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Educational Resources

$5k Match – Social Justice Children’s Book Fair

Hey fam, my organization the Social Justice Children’s Book Fair got a $5k grant and will be fundraising over the next 30 days to match it dollar for dollar. If you’re unfamiliar with the fair I invite you to check out….

Our Website: Site, 2025 fair, 2025 Award winners,

Social Media: Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube

Press: Oaklandside article, NBC News clip, Hard Knock (KPFA) Radio Interview 

Here are some photos taken by photographer Mark Rea from the 2025 fair. Wanna see more? Check out this Facebook page or our website.

Short Mission: Bruh, make a kids book fair that champions social justice kid lit. Also, champion Bipoc, Queer, Immigrant, and Social Justice creators and kid focused orgs.

Longer Mission & Vision: Our mission is to promote social justice through the power of children’s books. We support independent children’s book creators to conceive, develop, distribute, and champion social justice-themed children’s books. We do this through our signature event, the annual Social Justice Children’s Book Fair, and other ongoing projects and initiatives.

We envision a world where children’s book creators have the ability to conceive, develop, distribute, and champion a diversity of social justice-centered stories that need to be told as they look to reach all children, families, teachers, librarians, and book lovers.

My Why: I believe there are some amazing stories about culture, class, race, gender, identity, politics, history, etc that need to be shared with a wider audience and I get to help facilitate that as one of many organizers of this fair. I believe in representation, being able to see yourself in literature early, and I believe in literacy for liberation and fun.

Accomplishments:

  • 2 years of co-curating Youth Lit Day for Bay Area Book Festival
  • Over 2k attendees
  • Thousands of kids books donated to Bay Area students
  • 1700 Social Media followers
  • 400+ Stories
  • 100+ Creators, authors, illustrators, publishers, etc
  • 30+ Organizations
  • 10 years this year!
  • 8 Performers

7 years all volunteer, 2 years w/ small funding. Imagine what we could do with more. Wanna help us continue to grow this?

DONATE HERE

July 15, 2026
in Educational Resources, Events
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Book Cover – 826 Valencia + De Marillac Academy

Last Spring I began working with 826 Valencia to illustrate a book cover for the De Marillac Academy, a middle school in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. And I have a history with this organization as I read there when I was just beginning to work in kid lit and I took my son and his class on a field trip there over 12 years ago.

The thing I remember back then was that the folks who started the org had a sense of duty and wonder. Duty in that they were taking it seriously; the charge to encourage literacy and creative writing. And wonder, in that their organization was housed in a pirate ship! Imagine pirate jokes and 4th graders telling you that they are “published”.

And they still have that dedication as this book is one of several published anthologies of creative writing by middle school students. Here’s the synopsis:

“In these vibrant poems, students in grades 6-8th from De Marillac Academy explore their own potential and the comfort of the things they hold dear. They find refuge in the bounces of a basketball and uncover a quiet hero in a cherished eyelash curler. In these pages you’ll find heartfelt declarations of love to their beds and a tenderness towards the quiet world their headphones offer. Students imagine life through the delicate wings of a butterfly, the sharp mind of a beloved teacher, and even providing hope as a lawyer. No matter who holds the narrative today, in the future they are building, these students assert one thing is for sure, they’ll be the ones.

Here’s a bit of process art from the making of the cover.

Shout out to Amanda Boesen and Lucy Goseline-Ratliff who assisted me in narrowing down and refining the sketch until it was right.

You can see the line work here and the color directions. Ultimately it ended up being a combination of colors. The uniforms for the actual students are red and grey though so thats what we ended up using.

And heres the final cover illustration! My fav poem from the book was called “lies” and I loved all the pieces about their video games, favorite foods, etc.

About the organization that does this work and commissioned this art:

826 Valencia equips students with writing skills to create change.

We are a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting under-resourced students ages six to eighteen with their creative and expository writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.

Our services are structured around the understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with individualized attention and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.

And with chapters in:

  • Boston
  • Chicago
  • Washington DC
  • Los Angeles
  • Michigan
  • Minneapolis
  • New Orleans
  • NYC

and the founding chapter San Francisco (Bay Areaaaaaa) they are taking the task to the next level.

Dig this? Check out this book cover I did for Robert Alexander’s book “He Hit Me First” OR the cover of Libros Solidarios written by Luz Yadira Herrera and Carla España.

July 10, 2026
in Educational Resources, Ilustration, Lettering/ Typography
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Young Parent Tips- Summer reading

For the young fathers ESPECIALLY. Key point here is reading with them. It won’t stick unless you read with them.

Text:

Young Parent tip: If u want your kids to keep their reading game up during the summer, try making a trip to the library 2x a month to get bks for them you’ll read w/them and bks they like. Puzzles, comics, fotos, picture bks, etc count. -Signed a former young dad.

Dig this? Check out this film about Parenthood by Kevin Hart, Or this short film about the children of Black Panther Party members (The Panther Cubs).

June 22, 2026
in Educational Resources
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Call your reps re: HR 7661

Urgent, call your reps to tell them : Vote NO on HR 7661! This is a dangerous bill targeting Queer and Trans kids, families, and books, read the images and go to this link #authorsagainstbookbans

Confused? See my previous post about book banning and how it went from 1-200 a year to over 4000!

Dig this? Check out the film The Librarians which features librarians harrassed, threatened, and fired for stocking diverse books about Queer/ Trans identity or Race/ Criticism of White Supremacy.

March 18, 2026
in Educational Resources
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Black Is Beautiful 2026 – Combahee River Collective

This is a crew of bad ass women who’s statements echo today and whose voices are still strong. The Combahee River Collective (1974-1980) is a crew, clique, or family founded by Black women out in the Boston area. They are Black, they are women, Queer, and Radical in their politics. “The name”Combahee” refers to the river in South Carolina that Harriet Tubman used to free over 700 enslaved Black folks. In the 60s and 70s we had a lot of movements for civil rights, independence, and social change happening but in separate silos. Meaning some knew their issue, but not others. So, these sisters came from different groups and formed their own. They wrote a statement that gave analysis to movements happening and how they “connected”. This definition was ground breaking back then and is still used by scholars, students, and activists today. Before the term intersectionality, there was Combahee. Celebrating , not ignoring their many identities and helping folks get that oppression is coming for all of us so we better stand with each other, rather than apart. As a group these women who were activists, artists, teachers, writers, etc worked on campaigns to support abortion rights, they stood against sterilization, against domestic violence and attacks against women, they stood up for their Queer and trans family, they were anti-war, anti establishment, and they advocated for solidarity between people fighting oppression. Members included: Gloria Akasha-Hill, Cheryl Clarke, Demita Frazier, Audre Lorde, Chirlane McCray, Margo Okazawa-Rey, Sharon Page-Ritchie, Beverly and Barbara Smith, Helen Stewart, and Mercedes Tompkins.

Why is this important? There are some folks within the Black Power, Feminist, Queer rights, or Social justice movement who pretend like one of the others ain’t shit. You may have seen it. But, I think some would agree, we’re stronger together (w/ hard discussions & principled struggle or disagreements). That means letting go of a lot of EGO and petty shit.

Sources: Black Women Radicals, Democracy Now, BLK History in 2 minutes or so, Wikipedia

Dig this? Check out my piece on Olive Morris, Claudia Jones, or Margaret Sloan.

February 13, 2026
in Black is Beautiful, Educational Resources, General, Ilustration
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Black Is Beautiful 2026 – Freedom House Ambulance

Its been three years since I did one of these for Black History Month! From 2016-2023 I drew and painted so many people, places, and groups from Black history that we dont hear enough about. And here’s one more:

The Freedom House Ambulance service was founded in 1967 in Pittsburg, PA by Phil Hallen (former ambulance driver) and Dr Peter Safar (Pioneering Dr @ Univ of Pittsburgh) in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, a predominantly Black neighborhood. EMT, Paramedics, and modern ambulances in the US owe a great deal to the Black men and women of Freedom House Ambulance. Around this time there were no ambulances for most working class folks in big cities, you called the police and they threw you in the back of a cop car or a police wagon. Being that there was rampant police brutality, profiling, harassment, and murder at the hands of police there was a contentious relationship when it came to emergency medical service. The majority of officers had no medical training and Black folks were at their wim when it came to being “sick enough” to warrant emergency medical services. As a result so many died from treatable things.

Enter Freedom House, a community based organization that got funding to not only create a hood based ambulance service, but to hire Black men; many of which were unemployed, did not graduate college, or had been in the system. Pioneering Dr Safar and several others gave them 12 months of medical training learning anatomy, physiology, resuscitation, etc. In addition to hundreds of hours in classroom settings , they spent time in the emergency and operating rooms, as well as the morgue before hitting the streets. And when they hit the streets they responded to six thousand calls in the first year or 16 emergency calls daily. Coming from the neighborhoods they were serving they understood when people were having a medical emergency relating to overdose, sickle cell anemia, diabetes, etc. In fact they were among the first paramedics to pioneer techniques using narcan for overdose, electric shock for heart attacks, intubating patients, CPR, and IV‘s. They were a mobile emergency hospital because they stabilized patients, saving thousands of lives.

Fast forward to the mid 70s, word got around that wealthier more white neighborhoods were not receiving the same level of expertise; the mayor and white establishment got jealous; and they intentionally pulled funding and support for the program. The city began randomly testing Freedom House medics, ruling out anyone who had been locked up, and using them to train white EMT’s who got better promotions. Eventually everyone was pushed out and only a select few were able to find employment with the city. But their work went on to help save lives nationwide and is still being used today.

Sources: WQED Pittsburg, Film: Heroes on Call, Wikipedia, and Sage Journals

Dig this? Check out my piece about these medical professionals: Dr Muriel Petioni, Dr Dorothy Brown, or Alice Augusta Ball

February 6, 2026
in Black is Beautiful, Educational Resources, General, Ilustration
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Must See Film: The Librarians

I saw this film last year in a fully packed room of librarians, authors, teachers, and activists and I’m still processing it. What I hope you get from watching the trailer is a sense of the depth of what authoritarian actors are going to in order to stop the flow of information, understanding, and empathy. It is not about what is age appropriate , it is about removing public access to knowledge.

Side note: I have had two books I’ve worked on as an illustrator banned and I know dozens of fellow authors or illustrators who’ve experienced the same and it relates directly to this documentary film.

More information about the doc HERE

Dig this? Check out this post about Authors Against Book Bans

January 22, 2026
in Educational Resources
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Open Space Authority- Coloring Book

Photo by my wifey

Hey yall, This is a photo of me holding a coloring book I illustrated for a south Bay organization called the Open Space Authority of Santa Clara. They are a an organization that stewards and protects over 30k acres of land in Santa Clara County from being bulldozed and turned into malls. The land includes hills, valleys, trees, wetlands, and lots of animals and critters.

Check out some of the land they protect even in the heart of silicon valley. Its a vast area! Thank goodness for organizations that do this kind of advocacy for all to appreciate nature and wildlife.

Here’s a bit of process of drawing one of the spreads from the book. This is the first spread from the coloring book. I also did the hand lettered typography for the title below.

Here’s the cover for the book which features coloring pages, puzzles, and some other observant activities for children to do. It’s a cool way to introduce them to the Santa Clara Valley.

Here are some screen shots from Open Source’s Instagram account where they took the books to a local hospital and made them available for kids in the pediatric waiting area. Visit Open Space Authority of Santa Clara here. If you wanna watch their video about this coloring book check it out here.

Dig this? check out some art I did for the AFYA Center for Health Equity or the cover of The Public Eye magazine

December 26, 2025
in Educational Resources, General, Ilustration, Lettering/ Typography
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Picture Book Recommendation- Jenny Mei is Sad

Heres a recent picture book review of a newish book called “Jenny Mei is Sad” which I LOVE by Tracy Subisak who is an author and illustrator. Its about friendship, big feelings, sadness, and its gorgeous. Never heard of it? Watch the video.

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.

Dig this? Check out the last review of “Perfect Harmony” by Charles R. Smith Jr.

December 8, 2025
in Creative Resources, Educational Resources
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Social Justice Children’s Book AWARD

So this is new for the Social Justice Children’s Book Fair, for the first time we’re giving away an award to 3 authors the night before the fair. Check out the awardees.

These are the three writers!

  • Raquel Donoso
  • Mona Damluji
  • Maya Gonzalez

RSVP for the event here whether you’ve been coming to the fair for years, you’re new, or you really support the kid lit world. Also, come check out the 9th annual Social Justice Children’s Book Fair.

Dig this? Check out this article from Oaklandside

November 27, 2025
in Creative Resources, Educational Resources, Events
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