Sea of Tiny Flames

‪¡Feliz Día Del Niño!‬

Bread can be SO EASY to make!!! This no-knead bread could not be easier:

It does require you to bake it in a Dutch oven, but a LOT of bread recipes call for this. The idea is that the covered Dutch oven traps steam from the baking loaf, which mimics the steam-injected ovens in commercial bakeries. The steam really improves what’s called “oven spring” and makes for a better crust as well.

Also, if you have a kitchen scale, use the metric recipe (measuring ingredients by weight instead of volume is much more accurate, especially when making bread.) If you don’t have a scale, “fluff up” your flour by stirring it up, and then spoon it into a measuring cup instead of dipping the cup into the bag of flour.

The reduction of Robert Nesta Marley, one of Jamaica’s, if not the world’s, most prolific Rastafarian artists and advocates for the liberation of Black people in his nation and throughout the diaspora, to a happy go lucky man stripped of identity and meaning who burns ganja all day will NOT be tolerated.

Commodification and disrespect of the Jamaican culture of which he descended will also not be tolerated, and you all sound ugly mocking Jamaican Patois no matter where you’re from.

yellow beauty…Mame Thiane Camara for Marie Claire France, May 2017

40 Books to Celebrate National Poetry Month

The forty books listed offer a range of diverse topics from Phillis Wheatley’s ruminations on various subjects to Mahogany L. Browne’s Black Girl Magic—from laughing feet to family love—Harlem to hair. April is National Poetry Month, and there’s something here for personal, classroom, and community enjoyment or inspiration. Poetry Month is “the largest literary celebration in the world,” so go here for ideas on how to celebrate all month long and here for more poetry selections from Nikki Grimes, Marilyn Nelson, Kwame Alexander, and other poets. Happy Poetry Month!

My People - Langston Hughes, Illustrator - Charles R. Smith Jr.  

I Am Loved - Nikki Giovanni, Illustrator - Ashley Bryan

My Feet Are Laughing - Lissette Norman, Illustrator - Frank Morrison  

Young Cornrows Callin Out the Moon - Ruth Forman, Illustrated by Cbabi Bayoc  

Bronzeville Boys and Girls - Gwendolyn Brooks, Illustrator - Faith Ringgold  

Love to Langston - Tony Medina, Illustrator - R. Gregory Christie  

Hey Black Child - Useni Eugene Perkins, Illustrator - Bryan Collier  

Read and Rise - Sandra L. Pinkney, Illustrator - Myles Pinkney  

I Am the Virgin Islands - Tiphanie Yanique  

I Live in Music - Ntozake Shange, Illustrator - Romare Bearden

We Are Shining - Gwendolyn Brooks - Jan Spivey Gilchrist

In Your Hands - Carole Boston Weatherford, Illustrator - Brian Pinkney  

That Is My Dream! - Langston Hughes, Illustrator - Daniel Miyares  

Some Kind of Love: A Family Reunion in Poems - Traci Dant Illustrator - Eric Velasquez  

Life Doesn’t Frighten Me - Maya Angelou, Illustrator - Jean-Michel Basquiat 

Oh, Brother! - Nikki Grimes, Illustrator - Mike Benny  

Sail Away - Langston Hughes, Illustrator - Ashley Bryan  

Ostrich and Lark - Marilyn Nelson, Illustrators - San Artists of the Kuru Art Project in Botswana  

Crowning Glory - Joyce Carol Thomas, Illustrator - Brenda Joysmith  

Harlem - Walter Dean Myers, Illustrator - Christopher Myers  

Poetry for Young People: Maya Angelou - Dr. Edwin Graves Wilson Ph.D., Illustrator - Jerome Lagarrigue  

The Angels Lullaby - Joyce Carol Thomas, Illustrator - Pamela Johnson  

Wonders: The Best Children’s Poems of Effie Lee Newsome - Rudine Sims Bishop (Compiler), Illustrator - Lois Mailou Jones  

I See the Rhythm - Toyomi Igus, Illustrator - Michele Wood  

Under the Moon & Over the Sea: A Collection of Caribbean Poems - James Berry & Grace Nichols  

Daddy Calls Me Man - Angela Johnson, Illustrator - Rhonda Mitchell  

Children of Long Ago - Lessie Jones Little, Illustrator - Jan Spivey Gilchrist  

America, My New Home - Monica Gunning, Illustrator - Ken Condon  

Soul Looks Back in Wonder - Tom Feelings (Editor) Illustrator - Tom Feelings  

Words with Wings: A Treasury of African-American Poetry and Art - Belinda Rochelle https://amzn.to/2Gz4E5m

The Pioneers (Poetry from the Masters) - Wade Hudson  

The Poems of Phillis Wheatley: With Letters and a Memoir - Phillis Wheatley 

Carver: A Life in Poems - Marilyn Nelson

Poetry from the Masters: The Black Arts Movement - Eugene Useni Perkins 

Remember the Bridge: Poems of a People - Carole Boston Weatherford     

Martin Rising: Requiem for a King - Andrea Davis Pinkney, Illustrator - Brian Pinkney  

How I Discovered Poetry - Marilyn Nelson, Illustrator - Hadley Hooper  

One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance - Nikki Grimes, Illustrators - Various Artists  

Out of Wonder - Kwame Alexander, Chris Colderley, & Marjory Wentworth, Illustrator - Ekua Holmes 

Black Girl Magic - Mahogany L. Browne. Illustrator - Jess X. Snow

Find more children’s and young adult books by Black authors here 

<>Follow BCBA on Twitter <> Subscribe to Our Newsletter <>

Your thoughtful donation will support our mission to promote awareness of children’s and young adult literature by Black authors. 

Our stories matter. 

Baby laughing while getting shots

Found his IG! It’s @steelosoul

Oh

My

“ What would you most want me to know about your experience?”

( omg, a school shooting isn’t a freaking experience, it’s a trauma that they went through.)

“What can we do to help you feel better?)

( Feel, feel better? Maybe ask the parents, students and supporters What can you do to make them actually safe?)

5. I hear you.

What it’s really about is learning where and when you need help, how much help you need, and knowing when to reach out and ask for the help you need to function at your ideal level

Guys, this is really important. Until now, Google collected your data, but did not attach your name to it. Now, they can, and will. This new thing they’re doing will allow them to collect your data across searches, your email, Youtube, Maps, Google+, and all their affiliates, and build a complete profile of YOU.

If that doesn’t bother you, maybe this will: they own and can sell all that data, including anything you create and send (artists and writers, take note).

There is a way you can opt out of this ridiculousness. It’s described in the link, but if you’re still not sure about it, please ask me and I’ll guide you through how to turn all this off.