Up Next: Feb 7
Hear Jason Reynolds, best-selling author of Ghost and Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You and National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, at a virtual Decameron Project event on Feb 26.
Welcome to Up Next! This weekly blog post highlights virtual performances, experiences, and reading recommendations. As we discover new ways of enjoying and producing the arts during the pandemic, we hope that Up Next may help families, theater fans, educators, and community supporters discover something new or reconnect with much loved organizations.
St. Louis County Library: Black History Celebration Events
St. Louis Public Library: The Black Family—Representation, Identity, and Diversity
The Decameron Project: In conversation with Jason Reynolds, Feb 26
YouTube Originals: Celebrate Black Voices & Perspectives, Ongoing
Jazz St. Louis: Streaming jazz concerts, Ongoing
Muhammad Ali Center: I Am America— This IS America, Feb 24
Luther Burbank Center for the Arts: The Snail and the Whale by Tall Stories of London, March 13-14
The Coterie: The Snowy Day, Through March 30
Metro Theater Company: Jacked! by Idris Goodwin, Through Mar 31
Metro Theater Company: And In This Corner: Cassius Clay (Virtual Field Trip for Schools)
Luther Burbank Center for the Arts presents The Snail and the Whale by Tall Stories
Book Recommendations
She Persisted: Claudette Colvin, By Lesa Cline-Ransome and Chelsea Clinton, Illustrated by Alexandra Boiger and Gillian Flint.
Before Rosa Parks famously refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin made the same choice. She insisted on standing up—or in her case, sitting down—for what was right, and in doing so, fought for equality, fairness, and justice.
Penguin Random House: Amplify Black Stories—children’s and young adult books
School Library Journal: Reviews of the 2021 Youth Media Award-Winning Books
The Warmth of Other Suns, By Isabel Wilkerson
A MTC Staff Pick! “While I think this should be required reading in every history class, it’s likely going to be a while before it is. I may have been a precocious reader as a kid (I was reading Tale of Two Cities in fifth grade), but I suspect that if I had found this book when I was in middle school I would have been mesmerized. It’s an engrossing, humane, and extraordinarily comprehensive look at the Great Migration, told through oral histories gathered about three different Black Southerners who moved West or North at different stages of the Great Migration – the largest internal migration that the US has ever seen. These stories are simply not in most history textbooks – so before your 8th grader moves on to high school history, encourage him or her to give this book a try. If they like to read, they’ll probably be captivated by this book too.” — Joe Gfaller
