NAACP president, Benjamin Jealous not only got a key to Portland, Maine, but a stack of young adult literature as well.
As part of Human Rights Day: Marking the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the keynote speaker Benjamin Jealous was presented with books on social justice from Curious City clients, Phillip Hoose, Anne Sibley O’Brien, and Maria Testa.
Phil Hoose presented his forthcoming young adult biography of Claudette Colvin, the brave 15-year-old who refused to give up her seat to a white woman in 1955 Montgomery, Alabama. Benjamin Jealous nodded vigorously as Phil described Claudette’s act of courage on the bus and later as a key plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle. The book, Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice will release from FSG on Martin Luther King Day, 2009.
Anne Sibley O’Brien beamed at the audience of 400+ and talked about the victory of Barrack Obama and his call for social action and sacrifice. No better way to prepare than to read the sixteen profiles of activists in Anne’s forthcoming book, After Gandhi: 100 Years of Nonviolent Resistance. Written with her son Perry O’Brien, the book’s design is stunning– from Annie’s black and white water soluble pastel illustrations, to the leader’s quotes emblazoned in red to the compact, concise, intriguing prose. The book will be out in February 2009 from Charlesbridge Publishers.
Maria Testa took the stage with the same eloquence, poise, and perfection of language she displays in her prose poetry novels. Maria presented the NAACP president with her book, Something About America, the novel about one refugee family’s reaction to racism (or the thing that is “not supposed to happen in America.”) Although the incidents Maria writes about took place six years ago in Maine, the audience immediately drew the connection to acts of racism in Maine since the election. Audience members that work with the refugee and New American population in Portland approached Maria after the event to tell her how much the book had meant to them.
All in all a very heady night. Thanks to Rachel Talbot Ross, the president of Maine’s NAACP for giving us the opportunity to do this and for producing an all around brilliant evening.
Pictured Benjamin Jealous, the president of the national NAACP and Rachel Talbot Ross, president of the Maine NAACP. Photo by the Portland Press Herald.
