Author: katie@connectedcommunitiesconsulting.com

We talk a lot about the importance of sharing high-quality diverse books with children in libraries and early childhood education, but books aren’t the only tools that we use to support early learning. Singing, dancing, and playing along to music helps children build phonological awareness, learn new words, move their bodies, and even connect with their emotions. As we work to ensure diverse voices are included in our programs and classrooms, we can look beyond only books to the literal voice and ask ourselves, “How diverse is my repertoire of children’s music?”

Stories, Songs, and Stretches!® programs use children’s music in two main ways: to inspire physical movement, and to provide opportunities for social-emotional learning. My playlist includes popular children’s musicians that will be familiar to many – Jim Gill, Laurie Berkner, and Bari Koral, among others. Noticing the overwhelming whiteness of my children’s music selections, however, has provided an excellent opportunity. It’s prompted me over the last year to seek out more children’s musicians of color. This discovery process has led me to some of my new favorites, both for energizing a group with movement and for pausing to take a breath.

It’s unfortunate that as I scan the growing body of kids music specific to yoga movements and mindfulness practice, I don’t find BIPOC voices. This doesn’t mean they aren’t out there; it does likely mean that they don’t have the same access to production, distribution and marketing as others. If you know of anyone I’m missing, PLEASE share! I’d love to know, use, and elevate these artists!

The great news is that there are many BIPOC children’s musicians whose songs fit perfectly with the intentions of Stories, Songs, and Stretches!®Here are some artists whom I love, and how I use some of their songs. Who are your favorite diverse children’s musicians? Share them with us here!

Culture Queen

Jessica Hebron, aka “Culture Queen,” is a prolific and highly accomplished fine arts performer who released her first album of children’s music, I Like the Me I See in 2016. My favorite jam is “Super Shaker Song.” It’s super energetic and gets every body part ready to move! I love to use it as a warm-up song or in the middle of a Stories, Songs, and Stretches® program along with egg shakers. Follow up with a moment of mindfulness, pausing to notice how the body feels after such movement and how those physical sensations change with some slow, deep breaths.

Mista Cookie Jar and the Chocolate Chips

LA-based CJ Pizarro, aka Mista Cookie Jar, offers positive jams that will get toes tapping and faces smiling for kids and adults adults alike. My favorites are “Gratitude” and “Kindness is the Way.” Use them for free-form dancing, grab some scarves or instruments, or practice some yoga shapes you’ve used throughout your program. Then make some time to talk about the lyrics as you transition from the song to your next element; in Stories, Songs, and Stretches!® this would likely be a listening story that reinforces the same social-emotional skills introduced in the song such as Gracias / Thanks by Pat Mora or A World of Kindness from Pajama Press.

Nathalia

A long-time favorite of mine for bilingual (English/Spanish) storytime, Colombian-born and LA-based Nathalia uses her experience as both a musician and an early childhood educator to create bilingual music that flows with ease and that will get everyone moving, regardless of their home language. A perfect example of this is “Animal Bop” which blends English and Spanish seamlessly, introducing animal names and movements that are a perfect fit for using age-appropriate yoga shapes. The gentle “Sueño Feliz” is a lovely background song for savasana, or a brief period of rest and relaxation, at the end of a Stories, Songs, and Stretches!® program. BONUS: The lyrics for each album are freely available to download from her website!

Elena Moon Park

Newer to me is Korean-American and Brooklyn-based Elena Moon Park, whose albums share her interpretations of East Asian folk music as well as original children’s songs. “Let It Come, Let It Go” beautifully conveys the inevitability of change; the seasons, our feelings…all things change. What a wonderful tool this song is for sharing this core mindfulness principle with young children! We all have thoughts and emotions but they don’t define us; we can let them come and let them go. The ability to understand this is critical in the formation of self-awareness (the foundation for all social-emotional learning). You could easily make up your own movements to go with this song, or use the chorus of “let it come, let it go” as a cue to take a deep, slow breath. Add pom poms as a way for kids to connect to their breath visually; what happens to the pom pom when you exhale?

Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band

If multiple Latin Grammy award-winning Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band isn’t already in your kids music rotation, add them now! Absolutely one of my favorite kids groups. “Like Never Before” is especially meaningful for me; it was one of the staple songs that I would play and sing with my daughter while bouncing her as an infant and watching those first smiles and giggles emerge. It’s a wonderfully empowering song; what will you do with this day like never before? Encourage adult caregivers to be in the moment dancing or watching their kiddos move to this song, fully noticing all of their child’s individual nuances. This itself is a mindfulness practice for adults, and a wonderful way to bond with their child(ren) in the present moment. Snuggle up after for a listening story such as All in a Day by Cynthia Rylant. Their interpretations of traditional Latinx children’s songs are stellar, and great to use for movement breaks in any storytime, classroom or home. My favorite is definitely “Piñata Attack,” a version of the traditional “Dale, dale, dale.”

Secret Agent 23 Skidoo

Finally, the prolific and Grammy-winning Secret Agent 23 Skidoo delivers hip hop that uplifts and educates with rhymes and beats that adults will love as much as their kids. “You’re It” is an awesome choice for getting a group moving at the beginning of your Stories, Songs, and Stretches!® program. It perfectly sets the tone that for the next 30 minutes or so we are going to have fun, celebrate who we are, and build each other up in body, heart, and mind.

ABSOLUTELY NONE OF THIS CONTENT IS SPONSORED!

I’m simply a passionate advocate for school readiness, mindfulness, and movement sharing the creative work of groups I genuinely love. Whether you’re a kids yoga teacher, a librarian, an early childhood educator, or a parent, I challenge you to take a look at your “go-to” kids music playlist. How white is it? Swapping out some of the tunes you already know for some of the great BIPOC content you may not yet be using will be a joyful, value-add to your daily routine!

Blue Sky, White Stars / Un cielo azul, blancas estrellas by Sarvinder Naberhaus and Kadir Nelson, with Spanish translation by the Teresa Mlawer.

Why I Love It: This is a magnificent picture book celebration of patriotism, the beauty of our country and its people, and the vision of true freedom for all. It manages to touch on all of this through extremely sparse, but beautifully poetic, text, which makes it an excellent choice for reading with kids of any age. The illustrations are stunning and provide ample opportunity for dialogue.

Homemade Love by bell hooks and Shane W. Evans

Why I Love It: L-O-V-E! This book is for every family working to raise children who know they are safe, respected, and loved in their families. The board book format makes it wonderful for sharing with young children, and the poetry of bell hooks delivers the messages in ways truly felt when read aloud. The illustrations wonderfully capture the perspective of a young child. I’ve been reading it with my daughter since she was a baby because, to me, the whole book just exudes the safety and security of a loving family, which is exactly what I want her to feel, and to see other children who look different from her feeling too.

Looking for Bongo by Eric Velasquez

Why I Love It: The playfulness! An Afro-Latino boy has lost his favorite toy – a universally identifiable childhood experience! Set within his home filled with books, art, and drums and shared by his mom, dad, Wela (abuela/grandma), sister, dog, and cat, this book centers the intersection of black identity/race and Latinx heritage (not seen enough in picture books).

The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family by Ibtihaj Muhammad and Hatem Aly

Why I Love It: The young protagonist, Faizah, idolizes her big sister in that special way that all little sisters do. When it’s Asiya’s time to choose her first hijab, it has to be that special blue. The blue of the ocean and the sky. But when they go to school, Faizah sees other children make fun of Asiya’s hijab, and worries if Asiya is OK. Interspersed throughout is their mother’s powerful wisdom about strength, confidence, and self-knowledge. Excellent for learning and sharing intersectionality – of both worry & pride, and black skin & Muslim religion.

Counting on Community by Innosanto Nagara

Why I Love It: This empowering board book introduces two key early learning concepts: counting (early numeracy) and – more importantly – social awareness (social-emotional learning). It joyously celebrates community, showing children coming together to play, share, and make their voices heard.

Trayvon Martin. Michael Brown. Tamir Rice. Eric Garner.

These are the names of unarmed black men and children killed by police (and a “neighborhood watch” member). Their deaths, and the resulting outcries against police brutality toward people of color (especially black men and boys) made me start to ask questions. What is systemic racism? What is implicit bias? What is the historical relationship between police and the black community? How does that history continue to affect people of color? What is white privilege, and how have I benefited from it?

I had a lot to learn.

By the time Philando Castile was murdered after disclosing to a police officer that he was legally carrying a concealed weapon, I was aware enough to know his death (and the lack of conviction for the officer involved) was part of a long-standing pattern of systemic racism in policing. I have a concealed carry permit. Yes, this yoga and mindfulness teacher grew up with guns, views them as tools, feels comfortable shooting them, and has a permit to legally carry them. I was trained to disclose immediately when approached by police that I have a concealed carry permit and whether I am currently carrying a weapon. This was exactly what Mr. Castile did. I, a white woman, have only been treated with an enhanced respect when I make this disclosure. Mr. Castile died. Was murdered. For a broken taillight and the smell of marijuana. Yet I remained silent. I spoke with friends and some family, but never publicly. Why?

I was scared. I was scared I would say the wrong thing. I was scared of being criticized online. I was scared of alienating family members who view the world very differently than I do. I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing. But inaction, IS an action. In this case, my silence said that my need to remain comfortable was of higher value than the lives of people of color. Especially black people. Especially black men and boys.

Breonna Taylor. George Floyd. A COVID-19 death rate among African-Americans that is 3 times the death rate of white people.

I regret my silence. But I know others are today right where I was back in 2014. So I’m sharing here some of the books and podcasts I’ve been immersed in over the past several years. They have helped me tremendously to learn about life in America that I can’t know from my personal lived experience. That I was never taught in my formal education. If you’re a white person who doesn’t understand why people are protesting, or who feels the injustice but doesn’t know where to start in order to better stand with people of color, I hope some of resources will serve you.

Understanding Contemporary Injustice, Racism, and Privilege

When BIPOC folks (black, indigenous, people of color) tell us what their experiences are like based on race, this is a gift to those of us (white people) who do not share the same lived experience. It takes great courage and vulnerability to share one’s truth. These books and podcasts have changed how I understand my country, and have taught me to believe the experiences of BIPOC.

• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
• Code Switch from NPR
• Latino USA from NPR (Yes, a person can have both black racial and Latinx ethnic/cultural identity. This is called intersectionality.)
• Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting
• The Nod from Gimlet Media

(un)Learn American History

My formal education on race in the United States went something like this:

Slavery. Segregation. Martin Luther King, Jr. Everything’s fine.

No wonder there is so much confusion, so much we (white people) don’t understand. I managed to get all the way through earning a Master’s Degree barely learning anything about Reconstruction, post-Reconstruction, the terror of lynching, the humiliation of Jim Crow, or federally-supported policies that blocked access to home ownership (such as redlining).

This erasure of historical discrimination and its continued impact on black life today is a perfect example of institutional white supremacy. We aren’t explicitly taught that white people are better than black people, we just learn through omission that black life doesn’t matter as much as white life. When we more accurately know the past, we can better understand the present. Black history IS American history.

• The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
• Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching by Paula J. Giddings
• The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson
• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
• 1619 from the New York Times
• Uncivil from Gimlet Media
• Lynching in America from the Equal Justice Initiative

Racism still lives inside me. It still lives inside you. The message that it’s better to be white than it is to be black or brown permeates the fabric of our culture, even if we believe ourselves to be “colorblind.” Don’t deny the racism within you; instead, notice it. Become curious about it. Question where it comes from and who it serves. Then work to uproot it, over and over again.

I am no expert in how to be an ally to BIPOC. But I’m learning, and I’m trying to do better as I know better, every day. Today I can’t go back to choosing personal comfort over standing with those who do not have the privilege of silence. The listening is never over. The learning is never over. The uncomfortable process of unearthing my own entrenched racism is never over. It can’t be until our country fully realizes her vision statement – and her incredible potential – of true, equitable freedom for all.

It feels like I am breathing in fear everywhere…observing the empty shelves at the grocery store, overhearing individual conversations, making contingency plans with friends and family as we scramble for childcare, even managing my own finances as events scheduled for months must be postponed or canceled. It is in times like these that I’m reminded that mindfulness does not solve our problems or make them go away…but it can help us cope. For the next several weeks I will be sharing free content that can help you manage fear, and perhaps even have some fun, as you are stuck at home with children, manage worried staff, and confront your own discomfort.

Fear is not a bad thing. It’s not a glitch in the system. Fear exists to promote survival. And there’s no getting away from it. No matter how brave we are, we all experience fear. After all, we are creatures with a consciousness aware of our own mortality. That’s some scary shit! Yet we go through life as though we are immortal…we do we must be done in our personal and professional lives and hopefully have a little fun too. But when disaster strikes – a death, a diagnosis, a global pandemic – we are reminded that our time here is finite. And fear makes her presence known, in our bodies, hearts, and minds.

I’m teaming up with teaming up Amanda M. Leftwich of @mindfulinlis to offer a live Meditation on Working With Fear, this Friday, 3/20 at 1 PM EST. Link for up to 100 people to join us via Zoom is https://zoom.us/j/232622992 . This is the most visceral uncertainty many of us have faced collectively. Let’s not allow social distancing to keep us from being in community. We hope to see you practice with us; may we all be happy, healthy, safe, and free.

For now, here is a webinar on compassion fatigue that I created a while back for Infopeople. Many of you who work in public service – teachers, librarians, nurses – are at-risk of compassion fatigue on the best of days. This webinar will help you name the experience and learn how self-care can prevent and even heal compassion fatigue, while guiding you through small self-care practices and helping you develop your own self-care plan. I hope it brings some comfort to you and your staff. More content will be shared daily on all of my social media channels: Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Be sure to check it out.

Looking for custom distance learning to help your staff or community navigate these difficult times? Contact me!

I love that travel is often required in my work. It’s thrilling to see new places, I love sharing my passion for preschool movement and mindfulness with others, and I am continually inspired by the work being done by my colleagues. Here are my three biggest takeaways from last week’s Early Literacy Summit in Arizona.

1. Sensory Storytime Applications for Stories, Songs, and Stretches!®

I’m often asked questions about how to adapt Stories, Songs, and Stretches!® for children with special needs, and I always feel inadequate in responding. I never want to present myself as an expert outside of the realms in which I know that I am, so I usually refer people to others in the field who study this topic specifically. This is why I was so excited for fellow Kentucky-based consultant Lynn Baker’s presentation on Sensory Storytimes for children with special needs. I know this is an area where I need to learn more! The session was great; I highly recommend taking one of her online courses if this is a subject you’d like to learn more about.

The part that struck me most in terms of how it relates to my work, was Lynn’s explanation that some children with sensory issues need very high-energy, active kinds of programming and others need a more quiet, calming experience. This was such a lightbulb moment for me! With Stories, Songs, and Stretches!®, we build programs that meld these two experiences: we use lots of movement in a very high-energy way in the first part of the program, and then come down to a more mindful and still experience toward the end. Learning this, I realized that much of what I teach in Stories, Songs, and Stretches!® could be applicable to programming for children with certain sensory needs. It’s very easy to imagine how the kind of embodied play instructed in Stories, Songs, and Stretches!® could be useful in high-energy sensory programs. Mindfulness props and practices could be useful not only in storytime for kids who need a quieter experience, but also out and about in life when a parent or child senses an overload coming on, in order to move the brain out of a state of stress and into a state of calm. Like many librarians, I see now that I was assuming that adapting my program for children with special needs would be an exhaustive process for which I was not properly prepared; how empowering and refreshing to learn from Lynn what kinds of interactions kids with special needs actually need.

2. Dr. Megan McClelland’s Research on Self-Regulation and Early Learning

I fully admit it…after seeing Dr. McClelland’s keynote, I am a total fangirl! Her work is awesome, and it helps make clear for on-the-ground practitioners how the ways in which the brain develops in the early years are interrelated. Social-emotional learning, motor skills, early literacy, early math….these skills are tied up in one another, not learned in an isolated bubble. Further, when we begin to examine the relationships around how these skills develop, synergistic connections can be found, meaning that practicing or building one kind of skill (such as motor skills) can improve another set of skills (such as social-emotional learning). Check out her work if you’re a nerd like me and this kind of research is up your alley. I’m personally really excited to read “Developing together: The role of executive function and motor skills in children’s early academic lives.” Plus, she shared this hilarious Cookie Monster video with us…who wouldn’t love this?

3. Perry Preschool Project

I had heard of this study’s findings before – that access to high-quality preschool education has lifelong positive benefits – but I didn’t know the name of it. The fascinating conversation I was in with a librarian was around mindfulness, trauma, and epigenetics when she brought up this study. Not only did the children who participated in it have lifelong positive outcomes, so did their children! I am often thinking about intergenerational trauma, and the ways in which trauma handed down from our ancestors in our DNA can affect our cognitive, physical and mental well-being. It’s one of the reasons why I am a passionate advocate for mindfulness. How hopeful and encouraging to spin that on its head and see quantitative proof that the good things we experience in early life can outlive us as well!

Were you at the AzLA Early Literacy Summit? What were your top takeaways? Have a state or regional conference coming up that you’d like me to speak at? Reach out! I’m always eager to share science-based, practical strategies for how anyone who works with young children can use movement and mindfulness to boost school readiness!

Four Studies Show Positive Effects of Mindfulness for Early Childhood Educators

I talk a lot in my trainings and social media about how mindfulness helps build brains wired for empathy, problem-solving, and self-regulation when shared with preschool kids, but there is another, major, reason why mindfulness belongs in the ECE classroom. It helps teachers!

It can’t be said enough how heroic the work of early childhood educators truly is – y’all are literal BRAIN BUILDERS! – but our society all too often undervalues this critical work. Add to this the real challenges of serving young children, and teachers and staff really have their work cut out for them. It’s stressful, to say the least. But research is showing that mindfulness can help improve classroom culture, by helping teachers regulate their own stress and form positive relationships with students.

1. A 2016 study found improved interpersonal relationships and decreased anxiety in preschool teachers after mindfulness training. http://ow.ly/ngZB50xrGVV

2. A 2019 study found that preschool teachers who utilize tools for managing stress, such as mindfulness practice, are less likely to request student expulsions. http://ow.ly/P02t50xrGVY

3. A 2017 study in Head Start classrooms found that more mindful teachers have better quality relationships with students and less workplace stress. http://ow.ly/qFNm50xrGVX

4. A 2013 study found that providing mindfulness training to preschool teachers resulted in positive behavior changes among students. http://ow.ly/EHnC50xrGVW

Stories, Songs, and Stretches!® training can help your teachers and staff improve their own stress management skills while helping the littlest learners build self-awareness and other SEL competencies. State approved CEs in OH, KY, IN, VA, TN, NC, SC and WA! Now scheduling private training workshops for 2020!

If this hasn’t happened to you, you may have heard about it happening to a colleague or friend, or can imagine what it might be like. You are in a professional setting with a group of colleagues when suddenly someone in the group becomes irate. They begin yelling. They begin yelling at another person in the group. You know this is wrong and think of yourself as a person who would stand up to such behavior. But you do nothing. No one does. Your colleague is left to handle the ordeal on their own; the aggressor huffs their way out of the room; the group nervously tries to move on, not acknowledging the abusive behavior.

What the hell just happened?

Of course, there are myriad variables at play in this situation. Power differentials between the aggressor and the victim based on characteristics such as race and gender are real and would need to be unpacked. The lack of response to such a situation once the threat was over would also need to be addressed. But in the moment, it is possible that another unseen factor could be keeping the colleagues in this situation locked in inaction—the traumatized brain.

Trauma is defined as a threat to the system in a state of helplessness; something that threatens our life and/or well-being that we are unable to change or control. When we experience trauma, it stays locked in our amygdala forever. Our amygdala will forever be on the lookout for anything in our sensory experience that reminds us of that trauma. This does not happen at the level of conscious thought; it is unconscious; before we even perceive sensory stimuli, the amygdala has scanned it for threats. When it senses a threat, the amygdala takes over, making us act in the way that has kept us safe in the past. This is great for survival, but the amygdala is limited to only three options of what it can make us do in response to the perceived threat: fight, flee, or freeze. Whenever the amygdala is triggered by a past trauma, it will do whatever has kept us safe in the past, every time.  

So back to that meeting. Let’s say the altercation described involved a man yelling at a woman. If (at a physiological level, not the level of conscious thought) seeing a man berate or yell at a woman triggered the colleagues’ brains to recall any past trauma – say for example if they were ever assaulted by a yelling man or perhaps saw a family member in that situation as a child – their ability for conscious decision-making at that point is offline until the amygdala once again believes it is safe. If freezing kept them safe in the past, they will freeze until the perceived threat is gone.

Most people want to believe that we would stand up to any form of violence or injustice if we witnessed it occurring. But that may not be possible for some of us. If we have unresolved trauma from our past, our amygdala may at times keep us from living up to our values in the moment.

Is a triggered trauma response an excuse for inaction? Absolutely not. If our emotional state is keeping us from being able to live our values, we have a responsibility to do better. But we can’t do better until we know better. Learning about how our brains work is the first step. Shame and guilt lead to more inaction. Acceptance and curiosity empower us to learn more, seek help when needed, and create change.

One way we can create change is through the practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness is the practice of being with the present moment, as it is, without judging or changing what’s happening. We do this by focusing on one thing in particular, such as the breath, for a set period of time. We don’t “clear our minds;” thoughts will come, because that’s what minds do. But each time we notice we are swept up in a thought, we gently come back to our object of focus. Over and over and over. And in this way, through consistent practice, we build the muscle of mindfulness.

What does this have to do with trauma? Over time, mindfulness can actually reduce the physical size of the amygdala, making our amygdala less hyper-vigilant and allowing us to more quickly move out of triggered trauma responses and into conscious decision making. Consider how the described altercation at the work meeting could play out differently with the benefit of mindfulness. Perhaps the colleague would see what was happening and become aware of their own physical sensations of fear. Feeling those sensations, they could connect with their breath for a moment or two and connect more deeply to what is happening in the moment, rather than being carried away into a trauma response. They could then act from the logical brain rather than the survival brain, stepping in to disrupt the injustice they are witnessing in real time (if they have the skill and ability to do so).

Mindfulness is not a panacea. It doesn’t cure trauma, but is one of many tools to manage it in a way that keeps us from being locked in past survival reactions. It won’t end injustice, but it is a critical muscle we can cultivate and combine with other skills to disrupt inappropriate behavior when we witness it. And it can help those who have been victims of such workplace abuse to once again feel calm and confident in their bodies when faced with similar situations (such as being in another meeting with the same colleagues) so they can continue to speak up and speak out as their authentic selves.  

For all of the recent talk in the library profession about mindfulness and self-care, much of what mindfulness has to offer seems lost. Mindfulness is not about tuning out or becoming some passive blob. It’s an empowering strategy for healing. It is a missing muscle for cultivating change. It is a critical leadership skill for our times. Shall we take a few moments, then, to breathe?

We all have a bias to think we are accomplishing whatever the goals are that we set for ourselves. There’s nothing like cold, hard data, right there in black and white, indisputable, to open our eyes to where our true behaviors mismatch with our perceptions. This is why we are all wearing Fitbits, right? To hold ourselves accountable with objective data as to whether or not we are actually being as physically active as we want to think we are. This is why the growing trend of undertaking a diversity audit to honestly assess the materials we have available in our library collections, classrooms, and even home bookshelves is so valuable. Sure, we think we’re doing a great job at exposing kids to books by and about different kinds of people. But are we?

I undertook this challenge for myself to see in real detail if I am meeting my goal of showcasing a minimum of 40% of materials by and/or about people of color in the materials that I use in Stories, Songs, and Stretches! training. I set the goal of 40% because the US population is about 40% minority. I created a booklist of 62 titles that I regularly use in training. As it turns out, 37 of them (59%) are by and/or about people of color. Pretty good! However, when I look at this information in more detail, it’s clear that there is plenty of room for improvement.

Only 17 of the 62 authors (27%) and 19 of the 62 illustrators (31%) are people of color themselves. So while 59% of my materials feature diverse characters, only 32% of those materials were written or illustrated by diverse creators. Hmmm.

Let’s dig a little deeper. For the sake of streamlining, I separated minority authors into five racial categories, regardless of home country: Black, Latinx, Asian, First Nations/Indigenous, and Middle Eastern. I recognize that these categories are imperfect, but all of this is a starting point to help me see who I am and am not representing. Here’s what I found:

Black Authors: 6% Illustrators: 8%
Latinx Authors: 11% Illustrators: 13%
Asian Authors: 8% Illustrators: 6%
First Nations/Indigenous Authors: 2% Illustrators: 2%
Middle Eastern Authors: 0% Illustrators: 2%

Some of this information isn’t terribly shocking to me. For example, it makes sense that Latinx authors and illustrators are the most represented in my content, as I have spent my career deeply immersed in the world of Latinx children’s literature. It’s the subgroup of kidlit in which I am the most well-versed, so I’m not surprised so many of these materials made it into the SSS collection. However, even with Latinx creators being more represented than other minority groups in my collection, I still fall short of approximating our population, which is 18% Latinx.

I meet or exceed the percent of our population who are Asian (5.8%), and American Indian (1.3%). Representation of Black authors and illustrators falls well below the 13% of our population that they constitute. Finding data on the population of people of Middle Eastern descent is a little tough as this is not an exact racial category. However, considering the climate in our country, I wanted to do my best to capture this information. Estimates I found quantify this part of the population at 3%, which I fail capture in my collection.

So what does all of this mean? For me, it raises some interesting questions. For example, what do these numbers mean when we take into consideration the selection material for the content? All books used in SSS are chosen because they either (a) present text and/or illustration easily adaptable to creative movement and yoga poses or (b) because of their inclusion of social-emotional learning themes. Could the overrepresentation of Asian authors be due to my emphasis on yoga-themed materials? Many of the books that I use do not feature human characters at all. Instead, they present animals or objects from the natural world. Do these numbers say anything about how minority authors and illustrators are pigeonholed into producing certain “types” of content? Do they get to create the same playful, whimsical animal stories that white creators publish, or do their stories more often have to focus on human characters and racial themes to even get published? I don’t know, but I do wonder about it now after seeing these numbers.

While an undeniable racial disparity in publishing remains, it would be very easy to let myself off the hook here by blaming publishing bias. However, my use of materials by more Latinx authors than any other minority group – the group about which I have the most knowledge and experience – says to me that I have to look honestly at my own blindspots revealed in this data. For example, surely it is possible to do better than having less than 10% of the collection represent Black authors and illustrators. This is a major area for improvement! Also, though my inclusion of First Nations/American Indian creators exceeds the overall population size, this is only one book. One book! That’s not enough. And no Middle Eastern authors represented at all? Well, that’s just embarrassing.

So, I’ve got some goals for 2019. First and foremost, I want to get that number of books by Black authors and illustrators much closer to the 13% of the population that identifies as Black. I’d like to add at least 2 more books by First Nations/American Indian and Middle Eastern creators. And I’d like to boost the number of books by Latinx creators closer to the 18% of the population they represent.

We spend a good amount of time in SSS training discussing representation, cultural identity, and social-emotional development. The underrepresentation of people of color in children’s literature means that we have to work to be sure diverse kids are included. It won’t just happen by accident. We have to check ourselves, make use of tools like the Diverse Book Finder and Kirkus Collections, and yes, occasionally put some of our tried-and-true favorites back on the shelf so we can make room for new favorites, more representative of our population. If I am asking my trainees to do this work, regularly, then I have to do it too. I’m far from perfect, y’all. There’s always room for improvement. Look for regular updates as the year progresses. I’m doing this publicly to both model the process, and to hold myself accountable for followthrough.

I would absolutely love it if YOU would help me with this work! Do you know great movement books and/or books on self-awareness, self-regulation, kindness, empathy, gratitude, etc. by diverse authors and illustrators that I’m not yet using? Send them my way! Your perspective and expertise can help me correct these issues, increase inclusion in SSS trainings, and improve quality for the children who receive the programs in daycares, schools, libraries, homes, yoga studios, community centers, and everywhere else!