Scholastic Parents' Night: Share Black Stories

This Scholastic Parents' Night is a special evening with authors, editors, and education experts celebrating Black stories for kids of all ages. Moderated by Deimosa Webber-Bey, and featuring Vera Ahiyya, India Hill Brown, Bryan Collier, Kwame Mbalia, and Andrea Davis Pinkney. They will celebrate recent titles, including The Girl in the Lake, We Shall Overcome, Last Gate of the Emperor, and Bright Brown Baby.

Presented in partnership with Scholastic

Virtual Event

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Deimosa Webber-Bey is the Director of Information Services and Library Services at Scholastic.

Vera Ahiyya (nee Corbett) was born in Germany, and raised in El Paso, Texas. Originally a pre-med student, Vera realized her calling as an educator at Austin College in Sherman, TX, a calling shared by many of her family, including her beloved Papa. Vera majored in History and Psychology and earned her MA in Education. Vera has taught Kindergarten and first grade for 16 years in Texas, Massachusetts, and Brooklyn. Vera’s love for children’s books has led to her becoming an Instagram book influencer where she showcases her love of children’s literature and highlights books and authors that discusses the necessity and power of diversity and voice in children’s books. Vera uses her extensive online presence to advocate for teachers to be purposeful and always inclusive with their choice of text in their classrooms. Following a video showing Vera discussing racism with her Kindergarten class that went viral and was shown on Good Morning America, Vera was approached to write her first children’s book, You Have a Voice which will be released in December 2021. She has other titles in the works. Vera lives in Brooklyn with her husband Lonnell and dog Mozi. You can find her on Instagram at @thetututeacher. 

India Hill Brown graduated with a bachelor of arts in mass communication from Claflin University. She was born and raised in South Carolina and currently lives there with her husband and son. Her debut novel, The Forgotten Girl, was an NAACP Image Award nominee and an ALSC Notable Children's Book. She has worked for HBO, New York Magazine, and the University of South Carolina, and has written for publications such as Teen Vogue, Apartment Therapy, and Sesi Magazine. When she's not working on her novels, she can be found playing around with her toddler, reading a book, or writing in her (many) notebooks. Learn more at IndiaHillBrown.com, and follow her on YouTube (youtube.com/booksandbighair) and on Instagram (@booksandbighair).

Bryan Collier loves to paint. He has successfully channeled his creative energy and love of art into an illustrious career as a children's book illustrator and writer. He began painting at the age of 15 and eventually landed a scholarship to attend Pratt Institute in New York. He has won four Caldecott Honors for Rosa by Nikki Giovanni, Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport, Trombone Shorty by Troy Andrews, and Dave the Potter by Laban Carack Hill. His first book, Uptown, won the Coretta Scott King Award and the Ezra Jack Keats Award. He has won five more Coretta Scott King Awards and three Coretta Scott King Honors.

Kwame Mbalia is the New York Times best-selling author of Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, for which he received a Coretta Scott King Author Honor award. The book was also named to best-of-the-year lists compiled by Publishers Weekly, the Chicago Public Library, and the New York Times. The second book in the trilogy is Tristan Strong Destroys the World, and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching is the third. Kwame also co-wrote Last Gate of the Emperor with Prince Joel Makonnen and edited the instant New York Times best-seller Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood. Kwame lives with his wife and children near Raleigh, North Carolina, where he is currently working several projects, including a new middle grade series. Follow him on Twitter @KSekouM.

Andrea Davis Pinkney is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of nearly 50 books for young readers, among them The Red Pencil and A Poem for Peter, as well as several collaborations with her husband, Brian Pinkney, including Martin Rising: Requiem for a King, Sit-In, and Hand in Hand, which received the Coretta Scott King Book Award. Andrea Davis Pinkney lives in New York City. You can follow her on Twitter at @AndreaDavisPink, on Instagram at @Andreapinkney1, and on Facebook at @andreadavispinkey.