Author, Literacy and the Environment Consultant
Join us Saturday, December 28 for a Kwanzaa celebration at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC! It’s FREE, open to the public, and runs 12 p.m. – 4 p.m. I’ll do an inter-active performance of Say Their Names at 1:15 PM.
Get your FREE PARKING BAR CODE BELOW.
Don’t believe the hype. In the four years since George Floyd was murdered, things have changed. Not nearly as much as we want, but people and communities all over the world are different now because of what we witnessed and challenged and vowed to fight even harder against. You can’t always measure change with statistics, laws, proposals, or studies. You can, however, always measure change through the stories of people.
In the four years since George Floyd was murdered, SAY THEIR NAMES was born (as were many other books that have explored themes of peace, justice, and protest in response).
Countless numbers of people, including children pre-school to college, have read SAY THEIR NAMES or have had it read to them, and have listened to my talks and performances.
They have learned about George Floyd’s life, and legacy.
They have said his name and the names of so many other Black men, women, and trans who have lost their lives to police brutality, and understood that we say their names.
We say their names to,
As Curtis Mayfield encourage, “keep on pushin’
And move up a little higher…”
We say their names to paraphrase John Lennon in his lyrics, “Imagine, if you can,
A simple brotherhood of man.”
Through SAY THEIR NAMES (and other works), countless numbers of people have been encouraged to imagine and work toward a better world.
They have been invited to tap into the more than 30 gifts that Aliya brings to us in this story.
They have confessed to understanding that if they walk into a room or situation and there is no peace, they will bring and embody the peace. If there is no justice, they will bring and embody the justice. If there is no community, they will bring and embody the community. If there is no joy, they will bring and embody the joy. If there is no love…you get the picture… (WE bring and embody the love. We can predict the future by being the future…)
SAY THEIR NAMES is now a 2024 Anna Dewdney Read Together Award Honor Book. It is a 2024 selection of the Teaching for Change social justice literature curriculum. Countless lives are being touched. So, don’t believe the hype. Four years is a blip on the landscape of time, on the thrust of history. Some things have changed because many of us changed. And we have vowed to keep fighting for a world where Black lives matter.
(Pictured: Father of three young children sharing his excitement about SAY THEIR NAMES with local artist at The Well at Oxon Run in August 2022. Photo by Caroline Brewer)
YOU’RE INVITED: Leaders at schools, youth, religious and other non-profit or for-profit organizations are invited to book trainings for NATURE-WISE for 2024-2025! You can host a professional development training or a Youth Engagement Program. Read below for Professional Development and here for Youth Engagement and email: caroline@carolinebrewerbooks.com for more information.
What is Nature-wise? Nature-wise is a professional development training for educators and youth leaders designed to help children and teens understand and practice, on creative levels, that human beings are included in the definition of the environment. Protecting it is protecting us. We can’t protect what we don’t know or understand. The good news is that from our earliest days, we practice literacy and that opens a world of wondrous possibilities and opportunities to explore all the literacies — reading, writing, speaking, seeing, hearing, visual arts, music, dance, games, and so many more – as we dig deeper into the natural world, our place in it, and our power to be climate activists and better protect all living things.
Teachers will enjoy to work with me, a children’s book author, to introduce students to children’s books on the environment; Help students tap into the power of poetry to articulate feelings and observations about the environment; Bring local, national, and global environmental champions into students’ lives through picture books and online resources; Lead students on fascinating nature exploration journeys outdoors; Help students evaluate wildlife (colors, shapes, patterns, textures, and behaviors) in their school and home neighborhoods and create a neighborhood nature encyclopedia — and have fun!
Teachers will have opportunities to address fears about being outside and about various forms of wildlife; Create and play vocabulary games based on books and other literature; Help students write class and individual letters to authors, climate and environmental champions; Help students create interview questions for environmental champions and authors; Help students create artwork inspired by stories and the work of environmental champions. And so much more!
Email: caroline@carolinebrewerbooks.com for more information about how to bring Nature-Wise to your school or organization.
WHAT TEACHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT NATURE-WISE!
Dear Caroline
Just a note to thank you for your workshop last week. I had the most wonderful time and got so many great ideas. I’m a new-ish teacher (switched from journalism mid-career) and am always looking for ways to better my craft. Thanks to your ideas, I’m now using rhythmic poems every day and putting lyrics up on the board for my learners to read. They love it! I’m also halfway through your HTHS manual and am putting more of those ideas into practice. Thank you so much for doing what you do and for inspiring so many of us. It is helping countless numbers of children! All the best.
Today we grieve, we hug, we console. Tomorrow, we rise.The Buffalo shootings, the Irvine, CA church shootings, and the shootings in Uvalde have left me speechless, in tears, and angry. America is awash in guns and the means to annihilate every human being on her soil, many times over. Americans possess more than 350 million guns, as Gun Control Advocate Andy Pelosi shared earlier to day. And the amount of ammunition is probably immeasurable. The angels are weeping for us.Today is also the anniversary of the George Floyd murder. Police killings of innocent/unarmed people have not declined since his death.And yet, I know without question that we can imagine, work, and rise up out of this brutal reality. It is not natural for human beings to act with such depravity. We must fight harder, think higher thoughts, and strengthen our bonds. The world and the world’s children need us now more than ever. We know what ignorance and hate can produce. We must answer the question, “What can greater love of humanity produce?” I am here to link arms with every single person willing to ascend, to do things we have not done, have not thought to do, and perhaps, have not had the courage to do, in the face of these horrors. That gun violence is now the #1 cause of death for young people is sickening, and must motivate us to step up, speak up, and, if necessary, act up – more than we ever have! The angels, and John Lennon, will cheer us. #Imagine