Connectedness, inclusion, and community are themes that one will find when reading the picture book narrative poem, One Today. In One Today, Richard Blanco shows a literary celebration of how we are all connected no matter if someone is a teacher, a mother or father, a truck driver, or a shop owner. Blanco embarks the reader on a narrative of different individuals following their day-to-day goals. The art illustrates how we are all connected on this One Day. It illustrates that we are together and everyone is included. Blanco remarked that, “I love the word inclusion. I like the word inclusion where it is a come as you are party. Everyone is welcome. We all in our own endeavors belong to this larger role.”

One Today’s words and images gives the ready and experience of engaging and relevant artists. One who is a “One Today’s vision is that we did not change one idea with the poem. The paintings help to engage in the poem. I like that the book itself gives kids an early experience that poetry is relevant.”

Richard Blanco

How were you chosen to present at the inauguration?
It is still a mystery to me that they never really tell you. When I think of it however, that the president and I have similar biographical histories. I was conceived in Spain. Forty-Five days later, we immigrated to the United States. So a lot of the themes in my work identifying the themes as Am I American? Am I Cuban? Do I belong? What is my identity? I think about cultural negotiation, place, identity, and belonging.

As a little boy I can see him asking those same questions in terms in another layer of race too. We also had very influential grandmothers who played special roles in each of our lives. So I am thinking that if he was presented with poets I am thinking that that’s what closed the gap. I have always admired him in that way where he is an American dream come true. I have always been chasing that or asking in terms what that means.

Why was Dav Pilkey chosen as your illustrator?

I just love his work in the Caldecott honor book, the Paperboy. I feel that my writing is filled and lush with imagery and I see our work braided together. Dav’s work does not leave one blank dead space on the canvas and that’s how I feel how writing is. It is emotional a well. He uses every single inch, there is no white space, where it’s all connected, flowing, and fluid.

Why was One Today chosen as the title of your narrative?

The poem takes us through one day from dawn until midnight. It started as one day, but one today has a double meaning. It has this oneness where we are interconnected to this narrative of America in one day. So it is written as we are all one for that moment, for those 7 minutes where I read the poem at the inauguration. Let’s acknowledge that whether we behave together; let’s be at our best sprit in America. It is that meanings in America that we are one. One Today provides a true spectrum.

Why did you write your poem as a narrative?

I have always been a narrative poet. I think narratively, I always felt like a poet. I love storytelling in general; whether it’s in a poem or an in essay, or just talking to someone. I just love telling stories and that makes it into my poetry, One Today. In the Latino culture there is this art of storytelling. We sit around and it’s time to tell stories. After having coffee and a shot of espresso you just start telling stories and about what happened yesterday, today, last year, or what is going to happen tomorrow. I grew up looking at narratives all my life and stories from the past and present. I listened to adults and heard their stories.

On a practical sense, One Today was my first spoken word poem knowing that it would be heard before it would ever be read. So the idea of a narrative to me is a way of organizing information. When we story tell, it is usually an oral tradition. We have been telling each other poems and stories for many hundreds of years and more than reading them in books. So storytelling was a technique that I needed in that poem. It also needed a logical beginning and end. So it gave the narrative a boundary of time in order to connect the poem.

What is important to you in terms of diversity?

I write from the obsession of finding identity, belonging, place, community, and family and what all that means. I grew up in Miami since I was four years old. I was not educated in Spanish but I can speak Spanish. I write from a place of national loyalty, cultural loyalty which is always in my background. Including my background is something that I do not try, it just is. In some ways as artists we are writing about our experiences to have a larger conversation about everything. It strikes me that here is an irony in art in diversity and inclusion. At the one hand we are drawing our distinctions to acknowledge and distinct them. But with all art we are trying to get to something universal through the very particular message through all of my work. For someone who is not diverse, in a way we are all diverse.

The poem connects that human bridge where we are all human beings. Some times at poetry readings people have said, “Wow your mother is like my grandmother.” Where that person is from Latvia or the person is four generations of New Englanders. They see the humanity, and they do not see the picture of a Latino man, we are talking about the same thing; love, hate, family, belonging, feeling like an odd ball growing up. We’ve been talking about all of these things. There is an irony of diversity and inclusion, and the ultimate goal is to not have to use that word. Diversity is done to show how we are all different, but it is more important to show here is how we are all human. Diversity shares the prefix with division. I want to show in One Today how we are all connected. Here is that bridge of shared humanity. Our great leaders have spoken to us about spiritual confidence and not hate. A place of passion and saying “look at me, look at my humanity. Look at my color and languages. But ultimately “see us, see me, we are human.” We are not abstractions. The power is to see the power in you. This poem is celebrating how we are all connected.

Danticat wrote a modern-day story about a family separated by immigration. Mama’s Nightingale is set in the United States where her mother doesn’t have her citizenship papers. Saya longed for her mother to return home. She cried when she saw her mother at the prison knowing that her mother could not come home because her mother did not have the right citizenship papers. Saya’s parents remained strong for her, and they give her love and positive words to keep her strong. When Saya learns about the power of words, she used her writing to set her mother free. Immigration interrupts families’ lives daily. Danticat and illustrator Leslie Staub displays a story of hope and resilience. Throughout the story, Staub illustrates a nightingale, which reminds of the protection that it brings to Saya and her family. “I chose this story because it is real. Families are being separated because of immigration. When you look in the news and in the media, immigration happens quite a bit. Immigration separates many families. People want the same immigration reform because a lot of families have to choose to stay with their kids or get deported with them. It is a tough one it is a reality. This story is similar to my own because I was separated from my family. We did not have the right papers.” The character Saya was torn up about her family’s separation. She remembered her mother by from recordings such as “Yon istwa dodo pou Saya.” The recording kept her asleep at night because it was her spirit coming to her. The stories of her families native tounge draws Saya to fight for her mother. Danticat as a Haitian author writes books to educate children. She wrote this story from her own. “I used my own personal story because it rings true to Saya’s story. Children and parents who are separated from their family are torn a part. Particularly a lot of kids can see the truthfulness in this story. I would love for kids to learn non-tolerance. This story teaches about the power in words. In Mama’s Nightingale, her mother uses her words to keep her daughter inspired. The little girl uses her words to inspire change. For example, she writes to the newspapers. I think with immigration there are a lot of unwanted bodies. The more individual stories that we hear from, the better.” If you are a person of color, you are writing a story, you are writing a story about yourself, you are not saying “oh I’m not writing a book about diversity.” You take your own complexity humanity, and diversity for granted. I think what’s most important for people like us to tell your own stories. Whether it is school children or making opportunities for persons of color. As consumers of books, we have a responsibility to get those books into classrooms.  We should find their books and attend their events.  We have to find more diverse voices so that the landscape becomes that way. You can learn more about Edwidge Danticat and her story online.  

Lacey T The Murder Mystery of Jason Blackwell

Meherrin (muh-hair-ren), a tenacious and fashionable teen has her life disrupted with violence. Community members who lost their lives in the Trenches were assumed to be “at the wrong place at the wrong time.” However, Meherrin could not accept this assumption as the fate of Jason Blackwell or any other lost teens. Author Lacey T. brings in concepts about history from long ago and history that affects our society today. This book was written for teens so they can seek out truths that affect their lives dearly. “If we only knew how innately strong, smart and beautiful we really were, we’d risk our freedom every second to preserve our lives as well as those around us!” explained author Lacey T. Meherrin uncovered the truth behind Jason’s death, and was determined and resilient.

Meherrin and the Murder Mystery of Jason Blackwell

Lacey believes that all youth have the ability to change their community, because teens are discovering who they are and can adapt more readily in their lives. Lacey T’s first year as an English teacher was in southern California. There she saw teens raising money for a friend’s funeral. She listened to their stories, and uncovered their experiences and real world experiences in her book. “For me, it was a culture shock. When I started teaching in LA, students were going from classroom to classroom looking for funds to bury  their deceased friends. In school, there were riots and fights between people living in certain hoods, and certain cliques. As a teacher, it was pretty disappointing and a lot of this stemmed from a problem with the adults and the community itself. It borderlined a battle zone where someone would end up mourning and grieving. The youth had their way of expressing grief but very rarely in the healthiest of ways. The community itself felt powerless and did not know their own power. The tone of powerlessness took violent turns “I will shoot up their hood, “or vice versa. You can turn a blind eye to the community, but mostly I would say the powerlessness or the economic powerlessness to get out of the community was crippling. The community suffered a lack of beneficial projects for kids, leaders and healthy functioning family units,”

Homicide is one of the top three leading causes of death in teens. The kids who are surviving those traumatic events do not gain the proper counseling nor learn the best coping skills to deal with these traumatic events. Meherrin and the Murder Mystery of Jason Blackwell brings the voices of those young people to light in order to inspire readers to think about what happens in their own community.

Lacey T writes to give a voice to the youth. When she became a teacher, not only did the violence affect her, but the number of books that her students could relate to was a concern of hers. She recognized that her students lacked reading and vocabulary skills to achieve at their current grade level. She also recognized that there were not enough stories that reflected the community that her students lived in. ”I write for youth to see themselves in literature and to make them think about the surrounding around them. My writing also challenges their vocabulary. I noticed that a lot of my students, particularly minority students, were not reading up to their grade level and lacked an interest in reading. As an English teacher, it was frustrating to me that my students were not interested in reading. So I wanted to insert myself into the independent market, and to hook them into and interesting drama, but to challenge them with the plot, language, and characters.

Lacey is looking to work with more libraries and schools so she can help minority students and all children face the challenges in their community. She is currently working on her second book, and her readers keep asking her when the next one is coming. Teachers and children who have read it are finding an interest in her book. She said that parents noticed that their children are more engaged to read her book when they were not as engaged to read other books. Books that inspired her as an author include Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God to name a few.

You can find more information about Lacey T at https://meherrinmysteryseries.com/ in addition to the Meherrin and the Murder Mystery of Jason Blackwell custom curriculum, vocabulary activity guide and audiobook.