BPL to Host “Read-In for Justice: Let the Children Speak” on August 8

By Gelenda Norman | Youth Department, Central Library 

The Birmingham Public Library is putting the spotlight on the next generation as it prepares to host its third Read-In for Justice virtual event at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 8.

“Read-In for Justice: Let the Children Speak,” is the theme for the third edition of BPL’s popular monthly series in which people from the community read books on the subject of race and social injustice.

The event will pay tribute to 1963, when the call to desegregate Birmingham went out. Civil rights leaders gathered from time to time strategizing and making plans to protest the discrimination against blacks in business and in everyday life. The plans included non-violent protests. In 1963, the plan was to enlist children to march throughout the city in protest of segregation. Thus, the Children’s March came to be.

Jahman Hill & Eric Marable, Jr., founders of The Flourish Alabama and past participants of BPL’s Bards & Brews, held a Virtual Poetry Camp last week. The theme of their camp was the Children's March. The outcome was so powerful that BPL decided to “Let the Children Speak” be the focus of the August Read-In for Justice. Click here to read more about the Flourish Summer Poetry Camp 

 “Read In for Justice: Let the Children Speak” will feature:

* Monica Clark-Robinson, author of Let the Children March, answering questions and sharing background on the book. 

* A discussion with Janice Wesley Kelsey, author of I Woke Up with My Mind on Freedom.  Kelsey will share her perspective as one of the children who participated in the 1963 Children's March in Birmingham. 

* Janice Wesley Kelsey will join a Flourish Poetry Camp participant (Katelyn Miller), Aaliya Taylor of Homewood Public Library and an elementary student (TBA) from the Birmingham City Schools to read Let the Children.

* Three participants from the Flourish Virtual Poetry Camp - Katelyn Miller, Saidah Royal and Antonio Johnson - will read one of their poetry writings.  

For more information, go to www.cobpl.org. 

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