annual Virginia Hamilton Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, I attended the 34th<\/sup> Annual Virginia Hamilton Conference at Kent State University, focusing on multicultural literature for children and young adults.\u00a0 Living in Northeast Ohio, I have attended several times in the past; however, this year I am a newly minted member of the Conference\u2019s Advisory Board and got to see a bit \u201cbehind the curtain\u201d of the event as well. In addition, this year was unusual.\u00a0 The typical April date was changed to October to be combined with a Literacy Conference Kent State was hosting this year, and that content was also included in breakdown sessions.<\/p>\n

The Conference began Thursday evening with dinner, the Arnold Adoff Poetry Awards<\/a>, and one of the Conference\u2019s three keynote speakers, poet Marilyn Nelson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Present to pick up\"\"\u00a0their poetry awards, and to read excerpts from their work, were winner Nikki Grimes<\/a> (One Last Word<\/em>) and honor recipients Hope Anita Smith (My Daddy Rules the World<\/em>) and Laura Shovan (The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary<\/em>).\u00a0 Then Dr. Nelson took the stage, speaking on the \u201cobligation\u201d of literature and literacy.\u00a0 Her mother was a schoolteacher and firmly believed that “each one should teach one,” and that one should “lift others as they themselves rise.”\u00a0 Dr. Nelson\u2019s father was a Tuskegee Airman, a history she used in a novel in verse she referenced in her speech, American Ace<\/em>.\u00a0 In this story, a teen raised in an Italian family learns that the grandfather he grew up with was not his biological ancestor.\u00a0 Instead, the family is led on a journey that brings them to a Tuskegee Airman.\u00a0 My very Italian self had<\/em> to purchase a copy of the book and have Dr. Nelson sign it.\u00a0 She was tickled that I caught the double entendre of the family\u2019s last name.\u00a0 (And no, I\u2019m not telling\u2014check out the book!)<\/p>\n

Friday morning, the literacy portion of the Conference took center stage with David Bloome, distinguished professor of literacy from the Ohio State University. Dr. Bloome talked about how intertextual practice, the play between the text itself and commentary both written and spoken, can affect reading comprehension.\u00a0 I\u2019m not a teacher, but I found his explanations fascinating.\u00a0 He played jazz\u2019s Herbie Hancock\u2019s \u201cWatermelon Man\u201d along with several covers of the piece as a metaphor for this practice.<\/p>\n

At this time, participants broke up to attend three workshops of their choice from among 32 offerings.\u00a0 Along with two colleagues, (John Jarvey, Cleveland Teacher\u2019s Academy\u00a0(Retired) and Lisa Krok, Branch Manager, Cleveland Public Library) I presented a session entitled\u201c<\/em>Where Am I? Helping Young People Find Themselves in Literature.\u201d\u00a0 I love booktalking diverse books with librarians and teachers so that they can recommend them to the young people in their lives.\u00a0 I then \u201croom monitored\u201d two additional sessions.\u00a0 LaSasha Dixon, Mariah Johnson, and Winnie Johnson from Dayton Metro Library discussed \u201cRepresentation Matters: African-American Men and Boys in Picture Books,\u201d which included a book list and some fun and poignant performances and conversation.\u00a0 The third session I monitored was \u201cWriting Ourselves: Ideas for Bridging the Gap between High School and College Writing.\u201d You can learn more about the project here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The day concluded with a keynote from Wade and Cheryl Hudson, authors and publishers of Just Us Books<\/a>. I had the honor of introducing the couple, who spoke about their journey to publishing and their goal of providing authentic representation of African-Americans in children\u2019s literature through the books they write and publish.\u00a0 (Check out their newest compilation \u201cWe Rise, We Resist, We Lift Our Voices\u201d featuring authors such as Jason Reynolds, Kwame Alexander, Jacqueline Woodson, Joseph Bruchac, Ellen Oh, and others).\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

On a personal note, I had the opportunity to drive Dr. Nelson and the Hudsons, and they are not only fascinating and talented, but lovely people as well.<\/p>\n

I look forward to the 35th<\/sup> Virginia Hamilton Conference, to be held on Thursday, April 23, 2020.\u00a0 Save the date!<\/p>\n

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This post addresses the following ALSC Core Competencies: IV. Knowledge, Curation, and Management of Materials and VII. Professionalism and Professional Development.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, I attended the 34th Annual Virginia Hamilton Conference at Kent State University, focusing on multicultural literature for children and young adults.\u00a0 Living in Northeast Ohio, I have attended several times in the past; however, this year I am a newly minted member of the Conference\u2019s Advisory Board and got to see a bit \u201cbehind the curtain\u201d of the event as well. In addition, this year was unusual.\u00a0 The typical April date was changed to October to be combined with a Literacy Conference Kent State was hosting this year, and that content was also included in breakdown sessions. The Conference began Thursday evening with dinner, the Arnold Adoff Poetry Awards, and one of the Conference\u2019s three keynote speakers, poet Marilyn Nelson. Present to pick up\u00a0their poetry awards, and to read excerpts from their work, were winner Nikki Grimes (One Last Word) and honor recipients Hope Anita Smith (My Daddy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":297,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[85,1474,22,1604,61,1614,1613],"tags":[333,428,1624],"class_list":["post-19456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-spotlight","category-blogger-maria-trivisonno","category-childrens-literature","category-competencies-for-librarians-serving-children-in-public-libraries","category-diversity","category-knowledge-curation-and-management-of-materials","category-professionalism-and-professional-development","tag-diversity-2","tag-multiculturalism","tag-virginia-hamilton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/297"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}