How do we protect the hearts of the immigrant community in these “unkind times”?
“We need books to break open our hearts, so that we might feel more deeply, so that we might be more human in these unkind times.” —Sandra Cisneros
Yes, we need books—and shields.
I’m Your Neighbor Books joined forces with Boston’s Wee The People in Dorchester, MA for Open Streets Boston.
Under one tent we invited families into conversations about Immigrant and New Generation children’s literature, multilingualism, belonging, and the heroes and heroines of the Haitian Revolution.
Wee The People invited kids to color images of Haitian ancestors and craft the image into a shield to hold back the harm of these days.
Wee The People, a social justice education project celebrating 10 years of working with schools, libraries, and museums, is run by Francie Latour, the creator of the Haitian-hero rich picture book Auntie Luce’s Talking Paintings.
I’m Your Neighbor Books, who cultivates welcoming behaviors and builds a sense of belonging in all our communities by increasing access to and engagement with Immigrant and New Generation children’s literature, invited families to take a children’s book home.
Each book was hand-selected by I’m Your Neighbor Books and our marvelous sponsor Barefoot Books for its ability to protect the hearts of our immigrant neighbors.
A total of 312 books were given away before Dorchester returned the festival’s street to Sunday traffic.
Both non-profits are beyond grateful for the 114 beautiful board books and picture books donated by Barefoot Books.
Each of the Barefoot Books’ contributions were bilingual Haitian Creole/English!!
Barefoot Books, we wish we could capture the surprise and joy of the community seeing such an incredible representation of Haitian Creole. That joy and surprise was quadrupled when the learned they could take one of the books home at no cost!!
Publisher Barefoot Books is offering a wide variety of their beloved books in Arabic, Portuguese, Bengali, Simple Chinese, Navajo, Vietnamese, Spanish, French, —and Haitian Creole. It is such a generous offering as few publishers offer Multilingual Children’s Books.
As we packed up at the end of the festival, we saw that we had been operating under the watchful gaze of the incredible immigrant advocate Mayor Michelle Wu! Thank you, Mayor for this vibrant community festival!
NOTE: IYNB does not take pictures of children and families in these times without an invitation to do so from the family.
