So many moments. So many best days ever… I follow after April Halprin Wayland and share in her celebration of the wonderous moments when a class gets going and you realize you have congealed into one living organism learning, playing, supporting, and loving together.
I also think of those deeply personal moments of best days ever, like when I birthed my daughter at a birth center in Hollywood, CA off of Sunset Blvd. with direct-entry midwives. Eight strong women, the majority of which were healers held space around a birthing tub. My daughter was born in the water in a lavender painted room with white curtains blowing and Bach playing in the background. Candles surrounded the birthing tub and when she came into the world…then there were ten (including me.) It was truly a sacred birth.
But, that’s not the memory I want to share at this time.
This past October, Hatem Aly and I were awarded the Children’s Africana Book Award (CABA) for Egyptian Lullaby from Howard University. The committee flew me out to Washington D.C to accept the honor.
Honestly, when Hatem reached out, I had mixed feelings. Awards set apart one person from the others and creates hierarchy. Awards more often than not appeal to one’s ego. I am in favor of an egalitarian society over a hierarchical one. I’m not in favor of awards for teachers because I see teaching as a collaborative process which spans the years of a student’s academic career. Progress cannot be measured by a single year with a single teacher. We all contribute to the final “product.” Awards for artistic endeavors are a bit less cut and dry for me. How many of us have watched the Academy Awards or Grammy’s and fantasized ourselves on that stage. (OK maybe that’s an LA thing.) Awards given to artists/writers can help awardees obtain more opportunity to create more work. It’s hard to ignore the reality. Hard to ignore that the words “award-winning” can change the trajectory of one’s career. While I can be competitive, I prefer to lean into my collaborative self which is actually stronger and more productive and comfortable to exist in. I have spent decades developing and nurturing my skills as a collaborator as an activist, organizer, educator and artist. I felt honored and yet compelled to acknowledge that I was embarrassed by the attention that singled me out… Humbled by all the congratulations I received. I knew I was expected to give a speech. What would I talk about? My writing process? The intention of Egyptian Lullaby? The importance of normalizing Arab culture? In the end I chose to celebrate the intentions of the award itself.
Click here to watch video of speech 1
Click here to watch video of speech 2
Click here to watch video of speech 3
Below is a transcript of my acceptance speech:
Thank you to Africa Access and the African Studies Association and the Howard University community on behalf of Hatem Aly and myself. I am an Egyptian-Filipino American. Egyptian Lullaby is my love letter to Cairo, the homeland of my father.
There are literary awards out there that might have served my ego and vanity, and then there is this award that speaks to my heart, my soul, and most importantly…aligns with my purpose. Your mission to encourage the publication of children’s books to contribute to a better understanding of African societies and issues, intersects with my own 35 years of activism and grassroots organizing for social justice.
I am both a children’s book author as well as a public-school kindergarten teacher in Los Angeles. I wrote Egyptian Lullaby to normalize Arab culture because Hollywood and the media have done a bang-up job of demonizing Arabs in addition of course to almost all the cultures on the continent of Africa.
I often present at teacher’s conferences on Using Picture Books to Decenter White Culture and Recenter Diversity. Your mission recenters true global diversity. I know that my fellow teachers in the US as well as myself, come to our classes with internal biases. It is impossible to not. And without resources and support, we pass those on to our students unknowingly. We choose books that prioritize stories told through a white, Eurocentric lens. Your mission is so important to widening the span of available books like, Egyptian Lullaby and those of my fellow authors and illustrators here today. If teachers and librarians can choose from a greater variety of books, we can consciously shift the way we center marginalized cultures and not reinforce the dominant culture. We can create a lens through which children see a world where many different peoples and cultures live equitably…A world where children in current marginalized communities see themselves as valued…A world where we can address the unequal power dynamics. We can demonstrate valuing all people and most importantly, bring marginalized people out of the margins. Sometimes it feels like doing anti-racist work is insurmountable and overwhelming. Your work makes it easier. Spotlighting and encouraging the creation and production of more books about many diverse cultures on the continent of Africa facilitates more access for teachers, librarians, and ultimately, readers. It helps motivate the publishing industry to create and value the stories of currently marginalized peoples. It creates opportunities for writers and artists to tell their stories that may not otherwise get told. And, it influences what bookstores choose to carry and market. Providing a balanced view of the world for children is imperative to promoting equity. Afterall, if we keep reinforcing for our young children through the books we share…that Eurocentric cultures have more value…we cannot be surprised when Anglo-Americans grow into adults unable to recognize their privilege. Your work helps to deconstruct the dominant paradigm and erase marginalization. This is the reason why I create. This was the intent of Egyptian Lullaby.
I would be remiss not to thank the people who birthed this book into being…My cousins Nabil and Fatma, adult children of my Aunt Zina who inspired this story, my writing teacher and friend, Deborah Norse Latimore, my dear agent, Abigail Samoun, the Roaring Brook team…executive editor, Emily Feinberg, assistant editor, Emilia Sowersby, copy editor, Sarah Gommper, art director, Aram Kim, designer, Mercedes Padro, publicist, Sara Elroubi, and school and library marketing assistant, Grace Tyler. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Truly what made the day, “the best day ever,” was the confluence of people who came together in that room at the luncheon. Brenda Randolph, Vanessa Oyugi and Harriet McGuire who made it all possible. The other authors and illustrators with whom I shared this once in a lifetime memorable day.
Each person honored was given their own table. Those in attendance sat at the table of their choice. And there it was, a table full of people with points of access representing different parts of my life. Instantaneously, I felt like I was sitting with family. Each person familiar in their own way and intersecting different parts of me. Seemingly, all roads led to those social justice aspects of my past trajectory referenced in my speech and soon I would find that they would continue into my current journey providing camaraderie and solace along the way…Fellow picture book author of Hands Around the Library – Protecting Egypt’s Treasured Books, Karen Leggert Abouraya and I connected for a couple of reasons. She wrote the book that I had found a few years ago as a comp for a story I was researching about the Arab Spring Revolution in Egypt. I remember finding the story and wishing I had been the one to write it. It’s so beautiful. She is also married to an Egyptian man. Cheryl Hamlin Freeman, board member of Africa Access and a member of the CABA planning committee and I connected with the other side of my heritage, my Filipino side as she is married to a Filipino man. She was accompanied by her daughter. Heba F. El-Shazli, fellow political activist who shares my Egyptian roots and is a professor at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government connected with me immediately like sisters. I reconnected almost immediately after I was back in LA to tap into her wealth of knowledge pertaining to Israel and Gaza. Then checked in with her again regarding Syria. My good friend from college, Kathleen West came to experience this best day ever. We hadn’t seen each other in almost 2 decades and went to school together in the early 80’s. Lastly, Deborah Menkart, executive director of Teaching for Change, an organization that influenced my teaching in the 90’s as I was developing, sat at my table unknowing of the influence she had had on me as a progressive teacher. As a result of their work and the work of Rethinking Schools, I have grown to see my role as a teacher as an act of social justice.
I reached out to many the following Wednesday, the day after the elections, to find community. These are the words from Deborah that brought tears to my eyes and hope to my heart. Meeting this amazing group of people was truly the result of “the best day ever!”
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