Hey, here’s a new Picture Book Recommendation for ya. “Sam’s Super Seats” . Written By Keah Brown and illustrated by Sharee Miller. I really loved this one and its about a little Black girl w/ cerebral palsy who goes back to school shopping with her friends. It’s an everyday story w/ a little bit of a peak into the life of a regular kid with a disability. Check out the synopsis:
Sam loves herself, learning, and making her family and friends laugh. She also loves comfortable seats, including a graceful couch named after Misty Copeland and Laney, the sassy backseat of Mom’s car.
After a busy morning of rest, Sam and her friends try on cute outfits at the mall and imagine what the new school year might bring. It’s not until Sam feels tired, and the new seat she meets isn’t so super, that she discovers what might be her best idea all day.
What is this? I have been working as a picture book illustrator/ writer since 2013 officially and I’ve been reading picture books since I became a young dad in 2004. In that time I’ve read nearly 700 picture books. Some trash, some ok, but with these videos I’m sharing my favorites! Watch all of them here. My last book is Fresh Juice.
Hey fam, I was really excited to do this t-shirt illustration for a historic organization. The “Teachers for Social Justice” San Francisco chapter is a dope community based organization that held an annual conference for teachers to share information about social justice pedagogy, books, songs, practices, teaching methods, and more in San Francisco California. I first went in the 2010’s but had been to conferences like it where we would give workshops to young people about murals, graffiti, and a way to combine social justice with art. Here’s some process art.
As a student of ethnic studies I was always really excited to learn at this conference and even more excited to illustrate and design the official tshirt for this years conference which was returning after a break during the pandemic. I started by trying to illustrate some kids I would actually see in middle or high school in the Bay Area now. Profiles with a simple color palette.
Instead of the name of the conference they changed it to have that on the back of the tshirt and the phrase “Ethnic Studies Everywhere” on the front.
And this is what it ended up looking like with the line work, and two ways to apply the color for a black or white tshirt. I did the lettering as well:)
Here’s the shirt done! I love rocking my joint to let folks know, Its not a buzz word like “woke” which means to be aware or “DEI” which meand diversity, equity, and inclusion and gets to the fact that Black and Brown people were excluded, erased, and kept out of so many industries for over a hundred years in the US. Nope, this goes back to my work around “ethnic studies” or learning about US and world history through the histories, stories, and lived experiences of Black folks and people of color in the US.
But more importantly, if you know an educator who is already incorporating social justice in their classrooms, or you know folks who want to learn please send them to TEACHERS For Social Justice and get them plugged in for the next conference.
Here’s a bit about what the Teachers for Social Justice do:
Who We Are. Teachers 4 Social Justice is a grassroots non-profit teacher support and development organization in San Francisco. T4SJ is project of the Community Initiative Fund.
Our Mission. Our mission is to provide opportunities for self-transformation, leadership, and community building to educators in order to affect meaningful change in the classroom, school, community and society. See more about our goals, principles, and vision in the next pages.
What We Do. T4SJ organizes teachers and community-based educators and implements programs and projects that develop empowering learning environments, more equitable access to resources and power, and realizing a just and caring culture.
Finally after many years I have finished this batch of four prints. They are prints to celebrate reading and to highlight a diverse group of kids relating to Science fiction, skating or sports, making or welding, and listening to music or audiobooks. Check them out individually below.
If you’d like to purchase this pack of four prints here is the…
Here’s a new print featuring a young hijabi (hijabi wearing woman) listening to an audiobook. I started the READ series in 2020 an have completed 8 now. For this series my aim is always to depict more kids of color with an encouraging word or quote about reading. In this one I thought of a young Arab American woman listening to a book. You can get one of these prints for yourself, classroom, library, or office…
This is a character of my OG Maya who is now an ancestor. I was thinking about them and wanted to draw or paint something. For this unaware, Maya Gonzalez (they/she) was a prominent figure in kid lit here in the Bay Area. She was one of the first artists I spoke to in the mid to late 2000’s when learning about how to be an illustrator/author. And I watched their career as an author, parent, business person, publisher, etc. They were fierce in their art, their advocacy for Queer, Trans, and Nonbinary folks, and their love for the community. They just passed away and I just wanna show them some love. Maya presente!
If you were influenced by them and want to help their partner Matthew and their kids you can contribute to their GoFundme HERE.
Dig this? Check out all the incredible stories and art they have in Maya and Reflection Press’ store.
I am one of several artists who got to create a new piece for this “Rooted in Joy” campaign for the Center for Cultural Power formerly CultureStrike. The name of the campaign was Rooted in Joy, a 2025 climate justice campaign focused on uplifting BIPOC-led narratives around climate displacement, community resilience, and collective care. And I totally forgot to share it.
Some of the artists who did work around this campaign are Orion Camero, Ashluka Lukashevsky, Coz Con, Mayanthi Jayawardena, Loisse Ledres, Kah Yangi, Gabriela Aleman, Jazz Diaz, and many more AND we were partnered with a community based organization who does work around the issues in bold above. Mine was Movement Generations and there were others Like Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Food Access los Angeles, Push Buffalo, California Environmental Justice Alliance, and more.
Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project inspires and engages in transformative action towards the liberation and restoration of land, labor, and culture.
So as happens many times when working on artwork for a campaign, goal, movement, or strategy ; the work develops and shifts. Not for the hell of it, but to communicate the message clearly. Often we only have a few seconds to communicate something to people and then they’re off to the next thing. Some may get a poster, song, film, oetc and llive with it for awhile. But usually its quick! This sketch process started with a bunch of ideas that turned into a sketch about the credo of Movement Generation which is a “just transition” or a transition from extraction, capitalism, destruction, gree, etc to a plan where the planet, people, and justice are considered.
So I depicted moving between something with manufacturing, solitary, less light to something more collective, outdoors, and nourishment. One favors the community, one favors the pockets of multi millionaires and billionaires. But, it changed to feature just the different types of folks sharing with each other.
Last Spring I visited Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in Oakland to visit my homie and principal there Heidi! I met Heidi 16 or 15 years ago through her partner; the Rad Dad author himself Tomas Moniz!
Heidi has been a teacher forever and she’s an awesome principal. High energy, positive vibes. Even though she’s new in this district, she knew everybodys damn name. She was announcing the program and sweeping up before it. She was on it.
This presentation was all about Black history month (my busiest time of the year) and a young student got up to introduce me. I’m blanking on his name but he did a great job. The students were exposed to people from the Black community who has achieved great things and or made positive contributions to their community.
I went through Fresh Juice/ Jugo Fresco and I spoke a bit about my work as an artist. Normal day and always fun to do since I dont recall ever meeting a visual artist or author of color in school.
Had a great time there and hope to visit them again, as well as more schools in the San Leandro area.
Dig this? Check out some of some of the other schools I’ve visited!
Hey fam I have been working alongside the Bay Area Book Festival as a former vendor, panelist, featured author, and now as a collaborator. The homies over there running the show have also helped the Social Justice Children’s Book Fair grow in a big way!!
But right now, they’re doing an auction where you can ask me and other authors, illustrators, agents, and more questions about your work. If you want to talk with me you can bid on a session right here and thr proceeds go to helping this world class book fair sustain itself. I’m aiming for new “author/illustrators” specifically but anyone can bid. Holler.
BID HERE, if you’d like to check out all the other offerings GO HERE.
Seems counter intuitive but kids really want to be like their parents, they curious about trying what you’re doing, or they subconsciously absorb who you are as a parent. Dads, Moms, Nonbinary parents, all can stand to let your kids catch YOU reading. Just a tip from a former young parent. Now i’m a middle aged parent.
Dig this? I highly recommend checking out “Rad Dad” Zine By Tomas Moniz -its all about what its like to be a parent, the triumphs, trials, and tribulations.
