Carole Boston Weatherford And Jeffery Boston Weatherford: KIN Book Launch

The Ivy Bookshop is thrilled to announce a book launch celebration for a powerful portrait of a Black family tree shaped by enslavement and freedom, rendered in searing poems by acclaimed author Carole Boston Weatherford and stunning art by her son Jeffery Boston Weatherford. Carole will be joined in conversation by the fabulous author/illustrator Shadra Strickland (Jump In!) and the wonderful Western High School Choir, under the direction of Robin Paige, will perform.

The Weatherford’s ancestors are among the founders of Maryland. Their family history in the state extends more than 300 years, but as with the genealogical searches of many African Americans with roots in slavery, their family tree can only be traced back five generations before going dark. And so from scraps of history, Carole and Jeffery have conjured the voices of their kin, creating an often painful but ultimately empowering story of who their people were in a breathtaking book that is at once deeply personal yet all too universal.

This event will take place at The Ivy Bookshop, located at 5928 Falls Road on September 23, at 1 pm. It is free and open to the public.

Carole Boston Weatherford has written many award-winning books for children, including You Can Fly, illustrated by her son Jeffery; Box, which won a Newbery Honor; Unspeakable, which won the Coretta Scott King award, a Caldecott honor, and was a finalist for the National Book Award finalist; Respect: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, winner of the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award; and Caldecott Honor winners Freedom in Congo Square; Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement; and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. Visit her at CBWeatherford.com.

Jeffery Boston Weatherford is an award-winning children’s book illustrator and a performance poet. He has lectured, performed, and led art and writing workshops in the U.S., the Middle East, and West Africa. Jeffery was a Romare Bearden Scholar at Howard University, where he earned an MFA in painting and studied under members of the Black Arts Movement collective AfriCobra. A North Carolina native and resident, Jeffery has exhibited his art in North Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, and Washington, DC. Visit him at CBWeatherford.com.