Young People’s Poet Laureate at Ashley Bryan Art Series Community Day

The African American Research Library and Cultural Center presents the Ashley Bryan Art Series Community Day, a day dedicated to art, creation, and stories.

Award-winning authors and illustrators join forces to inspire young minds at the Ashley Bryan Art Series—a celebration of art and literature for youth. Guided by the theme “Dreams Take Flight Through Art and Literature,” the event features presentations by award-winning authors and illustrators, a high-energy “Rap It Up” poetry workshop, hands-on arts and crafts, sidewalk chalk art, face painting, music by DJ She J Hercules, an interactive puppet show, and creative art and writing workshops. It’s a day of imagination, expression, and fun for the whole family.

Special guests Carole Boston Weatherford and Jeffery Boston Weatherford, an award-winning mother and son duo, will inspire attendees with their dynamic blend of storytelling, poetry, and history.

This event is a part of Young People’s Poet Laureate Carole Boston Weatherford’s programming for young readers, caregivers, librarians, and educators sponsored by the Poetry Foundation.

Keynote speaker: Carole Boston Weatherford

The daughter of a printer, Carole Boston Weatherford was practically born with ink in her blood. She began writing at age six and soon after saw her poems in print. Her 80-plus books have garnered 2 NAACP Image Awards and 18 American Library Association Youth Media Awards, including a Newbery Honor, Coretta Scott King Award and four Caldecott Honors. Kin: Rooted in Hope is a multi-generational family history told in the voices of the author's ancestors, spanning enslavement alongside Frederick Douglass at Maryland's Wye House plantation, service in the U.S. Colored Troops, and the founding of all-Black Reconstruction-era communities. Her career achievements have been recognized with the ALA Children’s Literature Legacy Award, the North Carolina Award for Literature, and the Nonfiction Award from the Children’s Book Guild. The 2024 Young People’s Poet Laureate and a retired HBCU professor, she lives in Baltimore.

Keynote Speaker: Jeffery Boston Weatherford

Jeffery Boston Weatherford is an award-winning children's book illustrator and a rapper. His latest book, Rap It Up!, was inspired by workshops merging writing and technology. KIN: Rooted in Hope won a Coretta Scott King Honor and the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award for Poetry. His debut book, You Can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen, was named an ALSC Notable Book and a best book of the year by National Council for the Social Studies and Kirkus Reviews. This book celebrates the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, pioneering African-American pilots who triumphed in the skies and past the color barrier. Jeffery's art has been exhibited in Washington, DC; Georgia, Maryland, and North Carolina. Formerly a National Book Foundation teaching artist, he holds an MFA from Howard University where he was a Romare Bearden Scholar.