Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Hear Debbie's May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture!

Dear Friends of AICL,

Many of you already know that Dr. Debbie Reese, founder of the American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL) blog, was invited to deliver this year's May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Saturday, April 13 at 7:30 PM in Madison, WI.

The Arbuthnot lecture is sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) of the American Library Association. This year, support is also provided by the Friends of the CCBC, Inc and the Ho-Chunk Nation.

Debbie is (in my opinion) uniquely deserving of this honor, and you should have heard the roar of approval when it was announced at an ALSC meeting!! (Some of you were there, and contributed to that fantastic roar!) Her influence in the field has been considerable, and more people need to hear her and learn about what she has found in her decades of (sometimes extremely challenging) work with publishers, writers, families, teachers, librarians, and other folks who care about what children read.

The title of Debbie's Lecture is "An Indigenous Critique of Whiteness in Children's Literature."

Tickets to the event are all taken (admission is free). But even if you aren't able to get to Madison, Saturday, there's good news: Wisconsin Public Television will host a live-stream of the lecture (update from Debbie on Wed, April 17: scoot ahead to the 12:35 minute mark if you want to watch the livestream).

I hope lots of people will be able to watch it that way. Spread the word to your friends -- educators, librarians, students, parents, anyone who cares about literature for young people and how Native lives are represented there -- and tell them to tune in Saturday at 7:30 PM (maybe a little earlier just to be sure you're there for the beginning) and hear what Debbie has to say!

Sincerely,
Jean Mendoza



7 comments:

Clair said...

Is there word yet whether the stream will be archived to watch later?

Unknown said...

I'm wondering if there will be a transcription at any point? (It's harder for me to get the combination of time and privacy to watch/listen to a talk than it is to get the time to read...)

Thanks!

--Veronica

Debbie Reese said...

Thanks, Jean, for letting AICL readers know about the location for the livestream.

Claire, the lecture will be archived on the same PBS website. When a link is available to it, we can add it to the post.

Veronica, the lecture will be published in Children and Libraries. I think they're doing them as stand alone digital supplements. When a link for that is available we can add it, too.

--Debbie

Anonymous said...

Thanks for letting us know, Debbie. I hope to watch it live, but if I can't...I may have dinner guests coming...it's good to know we can watch later. _Really_ looking forward to hearing your words.

Mary Lee said...

I so want to listen, but there is no sound with the link!

Val O. said...

Thank you for the link. It was a really good presentation. I wish everyone who works with children, and children's books, would take the time to listen.

Ava Jarvis said...

This was a wonderful lecture, and I'm still trying to figure out what I want to say beyond "this was totally awesome and I love Debbie Reese's work and consideration and giving everyone the context behind why children's literature really matters, and also I'm so thankful for the DiversityJedi."

By the way, please add a note that the recorded livestream doesn't actually start until about 12:50 in the video.