February 25, 2008

Kyra Hicks: Celebration of Children's Literature


The Brown Bookshelf is introducing authors and illustrators as part of their 28-Day Later celebration of Black History Month. These authors and illustrators play an essential role in the field of children’s literature.

If you spend any time in the children’s literature section of the blogosphere, you’ve probably already met Kyra Hicks. She started her blog, Black Threads in Kid Lit, in early 2007, writing on the subject of African American children’s literature — picture books, reviews and other topics of interest. Since then, she has become an important addition to the online children’s literature community.

Beyond blogging, and even more important, Kyra is an author and storyteller. While attending a traveling exhibition about story quilts — Stitching Memories: African American Story Quilts — she became inspired.

"I remember knowing at that moment that I wanted to tell stories using fabric," she says. Soon, she was creating her own story quilts.

In 2003, her guide book, Black Threads: An African-American Quilting Sourcebook, was published by McFarland & Co. She followed that success with Martha’s Ann’s Quilt for Queen Victoria, published in early 2007.

Kyra is my sister! Please take a moment to enjoy this interview of her as part of the 28-Day Later celebration!

3 comments:

Deidra said...

Wayne, Congrats to your sister! (I said this before but ya'll look so much alike lol)

My only regret with this post is that I never knew about her from before or my mother never knew her. I would love to read her books and her recommendations. I will be going to the library shortly to check out some of them (if it's there) because it is very hard to find books for African American children.

Story quilts are fabulous. I was quilting at a young age but I stop - I need to get back into it.

Thanks for this post. More people need to hear about people like her.

Unknown said...

Deidra - I hope you have a chance to visit my sister's blog. Also, I hope that you rekindle your quilting. It is a skill set that few of us maintain in the 21st century...

Kyra said...

Wayne,

Thanks for the mention! The 28 Days Later effort to promote African American children's book literature and illustrators has been fantastic!

Best, Kyra