Jean Darnell: Awaken Librarian!

 This month has been back to back celebration of all the excellence Black trailblazers, innovators and Ancestors contributed to our nation. I couldn't be more proud to share snippets of the library's efforts to honor Black History then  and now . In honor of BHM then the library sponsored a Quilting Bee where we worked on patches to add to our "Dessau Unity Quilt" that the wonderful Mrs. Vickie West will compile into a wonderful quilt to display in the library. Here's a video highlighting excerpts from the day! Because so much of African American's history is riddled with unfortunate hatred and bondage, it was imperative that the BHM now centered on understanding the struggles of those ahead of us who fought the good fight. Therefore, we made a "light-hearted research" activity (light = research w/o a paper) and combined it with art to create a unique twist on our "Family Tree." This is what happens when you collaborate w/...

 I couldn't be more excited to share with you the library activities we have going on this month! In addition to our wonderful newsletter stacked with embedded resources, I am happy to share that there will be a Pflugerville ISD district wide webinar featuring my lesson: Black Representation in YA and Children's Literature. The hallway is full of researched trees!👏🏾 pic.twitter.com/UbiWCX9Gfr — AwakenLibrarian (@awakenlibrarian) February 22, 2022 Our Beloved Black History Month Newsletter In case you cannot make the webinar, please see the lesson here:

Happy New Year Everyone!   This post is dedicated to the life and leadership of Dr. and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Inside this newsletter, you will find a heavily curated lesson from PBS , Learning for Justice and illustrations from Jerry Pinkney and written by Barry Wittenstein. And because behind every great man stands an equitably great woman, here's Angela Basset portraying Mrs. Coretta Scott King, and  Mary J. Blige serving impeccably in the role of Dr. Betty Shabazz (my  ΔΣΘ Soror), wife of Malcolm X. Many people forget that by the end of the 60s, both Dr. King and Malcolm X were allies in progressing the plight of Black Americans. In fact, Malcolm X attended the March on Washington in 1963. See the letter beneath the video excerpt.    Letter to Martin Luther King (the Southern Christian Leadership Conference) Malcolm X (text transcribed from the actual letter from Malcolm X : A Research Site) July 31, 1963 MUHAMMAD'S MOSQUE NO. 7  11...

We LOVE our Veterans across the planet! Please check out our podcast "Voices of Veterans!" Thank you to all our Veterans and even though he isn't an educator, my favorite Veteran (Michael Darnell) is that handsome Navy seamen below! :)

According to renowned American historian and linguist Leo Weiner of Harvard University, one of the strongest pieces of evidence to support the fact that Black people sailed to America before Christopher Columbus was a journal entry from Columbus himself. In Weiner’s book, “Africa and the Discovery of America,” he explains that Columbus noted in his journal that the Native Americans confirmed “black skinned people had come from the south-east in boats, trading in gold-tipped spears.” Even the Algonquin tribes had gold-tipped spears made from Egyptian gold and writings of Egyptian cities in their catalog of explorers hidden in the Grand Canyon. According to a number of sources, Abubakari II, Mansa (King) of the Mali Empire in the 14th century, led Malian sailors to the Americas, specifically present-day Brazil, almost 200 years before Columbus arrived, circa 1311 A.D. Malian sailors then continued up the coast of South America into Central America, Mexico and southern portions of wha...

                 After much effort from yours truly, the book-fair is finally here! You can shop online here . Here's the preview video and sign-up list for you to enjoy!                                                            via GIPHY