*If you're 12 or under, it's not legal for anyone to collect your e-mail address. You can subscribe to this blog in a reader and follow me on twitter to get much of the same information, just not put together in tidy packages. But heck, if you're 11 or 12, you already know that life isn't always tidy. Thanks!
clockwise from top left: Jonny Garza Villa, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Anna-Marie McLemore, Aiden Thomas, Mark Oshiro, and Laura Pohl.
I so enjoyed watching this discussion with Jonny Garza Villa (FIFTEEN HUNDRED MILES FROM THE SUN), Anna-Marie McLemore (DARK AND DEEPEST RED), Tehlor Kay Mejia (WE SET THE DARK ON FIRE), Mark Oshiro (EACH OF US A DESERT). Laura Pohl (THE LAST 8) and Aiden Thomas (CEMETERY BOYS)!
Moments that resonated for me included:
"Queerness is actually a very magical thing." –Aiden Thomas
"We're all kinds of works in progress in terms of identity... and that's okay and beautiful." –Anna-Marie McLemore
On not centering straight, cis, whiteness in his work: "these are the stories I want to tell...and who I am." –Mark Oshiro
"I would like this... but make it Gay." –Laura Pohl on finding her inspiration in other media
"For me, writing intersectional stories is a lot about having privilige in one area and not as much in another, and how you navigate that." –Tehlor Kay Mejia
'I want to celebrate everything I am now... to let kids/teens today know THEY can be themselves.' –Jonny Garza Villa
Hi Community! I'm Lee Wind. It's December 2020, and this is the November/December 2020 Newsletter. It's been quite a few months, and I think what I've realized is that there are certain people that thrive on creating chaos, including the current occupant of the White House.
And I've also realized that I don't thrive on chaos. I thrive on being grounded, and breathing. Like in meditation or in yoga, when you have a solid foundation, then you can stretch and grow and expand. Like roots of a tree and reaching up to the sky.
It's been a very, very challenging time, and I just want to acknowledge that. And I hope that you and yours are well and safe and are finding moments of being grounded so you can thrive, too.
So it's the video newsletter. I have a few updates. The first, about author stuff...
I'm very honored to be one of 50 authors participating in "Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep" which is an amazing compilation of essays, an anthology of essays, orchestrated and edited by Melissa Stewart, who has so many amazing nonfiction books for kids that are out there. And she wants to let people know that nonfiction comes from a place of passion, too. It isn't just facts and dates.
Which I love, because I really believe, so strongly, that history to me was taught as medicine, and I think it should be like chocolate, and that's really the whole idea behind my new book coming out, "No Way, They Were Gay? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves."
I want to tell you about a book I read recently that I really loved. "You Brought Me The Ocean" - which is a graphic novel. It's sort of the origin story of Aqualad. Written by Alex Sanchez and illustrated by Julie Maroah. Julie is the creator of "Blue is the Warmest Color," which was amazing, and Alex of course has done "Rainbow Boys," and "The God Box," and so many other powerful Queer teen novels. I'm very excited to tell you that this book was amazing. I savored it! It was so beautifully drawn, and the story was so exciting. They're young Queer kids of color and Oh, yes! You must read it. It was so great!
Inspiration! So this month - these two months - the words I'm finding really inspiring, that are helping me stay grounded, are the words of Bayard Rustin. Actually, so inspirational that it is the opening spread of the chapter on Bayard Rustin in my upcoming nonfiction book.
This is - what is this, you ask? - this is a printout of an early version of a draft of the book - of the ARC - which is very exciting. You can see that it's very dynamic and exciting. It won't be in oranges, I don't know, my printer ink went wonky. It is black and grays. The quote from Bayard Rustin is right here, it's sort of a pull quote from later in the chapter, and it says:
"...If we want to do away with the injustice to gays it will not be done because we get rid of the injustice to gays. It will be done because we are forwarding the effort for the elimination of injustice to all." —Bayard Rustin, in a 1986 interview
I love that. Right? We can't each just be for ourselves. We have to stand up for everyone that is disenfrancished, for everyone who is left out, for everyone who is not getting their voices heard, and stand up together and then we will eliminate injustice for everyone at the same time. I love that vision. I love that that was 1986, and it feels like it could have been said today. So, Bayard Rustin, an amazing forefather of our modern Gay rights movement, and a real big player in the Civil Rights movement. He was the guy who organized the big march on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. made that amazing "I have a dream" speech. You'll find out lots more about Bayard in the book, but that really inspires me.
The final thing I wanted to share is gratitude. That I've very grateful that you're part of my community and I'm part of your community. Because truly, community is the antidote to chaos. And so, I invite you to take a deep breath with me. (inhale... exhale)
And I want to thank you, and I want to tell you that the light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you.
I'm really excited about this online, free Latinx KidLit Book Festival - and especially delighted that there's a panel including Queer Latinx creatives in KidLit, DE COLORES: A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION WITH LGBTQ+ LATINX WRITERS (happening Friday, December 4, 2020, from 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Eastern Standard Time EST)
Being Latinx and anywhere within the LGBTQIA+ spectrums brings its own set of unique circumstances, often shaped by gendered language, heteronormative cultural norms, and deeply held religious teachings. Especially growing up, we can often feel the conflict between tradition and expectation against the pull of our heart and soul toward happiness, seeing and being seen as our complete selves. How do our experiences walking within these intersectional identities shape the stories we tell and what meaning do these identities carry across genres? Hear from authors Jonny Garza Villa (FIFTEEN HUNDRED MILES FROM THE SUN), Anna-Marie McLemore (DARK AND DEEPEST RED), Tehlor Kay Mejia (WE SET THE DARK ON FIRE), Mark Oshiro (EACH OF US A DESERT). Laura Pohl (THE LAST 8) and Aiden Thomas (CEMETERY BOYS) on creating these powerful novels, and what shapes their stories, their characters, and their hopes for young LGBTQ+ readers who come across their writing.
Can't wait!
The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you, Lee
Self-Care for Kids! A children's book to talk about current and historical oppression and bullying in the United States while focusing on the important role kids can play using creativity and self love as a base to develop strength during difficult times.
Playful ink and watercolor illustrations support a powerful journey that touches on bullying in the founding history of the US, how that history may still be impacting kids and families today, and ways to use creativity and self-respect in the face of negative messages for all marginalized communities. The first part of the book briefly acknowledges the United States’ past and present and shows some basic forms of activism that kids engage in. The next part talks about walking away from a bully or de-escalation and focusing on how to take care of yourself and community. Finally practical ways creativity and portraiture can be used to support self-respect and spread respect in community are explored. Communities reflected include Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Chicanx, LGBTQ Americans, disabled Americans, Americans who identify as women and girls, Muslim and Sikh Americans, Jewish Americans and Asian Americans. The back includes related resources and referrals. Hardcover version also includes a reading guide for adults, community project and art & witnessing worksheets to copy. Paperback version just includes the art & witnessing worksheets.
This book is not a hero’s tale or the journey of a brave fight. This book is for the in between moments, the middle of the night, the long afternoon: those moments when kids are haunted by what someone said to them in the hallway, a sideways stare at the store or what they heard on the news. It’s about gathering strength for life’s every day journey and supporting a strong full self all the time.
So begins the terror from the pale ones who remake the lands and the people to suit their pale vision.
But the ghost woman and her one true love conjure a plan.
Will La Llorona's heart be strong enough to fulfill it?
More importantly, when the time comes....will the people be ready?
In times filled with terror and torment, one woman's haunting grief rises from beyond to become the people's howl in the dark. Sometimes a heartache is so great, it belongs to everyone. Sometimes a healing is so powerful it holds within it the spark to change everything....if we're ready.
A queer reclamation of the classic Mexican ghost story, La Llorona, that spans the ages and the Americas (MesoAmerica 1500 to present day San Francisco) to reunite the people with their ghosts and mend what was torn apart.
An emotional and layered journey that weaves history with love, spirit with flesh, and merges ancient myths with current political times. Powerful themes of love, pre-colonial queer identity, sacred feminine, loss and endurance course through the pages as the story gathers and flows and gathers again to support healing, negotiate deep ancestral trauma and ultimately, transformation.
Amazon’s Ring:
Ring gives police backdoor access to your front-door footage. Over 1,600 police departments partner with Amazon Ring. Nearly half have a history of excessive force or police-involved civilian deaths. That’s over 10 million households helping Amazon digitize racist “Stop & Frisk” policies and powering more police violence against Black lives.
Neighbors, Amazon Ring’s reporting app, encourages people to spy on anyone passing by and label them as “suspicious,” which automates racial profiling. There is no evidence to support that Amazon Ring and the Neighbors app actually help reduce crime or maintain public safety. Meanwhile, they put Black lives in danger.
As the Break Up With Amazon website states:
As people across the country take to the streets demanding an end to police violence against Black communities, Amazon is quietly positioning itself to rake in the benefits of the next evolution of policing. Instead, Amazon should sincerely align itself with today’s Movement for Black Lives, which demands our cities to #DefundThePolice. The funding spent on policing, surveilling, and caging Black and brown communities hardest hit by the COVID19 pandemic should be reinvested back into housing, education, and other relief programs.
Important to know, and share, and raise our voices that this isn't okay.
Stay safe, all.
The light in me recognzies and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee
Ahh, Thanksgiving. It's a holiday that's sat uncomfortably with me for the past few years, especially as I've learned more about colonialism and the mistreatment and murder of Native people as generations of white people took their land and made it "ours." (Part of that was the research for the chapter on We'wha in my upcoming book, NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves.)
So for a long time I've tried to shift my focus onto the gratitude part of the holiday.
But this year, I was inspired by my friends April and Lori to do a little more. I've lived in Los Angeles since 1991 (twenty-nine years now!) but in all that time, I've never really dug into the history of who lived here before. Before the white people. Before the Spanish.
It took me two Google searches to find a website created by the Gabrielino-Tongva Nation.
The first search took me to a website on the history of my neighborhood that had this line about the Gabrielina-Tongva people who lived here, "Eventually, they shared the land and sea—the good duck hunting and steel-head trout fishing—with the Spanish explorers and, in time, with the first Angelenos.” which sounds like a page out of the happy Pilgrims holding hands with Native people singing campfire songs "history" I learned in school.
The Gabrielino-Tongva Nation has been indigenous to the Los Angeles Basin for 7,000 years. This history is well-documented through 2,800 archaeological sites, in State historical records and federal archives, and Catholic church records at San Gabriel Mission and San Fernando Mission.
Their struggle for official recognition:
In 1994, the State of California recognized the Tongva in Assembly Joint Resolution 96, chaptered by the California Secretary of State as Resolution chapter 146, Statutes of 1994. The Joint Resolution states that the State of California “recognizes the Gabrielino-Tongva Nation as the aboriginal tribe of the Los Angeles Basin and takes great pride in recognizing the Indian inhabitance of the Los Angeles Basin and the continued existence of the Indian community”.
And that they still do not have federal recognition:
The Gabrielino-Tongva are one of two state-recognized tribes and the best-documented tribe in the State without federal recognition.
I recognize this is a small step, but it feels important to acknowledge that I live on the ancestral lands of the Gabrielino-Tongva Nation.
With the help of my friend Lori, I found out about this very cool website that tracks - worldwide - the ancestral location of Native nations. It's at https://native-land.ca/
They call out the Chumash, Tongva, and Kizh nations as being native to where I live...
Clearly, I have more homework to do!
I'd like to encourage you to do the two-step process for where you live. Find some history on your neighborhood. And then dig a little deeper, and find that history written by the Native people descended from those who lived where you live, hundreds -- if not thousands -- of years ago.
And then check our your neighborhood on native-land.ca, with links to the websites of the Native nations cited.
The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you, Lee
The part about Black wealth today being 10% of white wealth, as a direct result of this federal housing subsidy helping white families where it held back Black families, was really eye-opening for me.
Important to know, and to think about.
The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you, Lee
P.S. - my thanks to Dr. James Pogue for sharing this as part of his No Nonsense Experience, a four-part DEI training I'm taking as part of my job at the Independent Book Publishers Association.
From the Human Rights Campaign, The National Association of School Psychologists, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the National Education Association, comes this "Advocating for LGBTQ Students with Disabilities" guide.
As quoted in a press release from the National Center for Lesbian Rights,
“It is critical that school administrators and educators have the tools to address the needs of all LGBTQ students, including LGBTQ students with disabilities,” said Asaf Orr, Director of the Transgender Youth Project at the National Center for Lesbian Rights and co-author of the publication. “This resource will ensure that schools know how to comply with their legal obligations to LGBTQ students with disabilities by providing a roadmap for creating IEPs and 504 Plans that meet their unique learning needs.”
“It was so helpful when the school counselor met with me and the teacher who sponsors the school GSA. I was able to tell them about how I didn’t feel safe using the girls’ bathroom. I had been so scared to tell anyone else about it before. They talked about how this could be
addressed through my IEP so I could start using the boys’ bathrooms since that’s how I identify.” – Transgender student with disabilities
Happy to amplify, and acknowledge the intersectionality of many within our Queer and Disabled communities.
The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee
My friend April Powers posted (over on LinkedIn) about her concern that the message sent by flying the U.S. flag on last week's Veteran's Day would be mistaken for support for the current president. She shared a link to Nasty Women Get Shit Done's alternatives, which I think are pretty awesome.
It reads:
"In Our America: All People are Equal, Love Wins, Black Lives Matter, Immigrant & Refugees Are Welcome, Disabilities Are Respected, Women Are In Charge Of Their Bodies, People & Planet Are Valued Over Profit, Diversity Is Celebrated"
This is exciting, and a real honor to be included...
The book is published by the National Council of Teachers of English, and Melissa, who edited and organized the whole thing, has published over 180 nonfiction books for kids!
Here's the blurb from NCTE:
In Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep, some of today’s most celebrated writers for children share essays that describe a critical part of the informational writing process that is often left out of classroom instruction. To craft engaging nonfiction, professional writers choose topics that fascinate them and explore concepts and themes that reflect their passions, personalities, beliefs, and experiences in the world.
By scrutinizing the information they collect to make their own personal meaning, they create distinctive books that delight as well as inform. In addition to essays from mentor authors, the book includes a wide range of tips, tools, teaching strategies, and activity ideas from editor Melissa Stewart to help students (1) choose a topic, (2) focus that topic by identifying a core idea, theme, or concept, and (3) analyze their research to find a personal connection. By adding a piece of themselves to their drafts, students will learn to craft rich, unique prose.
And the list of contributors (the other 49 besides me) is impressive! The book features essays from essays by Sarah Albee, Chris Barton, Donna Janell Bowman, Mary Kay Carson, Nancy Castaldo, Jason Chin, Lesa Cline-Ransome, Seth Fishman, Candace Fleming, Kelly Milner Halls, Deborah Heiligman, Susan Hood, Gail Jarrow, Lita Judge, Jess Keating, Barbara Kerley, Heather Lang, Cynthia Levinson, Michelle Markel, Carla Killough McClafferty, Heather Montgomery, Patricia Newman, Elizabeth Partridge, Baptiste Paul, Miranda Paul, Teresa Robeson, Mara Rockliff, Barb Rosenstock, Laura Purdie Salas, Anita Sanchez, April Pulley Sayre, Steve Sheinkin, Ray Anthony Shepard, Anita Silvey, Traci Sorell, Tanya Lee Stone, Jennifer Swanson, Stephen R. Swinburne, Don Tate, Laurie Ann Thompson, Pamela Turner, Patricia Valdez, Sandra Neil Wallace, Laurie Wallmark, Jennifer Ward, Carole Boston Weatherford, Paula Yoo, and Karen Romano Young.
And me!
Really proud to be part of this.
Gratitude to Melissa for the opportunity, and to the readers out there who need to hear that Queer nonfiction for Kids and Teens has an important (and impassioned) place at the table, too!
If it sounds like your jam, you can preorder the book here: bit.ly/NonfictionDig
The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you, Lee
So much work to do to make our country - and world - a better place. A good way to move forward on being antiracist and better understanding what Black and brown people in the USA face is to learn about this connection: How American Slavery Helped Create Modern Day Policing
My thanks to Felice León, Producer of The Root, and host of this episode of Unpack That, for sharing this, and to Dr. James Pogue for recommending this video.
The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you, Lee
SCBWI and the Smithsonian have teamed up to offer this unique two-day opportunity for those of us who craft nonfiction work for children and teens.
I'll be live-blogging highlights of the event at the Official SCBWI Conference Blog, so join me there! Or, if you're attending as well, give me a virtual wave hello.
Disclosure: As of July 5, 2020, if you click on a book here on this blog and it takes you to bookshop.org, there is an affiliate relationship in place where 10% of that book order will come back to me, Lee Wind. I hope that works for you. And if it doesn't, no worries. I hope you buy your books somewhere that feels good to you. Thanks!
What if you knew a secret from history that could change the world?
“Get Balanced with Dr. Marissa Pei” Talk Radio show - Lee booked as featured guest on September 25
October 2018 - Publish Date of Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill: Oct 2, 2018
Lambda Literary Festival - panel on Crowdfunding Queer Lit and reading - online Oct 1. Register here.
Star Style Radio Show with Cynthia Brian - Lee featured guest on October 3 program. Listen here.
Pasadena Fall Art Night - YA panel on Oct 12 in Pasadena
West Hollywood Library Teen Read Week - 10:30am October 13
San Gabriel Valley Pride - Authors Tent presentation, 1:00 pm on Oct 13 in Pasadena
Launch Party at Highways - 7:00pm in Santa Monica
Models of Pride - present "Discover our LGBTQ History" and give out free copies of Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill from the Camp Brave Trails booth on Oct 20 in Los Angeles
November 2018
Book Baby Independent Authors Conference - lead networking session "How do you measure success?" in Philadelphia, PA
Presentation and Reading at Palm Springs Public Library on Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill on Nov 7
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