{"id":648,"date":"2017-12-12T10:31:43","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T10:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/?p=648"},"modified":"2026-02-19T15:33:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T15:33:48","slug":"diverse-voices-curating-a-national-history-of-childrens-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/diverse-voices-curating-a-national-history-of-childrens-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Diverse Voices? Curating a National History of Children’s Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday 24th<\/span><\/sup> November, <\/strong>Newcastle University\u2019s Children\u2019s Literature Unit<\/strong><\/a> and <\/strong>Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children\u2019s Books<\/strong><\/a> co-hosted <\/strong>Diverse Voices? Curating a National History of Children\u2019s Books<\/em><\/strong>.<\/strong><\/a> This one-day symposium, supported by\u00a0Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal\u00a0explored how Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic voices are represented in our national story of children\u2019s literature. In this blog post, which originally appeared on <\/strong>The Race to Read blog,<\/strong><\/a> symposium co-convenor <\/strong>Professor Karen Sands O\u2019Connor<\/strong><\/a> of SUNY Buffalo State reflects on the events.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the foreword to the recently-published anthology of fiction and poetry for young adults,\u00a0A Change is Gonna Come<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(Stripes, 2017), philosopher Darren Chetty<\/a> writes, \u201cWe can think of change as the space between who we are and who we want to be\u2014between being and becoming\u2014as individuals and as communities\u201d (7-8).<\/p>\n

\"TheThe brilliant and optimistic collection from Stripes includes writing from Diverse Voices? participants Darren Chetty, Patrice Lawrence and Catherine Johnson.<\/p>\n

This sentiment entirely encapsulates the motivation behind the Diverse Voices?<\/em> symposium I helped to organize with Seven Stories, the UK\u2019s National Centre for Children\u2019s Books, and Newcastle University Institute for Social Renewal, a symposium where Chetty was a participant.\u00a0During my year as Leverhulme Visiting Professor<\/a> (2015-16), I formed a relationship with the people at Seven Stories Collections<\/a> \u2013 archivists, curators, and librarians \u2013 that was both personal and professional.\u00a0 They were supportive of (and occasionally amused by my revolutionary passion for) my project to make Black British literature a more \u201cnormalized\u201d part of\u00a0British\u00a0<\/em>children\u2019s literature. As I put it in the book that resulted from that year at Seven Stories, \u201cThe face of Britain might have changed after World War II, but not necessarily the hearts and minds of white British people.\u00a0This is partly because the Blackness of Black Britons was made manifestly obvious and continually depicted as Other; but the whiteness of white British society has remained largely invisible\u201d (Children\u2019s Publishing and Black Britain<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>5).<\/p>\n

The Diverse Voices? <\/em>symposium, held at Seven Stories, allowed some of the brightest thinkers in writing, publishing, librarianship and academia to come together and think about ways to ensure that real change would finally come to the UK\u2019s children\u2019s literature. This blog highlights some of the thoughts (both from the event, and from their more public commentary) of the main speakers of the day.<\/p>\n

\"Catherine
Catherine Johnson, Patrice Lawrence and Darren Chetty in conversation. Image: Newcastle University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Catherine Johnson<\/a> encapsulates the idea of Britishness\/whiteness in her short story from\u00a0A Change is Gonna Come<\/em>, \u201cAstounding Talent! Unequalled Performances!\u201d\u00a0In this story, the young protagonist is told to, \u201cFight the world . . . You are a black man in a white world.\u00a0A foreigner\u201d (69). When the main character protests that he was born in Norwich, the man responds, \u201cI doubt if anyone else sees it that way\u201d (70).<\/p>\n

Although I was familiar with this attitude, that if you are Black, Britishness is out of reach, I knew that Seven Stories did not want to mirror this sentiment in their museum or archives.\u00a0Collections and Exhibitions Director Sarah Lawrance pointed out on Friday that, \u201cWe have a longstanding commitment to collecting diverse authors and materials\u201d at Seven Stories, but it has not always been an easy task for them.<\/p>\n

Part of my remit during my Leverhulme year was to provide some recommendations for expanding the collection, but I was very conscious of the fact that I \u2013 like most of the Seven Stories staff \u2013 was white and middle-class, and an American to boot: the very picture of privilege.\u00a0What is the point of a person who has always been privileged enough to raise her voice (in revolution or otherwise) speaking on behalf of those whose voices have been historically side-lined?\u00a0I did not want to replicate old histories.\u00a0I suggested we bring some intellectuals \u2013 writers, editors, librarians, publishers, academics, book people \u2013 from historically-marginalized groups to Seven Stories to hear from them directly.\u00a0Sarah agreed \u2013 as did so many of the great names that we invited.<\/p>\n

\"Seven
Seven Stories\u2019 Collections Officer Paula Wride discusses items from the Collection with Diverse Voices? participants.\u00a0 Image: Newcastle University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We called the symposium \u201cDiverse Voices?\u201d because it reflected Seven Stories\u2019 previous Diverse Voices initiatives<\/a> and left open the question of whose voices were heard and where those voices were welcome. It became part of Newcastle\u2019s Freedom City 2017 project, a celebration of the 50th<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0anniversary of Newcastle University\u2019s granting an honorary doctorate to Martin Luther King, Jr. The themes of Freedom City 2017 were those that King mentioned in his speech at the ceremony: the effects of war, poverty and racism on society. King had come to Newcastle from my current hometown of Buffalo, where he argued that these problems affected young people the most because \u201cthe best in these minds cannot come out\u201d when they have to worry about their education, their housing, their ability to make their voices count.<\/p>\n

I was lucky enough to discuss these ideas with author Alex Wheatle MBE<\/a> in our Into Crongton with Alex Wheatle<\/a> event on Thursday 23rd<\/span><\/sup> November 2017, who said that the characters in his Crongton series were affected by all of these issues \u2013 from World War II, which brought so many of their parents and grandparents to Britain, to the day-to-day poverty that prevents them from reaching their goals, to the institutional racism that keeps them \u201cin their place\u201d.\u00a0All of Wheatle\u2019s young adult characters in his Crongton series have creative and artistic dreams, but there remains a question over whether they will be able to achieve them.\u00a0As he said at the symposium when talking about how whiteness influences prize-giving, \u201cOtherness wasn\u2019t quite adjudicated for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alex
Alex Wheatle MBE in conversation with Professor Karen Sands O\u2019Connor at the Into Crongton with Alex Wheatle event.\u00a0 Image: Newcastle University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Otherness, or rather being othered, was something that had affected many of the speakers at the symposium.\u00a0Filipino writer Candy Gourlay<\/a> mentioned that her work had been translated to television with her main characters depicted as white because there was always \u201cthe assumption that if I had a hero, my hero would be white\u201d.\u00a0SF Said<\/a> wondered if by only listing his initials on his books, he had created the same assumption: \u201cThe minute I took away the obvious \u2018difference\u2019 of my name, doors opened for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the participants mentioned historical moments when those doors were opened because of cultural change; author Beverley Naidoo<\/a> talked about how \u201cThere were really close connections between anti-apartheid movements and what was going on in the UK\u201d in the 1970s and 1980s.\u00a0And librarian Jake Hope<\/a> reminded the audience of the \u201cradical roots\u201d that led librarians (Black and white) to demand changes in publishing during that same time period. This sense of history was underscored by author Patrice Lawrence,<\/a> who highlighted the importance of the historical record: \u201cThe joy of looking at archives,\u201d she said, is that \u201cyou come to understand how we got to where we are.\u201d And archivist and author S. I. Martin<\/a> pointed out that archives could teach more than just adults: \u201cArchives are a world that kids can write themselves into.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jake
Jake Hope speaking about children\u2019s literature prizes, chaired by Dr Lucy Pearson. Image: Newcastle University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There was at times a rumbling undercurrent of concern that the symposium was a good start whose promise might never be fulfilled.\u00a0Author Ifeoma Onyefulu<\/a> spoke those concerns out loud when she said, \u201cIt\u2019s good to talk, but where\u2019s the action?\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the symposium participants found the pace of historical change too slow, and did not wait for a space to be made for them.\u00a0Verna Wilkins,<\/a> the founder of Tamarind and then of Firetree Books, talked about how her life\u2019s work was \u201can attempt to redress the balance\u201d in the world of publishing.\u00a0The illustrator Yu Rong<\/a> spoke about seeing a hole in the publishing world: \u201cThere is very little about China and Chinese people in UK children\u2019s books\u201d and so Rong has done her best to fill up that hole, at least a little bit.<\/p>\n

\"Verna
Verna Wilkins talks about setting up Tamarind Books at Diverse Voices? Image: Newcastle University.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But for almost everyone at the symposium, action by one group of people was not enough to bring real change for everyone. Instead, it will take hard work and difficult discussions to change children\u2019s literature in the UK if we are going to make every child feel a sense of belonging in the world of books. We must read differently \u2013 think differently \u2013 speak differently.\u00a0We must cross the barriers that keep us apart by any means necessary.<\/p>\n

In Sita Brahmachari\u2019s<\/a> recent book for the publisher Barrington Stoke,\u00a0Worry Angels<\/em>\u00a0(2017), she writes about the difficulty\u00a0and necessity<\/em>\u00a0of communication:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone doesn\u2019t speak the same language as you . . . when you want them to understand not just the words that you say, but what you feel, then you try to speak in any way that you can . . . with your hands, with your eyes, with pictures in the sand . . . You act things out . . . you let the feeling show in your whole body . . . whatever way you can to show them you want to be your friend\u201d (71).<\/em><\/p>\n

It is this kind of communication we need to keep up between us all, even when it is hard.\u00a0When it goes wrong \u2013 as it will \u2013 we must keep on trying.\u00a0This is the only way to ensure that the change we want will come in British children\u2019s books \u2013 for all kids.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Professor Karen Sands O\u2019Connor<\/h5>\n

Part of Freedom City 2017, the Diverse Voices? symposium and associated events were supported by Newcastle University\u2019s Institute for Social Renewal,<\/a> the Catherine Cookson Foundation,<\/a> the Heritage Lottery Fund<\/a> and Arts Council England.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday 24th November, Newcastle University\u2019s Children\u2019s Literature Unit and Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children\u2019s Books co-hosted Diverse Voices? Curating a National History of Children\u2019s Books. This one-day symposium, supported by\u00a0Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal\u00a0explored how Black, Asian … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[314,182,50],"tags":[320,316,317,315,302,224,321,318,319,87],"class_list":["post-648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children-and-young-people","category-learning-for-change","category-past-in-the-present","tag-authors","tag-books","tag-children","tag-childrens-literature","tag-diversity","tag-english","tag-freedom-city","tag-literature","tag-voices","tag-young-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5813"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":689,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions\/689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}