Young Trailblazers: The Book of Black Artists

Vorwort

• MJ is widely read in the French Caribbean and has written nine books in French
• Her short stories and poems in English have appeared in various anthologies and magazines, and her plays have been performed at the Miami MicroTheater, at the O, Miami Festival, at Poetry Press Week, and at Compositum Musicae Novae.
• She founded Sliver of Stone Magazinem and has an MFA from the Creative Writing Program at Florida International University.
• She taught writing for 8 years at Nova Middle School in Davie, and later became a writing professor at Broward College and Miami Dade College.
• She’s been a key note speaker at Tufts University (Massachusetts), Howard University (Washington, D.C.), the University of Miami (Florida), and Michael College (Vermont), and a panelist at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference (AWP). 
• She’s taught ekphrastic poetry and haiku workshops at the Miami Art Museum, and in various schools, including iTech @ Thomas A. Edison Educational Center, in Miami, and Tedder Elementary, in Pompano Beach.
• She’s an ambassador for Lip Service, a John S. and James L. Knight Foundation award-winning organization and a Miami institution.
• She’s also a proud member of the Miami Poetry Collective, famous for its Poem Depot, a regular feature of Wynwood’s Second Saturday Art Walk.
• She’s participated to Haiti en Livres, the Anancy Festival, and the South Florida Book Festival, and at various literary events at Miami  City Hall, Miami Dade College, Broward College (“Caribbean Week” and “Literary Feast”), and the University of Miami.
• She’s an educator who wrote several educational scripts for the University of Miami, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. The scripts, turned into short films, were written in both English and Haitian Creole and aim at educating the Little Haiti community about diabetes, cervical cancer, and the HPV vaccine.
• In March 2015, MJ received the “Beacon of Hope and Achievement Award” from the Consulate General of Haiti in Miami.

• MJ currently serves at the ReadCaribbean program coordinator for the Miami Book Fair.

  Autorentext

  Born in Port-au-Prince, M.J. Fievre, B.S. Ed, earned a bachelor's degree in education from Barry University. A seasoned K-12 teacher, a creator of safe spaces, and an initiator of difficult conversations, she spent much time building up her students, helping them feel comfortable in their own skin, and affirming their identities. Her close relationships with parents and students led her to look more closely at how we can balance protecting a child's innocence with preparing them for the realities of life. She has taught creative writing workshops to children and teens at the O Miami Poetry Festival and the Miami Art Museum, as well as in various schools in Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia), Port-au-Prince (Haiti), and South Florida. She's also been a keynote speaker at Tufts University (Massachusetts), Howard University (Washington, DC), the University of Miami (Florida), and Michael College (Vermont) and has served as a panelist at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference (AWP).

  M.J.'s publishing career began as a teenager in her native Haiti. At nineteen years old, she signed her first book contract with Hachette-Deschamps for the publication of a YA book titled La Statuette Maléfique. Since then, M.J. has released nine YA books in French that are widely read in Europe and the French Antilles, and she is the author of the award-winning Badass Black Girl book series for tweens and teens (in English). One Moore Book published M.J.'s first children's book, I Am Riding, as part of a special limited series edited by Edwidge Danticat. A middle-grade book, Young Trailblazers, and picture book, Sam Is Afraid of Christmas, are both set to be released by DragonFruit in the fall of 2021.

  As the ReadCaribbean program coordinator for the prestigious Miami Book Fair, M.J. directs and produces the children's cultural show Taptap Krik? Krak! For her podcast, MJ has interviewed many literary legends, including Edwidge Danticat, Alice Randall, and Nikki Giovanni.

  Klappentext

  A fun book for children that teaches them about Black trailblazers who championed diversity in art through their creativity.

  Leseprobe

From the Introduction


 Some of the oldest known artwork in the world is Black art. Before there was slavery, there was Black art. Before there were colonies, there was Black art. For many years, Black art was stolen out of Africa and displayed in some of Europe’s finest museums, always with the notion that it was pleasing to the white eye to see a bust of Nefertiti or some Egyptian tomb paintings. Often, brown-skinned people behold Black and see things white art critics have missed. Black art is important because it opens art to a wide spectrum of skin colors, beyond white, and shows us different perspectives on reality. 

 It is next to impossible to define Black art because it is multi-faceted and dynamic. There is no one thing that is Black art. Black art is powerful. It is unique in its forms. Black art is also history, and it is often a history of struggle for liberation. Whether it was quiltmakers who left secret messages in the designs of their quilts during the years when it was illegal for slaves to read and write or field workers singing in harmony under the hot sun, nothing has stopped the Black artist from creating art. There is strength in numbers, and the best of Black art can be found where movements have existed that support and nurture the artist. Whether it was the Harlem Renaissance at the beginning of the 20th century or the many movements and collectives that began to emerge during the 1960s, like AfriCOBRA, The Black Arts Movement, and Where We At, Black art flourishes when it is a collective endeavor, and when artists open doors that have long been closed to them. It is no coincidence that Black arts movements are tied to civil rights movements. When we express indignation at the way we’ve been treated, it leads to greater liberation from oppression and to a dismantling of racist ideas. Black art is how we show pride in our creativity and culture.