As I am trying to stay afloat as a freelance artist and seeing the genocide taking place in many places, I take this small victory and cherish it!! Thanks to all of you who have supported my channel. I started adding videos to my YouTube at the beginning of the pandemic. I think I had maybe 50 subscribers from my Furqan’s First Flat Top trailer, but since then I’ve shared a bit more and i’m now at 500!!!! Thanks so much for the support! I plan to share more of how I do what I do. If you have things you’d like me to talk about, lemme know.
Ok, theres this fundraiser happening for Palestine, Congo, and Sudan. I have donated a virtual school visit or a signed book set. Please support the fundraiser by checking out all the items offered and people donating their time. You can get critiques, you can ask individuals anything you want about publishing, you can get school visits, and you can get a gang of books!!!!
The general link to see everything is HERE. And you can bid on mine HERE.
I had a great time at the Texas Book Festival this past November. BIG shout out to my publisher Lee & low, Reading Rockets, and the Book Festival for having me. I have done many local events such as library readings, class visits, co-producing a book fair, vending at book fairs, etc but have never been to such a huge book fair and met so many folks in the business. I met people I’ve admired for a ong time and some new folks who are awesome storytellers!!
Reading Rockets: School visit w/ McBee Elementary
Here I am talking to a gang of mostly Latino students at the school about “Fresh Juice/ Jugo Fresco” in Spanish. This might be the biggest audience I read to in 2023, second only to a reading I did w/ Maestra Jill Guerra for our book “We Are Yoga”. My reading was rough because of technival difficulties but the kids and the school still rocked with me thankfully.
After the reading I was able to hand each and every student (probably over 100) a copy of my book in Spanish or English. This was made possible because of Reading Rockets, the school, and my publisher. These types of events are important because we brought the stories to the students. More below….
This writer and Cubana Adriana Cuevas who talked about her career and her latest book “The Ghosts of Rancho Espanto”.
This is bro Andy J Pizzawho I knew as a podcaster from the show “Creative Pep Talk” and he was sharing his book “Invisible Things”.
Authors Brunch: At a TBF board member’s home
Ok, I wish I had taken more photos. I was too blown away by the home of this board member who hosted us. I got to meet some people who I’ve admired for years and met some new folks; authors, organizers of the event, and more. Particularly I remember meeting Michelle Hernandez who is an organizer for the Texas Book Festival, Becky Gomez who is an educator and artist who also volunteers at the fest. Authors? Man I saw old friends like Michael Genhart from the Bay and Shadra Strickland from Baltimore. But also I met Vashite Harrison, Don Tate, Derrick Barnes, David Bowles, and Minh Le. I also met some new folks like Emma The Otheguy, Pedro Martin, Christina Soontornvat, Ana Siqueira, Jamar Perry, Anne Wynter,Cathery, Mohit, and moreeeeee.
Foto from Michelle Hernandez
Black Pearl Books – Black Owned bookstore in Austin, TX
The owners of Black Pearl Books reached out to me and several Black authors in an effort to give us a space to convene and just to build community. I didn’t know about the store before, but I do now and I’m so glad I went because I got to chop it up with Jerome Pumphrey, Anne Winter, and Vashite Harrison. I also got to walk around this beautiful story which did an excellent job of celebrating Black authors. If you’re ever in Austin, go support them!
City
Big shout out to Cathery Yeh and her husband who drove me around from hotel to reading to brunch and around the city. They are a family from Cali who were based in Austin now. Cathery also took most of the photos of me reading for Reading Rockets.
They wanted to see a mural I had painted with the Trust Your Struggle Collective back in 2008. The mural has been damaged but the historic business it was painted for, the Victory Grill is still standing!
Here are some photos from the mural, around my hotel, and around the downtown area.
Texas Book Festival
I started my reading that day with a dedication to brother Damion Hunter (Megah Brown) , who was my friend and my barber. He passed away in 2023 suddenly and left behind a wife and family. I met Damion through recommendation around 2013 or 2014 and he cut my hair and that of my son’s for many years. Our families hung out together beyond the barbershop and I like so many were deeply saddened by his passing. So I wore a tshirt with the name of his barbershop that day intentionally. When I first self published Furqan’s First Flat Top in 2016 I asked my good friend Eli to do a book trailer sharing the book and me getting a flat top. The brother cutting my hair in this video was Damion. Rest in peace.
This was me reading during my session. There were not a lot of folks there as I am still relatively brand new to the kids book world outside of the Bay, but it was fun. Claudia Guadalupe Martinez took these photos of me 🙂
Ok dig this, I got to listen to a master class in picture book reading, performing, and improvising. Ive been reading to students for over a decade just to get here but it was really awesome listening to how these authors, illustrators, and storytellers did it.
From Top to bottom, left to right: Roda Ahmed & Charnaie Gordon reading Etta Extraordinaire, Juana Medina – Elina Rides, Panel w/ Celia Perez and Aida Salazar, Ana Siqueira-La Supercapa de Abuela, Shadra Strickland- Jump In, Emma Otheguy-Too Many Tia’s, Minh Le-Real to Me, Anne Wynter-Nell Plants a Tree, Vashtie Harrison- BIG, Don Tate-Jerry Changed the Game, Magdalena Mora & Claudia Guadalupe Martinez-Still Dreaming, Nikkolas Smith-The Artivist
This was dope moment. This is me with Don Tate. Thee Don Tate!! Don is an OG who has been working as an illustrator and author since the early 2000’s I believe. I remember seeing Ron’s Big Mission, It Jes Happened, and so many others and being inspired. Don was kind enough to take a photo with me and I felt honored!
Protest for Palestine
On the last day of the Book Fair there was a protest and march scheduled to be held at the state capitol, which coincidentally was a block away from the fair. There was zero mention of Palestine or the protest by the fair which I was unfortunately not surprised by. Nonetheless I had to be there. I have been going to and attending protests my entire life. That isnt a cool point, or a brag. It is a sad reality that the struggle for freedom, ciivil and human rights here in the US and abroad continues. This person wearing a cowboy hat as he rocked a keffiyeh and held a palestinian flag caught my eye. Had no idea there were Palestinian cowboys but I was happy to see it.
I took these photos as I arrived and at first there were 1000, then 5k, then 10k. By the time I watched footage of it later that day there was at least 50k people in Austin Texas protesting/marching. See footage of that here.
Saw this family and had to snap a photo of them:)
This!!!! I loved seeing this sign because although there was a HUGE Palestinian and Arab population there, tons of Latinos, Black folks, White, and Asian people where there in solidarity. After the march, I headed back to the Bay.
I want to give a shout out to Shaughnessy Miller and Jenny Choy at Lee & Low Books, Michelle Hernandez and all the staff at the Texas Book Festival, Cathery and her husband for the rides, all the volunteers who gave me and other authors rides, Jeannie Moody at McBee Elementary, the board member who hosted us for lunch, etc. That’s it folks, I hope you enjoyed these photos.
Here is the first article released just before the fair written by Ashley McBride. Big shout out to her for taking the time to interview some of the organizers of the fair and the Emerson PTA members Shawna and Ed who helped us organize this year. In this photo I’m standing in front of fellow organizeer Alejandra Domenzain talking to my cousin Mook:) LINK TO READ
Here is the second article featuring Nadia Salomon reading to kids during our story time for families at the fair. Big shout out to Peter Limata who reached out to writer Amaya Edwards who went to the event, took lots of photos, and covered our little event. LINK TO SEE MORE PHOTOS.
Dig this? Check out that time when my book “Alejandria Fights Back” was featured on “Social Justice Books”
Man, I was so busy sharing about this event and planning and prepping that I forgot to psot about it on my own damn blog. Anyways, for those who came it was beautiful and hectic. For the first time we partnered with Emerson Elementary in Oakland.
Here is the livestream of interviews and performances from that day:
Interviews w/ Emerson PTA, Local authors, activists, and musicians
Here is the Facebook invite from this year
And here is the books new Instagram account. Please follow us!
Hey fam, I hope you’re well. It has been a rough one for me lately but trying to hold on to it. Check out some of these things that have been dope to me recently. Keep going.
What’s this? This inspiration board is one of the ways I stay inspired and sane through all of life’s trials, and tribulations, work, etc. I’ve been making inspiration boards full of films, books, music, events, people, artists, movements, and more for over a decade. Do you have an inspiration board? Please share in the comments.Who am I? My name is Rob Liu-Trujillo and I’m an artist working in kid lit, public art, and other disciplines. Go to my website, or follow me on IG or YouTube. You can also cop my first art book here.
Its been so long since I was last at Fairyland for their annual book events. This year I’ll be there along with 30 other authors and illustrators like Kim Ko, Nidhi Chanani, Christian Robinson, Angela Dalton, and the Leticia Hernandez-Linares who wrote “Alejandria Fights Back!”
Come meet me in person at the Children’s Fairyland Book Festival on Saturday, June 3! It’s a kid-lit event that brings Bay Area children’s literature authors and illustrators together with families for a full day of read-alouds and more. Alejandria Fights Back (Leticia Hernandez-Linares/Rise Home Stories project), We Are Yoga (Jill Guerra), and Sam! (Dani Gabriel) will be available to buy from The Collective Oakland, and I’ll be happy to autograph it for your kiddo!
Sup with it fam! On March 29th of this year I will be doing a presentation for college students and faculty at Modesto Jr College! I’m going to be talking about my career, art, kids books, publishing, and literacy! I’ve visited Modesto and the jr college three times in the past. First for the Latino Comics Expo founded by Ricardo Padilla and Javier Hernandez-the first ever comics con dedicated to Latino Comics writers and illustrators. Second, I visited the main branch of the Modesto Public Library to read to families, children, and caregivers for their story time. Third, I visited for the “Latinx Comics and Arts Fest” founded by Dr. Theresa Rojas , a professor from MJC.
All of these were really great events or experiences filled with families, community, incredible creators, art, and lots of books and comics. If you’re a student at the college or know someone who is please invite them to attend.
If you’re looking for something to do with the entire family, check out the Latinx Comics and Arts Fest happening on March 17-18th.
Dig this? Check out this interview I did with my bro Farbeon on Feel Good Radio. Also, this is a recent school visit for Prospect Sierra in Berkeley California.
Yoooo! I can finally share it. Here is the cover for my newest picture book “FRESH JUICE” which debuts on July 25th through “Lee and Low Books”. You can preorder it today in English or Spanish. https://www.leeandlow.com/books/fresh-juiceJuuuuuuiicccced!!!
This is a father and son story about fruits, veggies, ginger, health, and community. Please share!
From “Lee and Low Books”: Today we’re celebrating the gorgeous cover for our upcoming picture book, Fresh Juice by Robert Liu-Trujillo—available in English and Spanish (as Jugo Fresco) on 7.25.23! Both editions are available for pre-order now (bit.ly/3RMiy6A).
About Fresh Juice:
What makes a great juice that keeps everyone healthy? Art and his dad discover it takes carrots…collards…cayenne…and community!
When Art’s father can’t get over a cold, Art knows exactly what his daddy needs: some delicious sick-fighting juice! After looking through the fridge and cupboards, they discover they’re missing a key ingredient–ginger. But finding some ginger will take them downtown, to the farmers’ market, to the food co-op, to the West African grocery … to an unexpected encounter that brings everyone together, and results in a tasty celebration.
Author-illustrator Rob Liu-Trujillo’s warm and vibrant watercolor illustrations are a celebration of mixed families and the many individuals who help make a neighborhood feel like a community. Fresh Juice is a delightful, kid- and community-centered picture book that will leave you thirsty for more!
