BIOGRAPHIES

 

KWAME ALXANDER is a poet, educator, producer and #1 New York Times bestselling author of 39 books, including Why Fathers Cry at Night, An American Story, The Door of No Return, Becoming Muhammad Ali (co-authored with James Patterson), Rebound, which was shortlisted for the prestigious UK Carnegie Medal, and The Undefeated, the National Book Award nominee, Newbery Honor, and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson.

 

A native of the Washington Metropolitan region, Alexander is the recipient of numerous awards, including The Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, The Coretta Scott King Author Honor, Three NAACP Image Award Nominations, and the 2017 Inaugural Pat Conroy Legacy Award. In 2018, he opened the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic in Ghana, as a part of LEAP for Ghana, an international literacy program he co-founded. In January 2023, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts commissioned a national tour for young audiences of his musical Acoustic Rooster’s Barnyard Boogie.

 

He is also the executive producer, showrunner, and writer of The Crossover TV series, based on his Newbery-Medal winning novel of the same name, which premiered on Disney+ in April 2023. The Crossover was produced in partnership with LeBron James' SpringHill Company and Big Sea Entertainment, Alexander’s production company where he serves as CEO and co-founder, and is dedicated to creating innovative, highly original children’s and family entertainment.

 

JABARI ASIM is a writer and multidisciplinary artist. He directs the MFA program in creative writing at Emerson College, where he is also the Elma Lewis Distinguished Fellow in Social Justice. His nonfiction books include The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, and Why; What Obama Means: For Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Future; Not Guilty: Twelve Black Men Speak Out on Law, Justice, and Life; and We Can’t Breathe: On Black Lives, White Lies, and the Art of Survival. His books for children include Whose Toes Are Those? and Preaching to the Chickens: The Story of Young John Lewis. His works of fiction include A Taste of Honey and Only the Strong.

 

jonetta rose barras is a best-selling author and award-winning poet, essayist and journalist, who many consider a Washington, DC political and cultural institution. In 1978, barras co-founded The Institute for the Preservation and Study of African American Writing–one of the first organizations to professionally document the District of Columbia's Black literary history; IPSAAW produced publications and exhibitions, conducted workshops for students and educators, and presented awards to people like children's author Eloise Greenfield and Negritude founder and poet Leon Damas. Barras helped launch and coordinate for several years the Black History Month Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She also designed and produced the Center's Cultural Diversity Festival, which documented the intersection of African American, Asian and Hispanic cultures. She coordinated the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities’ Larry Neal Writers Conference and served as assistant director of the popular and influential Ascension Poetry Reading Series, founded by E. Ethelbert Miller.

 

Barras has had an equally successful career in journalism beginning in the 1980s as a reporter for the Washington Afro American newspaper. Later she joined The Washington Times as a local investigative journalist. In the mid-1990s, she became a political editor for The Washington City Paper, winning awards for her reporting about local and national political and cultural affairs. Simultaneously, she served as an op-ed writer for The Washington Times. In 1998, jonetta published her first book—a highly acclaimed biography of Marion Barry–The Last of the Black Emperors: The Hollow Comeback of Marion Barry in the Age of New Black Leaders (Bancroft Press. In 2000, Random House published her memoir Whatever Happened To Daddy’s Little Girl? The Impact of Fatherlessness on Black Women.

 

She wrote Bridges: Reuniting Daughters and Daddies (Bancroft Press 2005), and The Corner Is No Place For Hiding (Bunny and the Crocodile Press 1996). Her poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies including Amazing Graces (Paycock Press 2012) and It’s All Love: Black Writers on Soul Mates, Family, and Friends (Broadway Books 2009). Barras edited the anthology Discovering Me … Without You: Teen Girls Speak About Father Absence (Esther Productions Inc. Books 2020).

 

In 2001, Washingtonian Magazine listed barras as one of the top 50 influential journalists in Washington, DC. In 2008, she received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Trinity Washington University. In 2016, she was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Society of Professional Journalists D.C. Chapter Pro.

 

CAROLINE BREWER is a professional speaker, author, content creator, literacy activist and consultant. She is the Indiana-born daughter of an Alabama-born storyteller but currently lives in Washington, DC. She is the author of 13 books and is an environmentalist. She is the former Chairwoman of the Taking Nature Black Conference and former Marketing and Communications Director of the Audubon Naturalist Society. She is currently working on national and international forums to address environmental crises and writing books about nature.

 

Brewer is a former Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and served on two Pulitzer juries. She has been a reading teacher and classroom teacher, and as an author, speaker, and consultant has presented readings, speeches, and seminars to more than 27,000 teachers, children, tutors, parents, librarians, and general audiences, including at conferences, such as the National Council of Teachers of English, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and the Taking Nature Black Conference.

 

ADJOA JACKSON BURROWES has published several children's books, among them, Grandma’s Purple Flowers, Rain, and Everybody Wears Braids. She is also a mixed media artist, author, and educator who has been practicing and expanding her art in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area since 2000. She is a graduate of Howard University (BFA in Printmaking) and the Corcoran School of Art at The George Washington University (MA in Art Education). She has been the recipient of a fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Denbo Residency at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Art Bank Grant award from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and a 2nd Place Made in VA exhibition award from the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. She has presented in group and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally including the 2023 Black Inner Vision at University of Hawaii’s Hilo Campus Center Gallery, the 18th International Collage Exhibit at the Real Tart Gallery in New Zealand, and Undercurrents: Monotypes by Adjoa Burrowes at Schlesinger Center for the Performing Arts. She has collaborated with institutions such as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, spoken and presented on her art practice and themes around cultural history at various others such as Bibliotheca de San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, and Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida.

 

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN is founder and president emerita of Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), has been an advocate for children, especially children in poverty for her entire professional life. Under her leadership, CDF became the nation’s strongest voice for children and families. A graduate of Spelman College and Yale Law School, Wright Edelman began her career in the mid-60’s when, as the first Black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar, she directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson, Mississippi. In l968, she moved to Washington, DC, as counsel for the Poor People’s Campaign that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., began organizing before his death. She founded the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm and the parent body of the Children’s Defense Fund. For two years she served as the Director of the Center for Law and Education at Harvard University and in l973 began CDF.

 

She has received over a hundred honorary degrees and many awards including the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Prize, the Heinz Award, and a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship. In 2000, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award for her writings which include: Families in Peril: An Agenda for Social Change; The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours; Guide My Feet: Meditations and Prayers on Loving and Working for Children; Stand for Children; Lanterns: A Memoir of Mentors; Hold My Hand: Prayers for Building a Movement to Leave No Child Behind; I’m Your Child, God: Prayers for Our Children; I Can Make a Difference: A Treasury to Inspire Our Children; and The Sea Is So Wide and My Boat Is So Small: Charting a Course for the Next Generation.

 

HEMINETU RA ENKAMIT is the author of two children’s books, The Adventures of Yao and Honey a Good Night Story and From the Tales of Hungry Human (a collection of six stories.) He has said that enrolling in Howard University in 1969 marked the start of a spiritual quest to reclaim, restore, preserve and pass on my identity as an African in the world. “As much of my life has been in a classroom, I have always looked for different media to affect learning, be it lecture, music, poetry or drama.” He credits his birth mother with planting the seed of “poetry within me at an early age, be it the spoken word or the lyrical majesty of song. She, a young Black woman in a virtually all white school, was able to craft a poem which could not be denied and was published in the school’s journal. Following in her footsteps, his first book, The Itongo Speaks (by Lee Cook, his given name) was an essay and a collection of poems. The play, A Virgin Meadow’s Winter’s Prayer, was originally written and copyrighted in 1977. Lying dormant for many years, it took a diagnosis of cancer to wake it and several other projects which have been asleep for more than 40 years. The play has been modified from its original draft and converted into a novel entitled, A Virgin Meadow’s Winter’s Prayer: A Story About Love, which was published in September 2022 in hardcopy and a year later as an audiobook. He has also published African Names, the Ancient Egyptian Keys to Unlocking Your Power and Destiny and Divine Kingship of Asante: A Model for Sustainable Development of Self and Community, and Yes We Cancer: If I Had To Do It All Over Again, My Personal Journey, Things I Knew, Didn’t Know and in Hindsight Would Like to Have Known.

 

MICHELLE Y. GREEN is graduate of the University of Maryland and the Johns Hopkins Master's Program in Writing, and teaches several courses, including one on writing children’s literature.. Green wanted to be a writer since she was in the fifth grade. She was a voracious reader and for a time the family lived in Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. Since then, she has traveled all over the world as a military Brat.

 

She is the author of High Flight: The Story of Eddie Lee Young, one of only two triple rated Tuskegee Airmen and her father. Her Willie Pearl series won a 1991 CRABbery Award (Prince George's Memorial Library) and a 1993 Children's Literary Award for Multicultural Publishing. TheWillie Pearl series tells the story of Green’s own mother and is set in a coal mining town in Kentucky during the Depression. Her book A Strong Right Arm: The Story of Mamie “Peanut” Johnson was a Junior Library Guild and was also nominated for the 2004 Rhode Island Children's Book Award. Green's latest project is a book about African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux.

 

LEAH HENDERSON was raised in Andover, Massachusetts, but now lives in Washington, DC. She is the author of many critically acclaimed books for young readers, which have been included on several Best Books lists including those by New York Public Library, Bank Street College, and the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature. Her titles include The Magic in Changing Your Stars, Together We March and The Courage of the Little Hummingbird. She has written for the New York Times Book Review and been a contributing author for the Insights column in The National Council of Teachers of English journal Voices From the Middle. Because many of the books she read as a child did not resemble the world she saw, her earliest stories came from a need to finish the tales and follow the real-life achievements and journeys of people and places she saw and learned about on her travels that were often overlooked. Through seeing the world, Henderson has witnessed the richness that can be found within everyone’s individual story. That is why writing the world she sees is so vitally important to her. Henderson has mentored for many years and her volunteer work has always centered around young people being able to see their possibilities in the world. She earned her MFA in Writing and is in the faculty at Spalding University’s School of Creative and Professional Writing.

 

JOY JONES is a popular speaker, trainer, and the author of several books for adults and children. Her most recent are Fearless Public Speaking, a how-to for teens, and Jayla Jumps In, a novel which received a starred review on Booklist and was chosen as one of the best sports books for children by the American Library Association. Her novel in progress, Walking the Boomerang, won the 2022 Pen America/ Phyllis Naylor Grant for Children's and Young Adult Novelists. Joy's next book is The Sky Is Not Blue which debuts Summer, 2024. She works for the DC Public Library.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

AMINA LUQMAN-DAWSON was raised in Lynwood, California, with her parents and three siblings. Her older sister was a reader which prompted her to also become one. Luqman-Dawson said she always liked words—stringing them together to make the perfect sound, or to invoke just the right feeling. While in college and graduate school she forgot that love of words, focusing instead on a “good job.” Then, in the evenings, she began writing down stories from children’s picture books. She soon combined her love of words with her training in public policy and found herself writing journal articles, book reviews and travel writing.

 

After she and her husband moved to Petersburg, VA, she learned of the city’s rich African American history and yet couldn’t find books that described it in an accessible way. A book needed to be written; the result was Images of America: African Americans of Petersburg. Later, she gave birth to a son and found herself with his father spending countless hours reading to him. She began thinking of stories to write for their son and maybe for other children. The book she created from those dreams was Freewater, which is a New York Times Bestseller, a John Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award winner.

 

DAVID C. MILLER, Ph.D., a Baltimore native, uses his academic training and innate street skills to lead healing circles with men and boys, focusing on decision-making, impulse control, mental health awareness, and managing anger. Miller reconciled his issues with trauma and street violence growing up in West Baltimore to launch an innovative publishing company focused on children's books. Miller aims to shatter the lack of diversity in the children's book industry by creating stories with relatable characters that promote racial pride and contain fun storylines and rich illustrations. Khalil's Way, Gabe & His Green Thumb, Brooklyn's Finest: The Greene Family Farm, Winnie the Wizard of Wall Street, and Ida B., the Beekeeper are a few of Miller's children's book titles. Miller completed his Ph.D. in the School of Social Work at Morgan State University and lives with his family in Washington, DC.

 

ROHULAMIN QUANDER, an author and multi-generational Washingtonian, is a member of the internationally renowned Quander Family, whose American lineage traces back almost 350 years in the Maryland and Virginia area. The family’s history includes involuntary servitude to George Washington at his Mount Vernon plantation. He earned both his BA and JD degrees from Howard University, Washington, DC. Quander is a retired Senior Administrative Judge for the District of Columbia. He is the author of four books, two of which highlight significant components of African American life, including aspects of membership in Greek-letter organizations, and their history and culture. The third book was a biography of James W. Quander, his father. His most recent book, The Quanders, recounts the history of the Quander Family, tracing their presence and historic contributions from the 17th century to the present.

 

JASON REYNOLDS told the New Yorker magazine in a 2021 interview that, “I write to Black children. But I [also] write for all children. My characters are not actually concerned about white people. I think I can count on one hand the number of white people that exist in my books. The way that I’m addressing race is by creating Black worlds,” added Reynolds, essentially echoing a sentiment shared by poet Alice Dunbar-Nelson, wife of famed poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.

 

That may defy his personal narrative and journey to becoming a writer of books for children and young adults. Reynolds was born in Washington, DC, but reared in Oxon Hill, Maryland. After finishing high school, he enrolled in the University of Maryland. It was only then, at 17 and in college, that he read his first novel from start to finish. He was working at Karibu, a Black-owned bookstore in Prince George’s County, Maryland, when he picked up a copy of Richard Wright’s Black Boy. That book unleashed Reynolds’ thirst for literature. He said he reached for Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison, among others.

 

While he initially failed English in college, Reynolds thought himself a poet and shared his work with his professor, who essentially told him not to waste his time. Still, he managed to graduate, albeit with less than stellar grades. His friend Jason Griffin persuaded him to relocate to New York City. The two launched their careers: Griffin the visual artist; Reynolds the writer. They published through HarperCollins the book My Name is Jason. Mine Too: Our Story, Our Way. It didn’t get much traction. Reynolds moved back to DC, bouncing from job to job. Eventually he returned to New York, landing in yet another retail job. During that time, however, he immersed himself in a writing project, producing the draft of When I Was the Greatest. It was released in 2014.

 

Reynolds has published as many as 16 books, selling more than six million copies. He has won several major awards, including the NAACP Image Award, The Walter Dean Myers Award (twice), the Coretta Scott King Award multiple times and was also a National Book Award Finalist. From 2020 to 2022, he served as the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature for the Library of Congress.

 

AISHA RICE is a children’s book author who now lives in DC/Maryland/Virginia. She graduated from George Mason University and received a Paralegal Certificate from Georgetown University. With an undergraduate degree in Journalism, she has always enjoyed writing. The middle child in a family of three girls, hair trials and tribulations were a constant in the household. Her debut book, My Kinky Coily Hair, focuses on a child named Naomi who battles with individuality and acceptance of self. Rice has travelled to schools along the East Coast giving presentations on the importance of acceptance of self and the power of literacy. She has donated over a thousand books to different schools, with her biggest donation being 500 books to DC’s first all-girls Public Charter school, Excel Academy in southeast Washington.

 

NKECHI TAIFA is a civil and human rights attorney, scholar-activist, talk show host, and author. Taifa is CEO of The Taifa Group and Executive Director of The Reparation Education Project. A native Washingtonian, she is the author of the best-seller memoir, Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice, the best-seller book Reparations on Fire: How and Why It’s Spreading Across America, and three best-selling books for children Shining Legacy: Storypoems for the Young So Black Heros and Heroines Forever will be Sung (1983); The Adventures of Kojo and Ama (1992), and Three Ta (1983). After discovering that Shining Legacy was banned by a school district in 2020, she republished the children’s books in 2022 for a new generation to live and enjoy.

 

TRICIA ELAM WALKER is an award-winning author, educator and recovered lawyer. Her novel, Breathing Room, was published by Simon & Schuster/PocketBooks. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, Essence and other publications. She has provided commentary for NPR, CNN, the BBC and more. Tricia’s short stories are included in the O. Henry Prize Stories, New Stories from the South and other anthologies and her essays are published in Father’s Songs, Dream Me Home Safely, It’s All About Love and more. Several of her plays have been produced and her first children’s book, Nana Akua Goes to School, was published by Random House in June 2020. It won a 2021 Children’s Africana Book Award and the 2021 Ezra Jack Keats writer award. Her second picture book, Dream Street, was published in November 2021, garnered five starred reviews and was a New York Times Best Children’s Book of 2021 selection. Tricia is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Howard University in Washington, DC.

 

DERRICK JAKOLBY WASHINGTON is an innovative, insightful and ambitious leader with over 16 years of local government, higher education and nonprofit leadership experience. He considers himself to be a “people builder,” aiming to empower others with the skills needed to improve their quality of life and be successful. As an accomplished author, Washington has captivated young readers with his thought-provoking and inspiring children's books. He is the author of Son, You Matter, which takes readers on a journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance. Through relatable characters and heartfelt storytelling, he emphasizes the importance of recognizing one's worth and embracing one's unique qualities. His book has received critical acclaim for its ability to instill confidence and resilience in young readers, while addressing inequities in policing in communities of color. He is also the author of A Special Little Girl--a heartwarming tale that celebrates diversity and inclusivity. Through the story of a young girl with unique abilities, Washington promotes acceptance and understanding, encouraging children to embrace differences and appreciate the beauty of individuality. Written as an ode to his niece, Zyion, Washington states that he wrote the book, “to remind my niece and all little children that learn ‘differently’ that they are seen, valued, important and loved.”

 

MERITTA S. WHITE is a former Emmy Award winning television producer. She is an attorney, licensed to practice law in the State of New Jersey and in the District of Columbia. She is also the author of Please Don’t Sing! and Hugging the Monster.

 

LAKIA WILSON is the author of several novels and non-fiction projects for children and young adults, including What Is Black Lives Matter? a part of the New York Times Bestselling HQ Now series; Be Real, Macy Weaver, a coming of age story about a young girl trying to find a new best friend and to stay true to herself.

 

Lakita was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in Prince George’s County, Maryland. A 2017 recipient of SCBWI’s Emerging Voices Award, Lakita received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is currently on faculty at Prince George’s Community College in the Education Department. Lakita lives in Prince George’s County, Maryland, with her two children and a Shih-Tzu.