"Wake up every morning and find the child in you," - Ashley Bryan; photo courtesy Indigo Arts Alliance
As Black History Month comes to a close, it serves us well to remember – all year – the shared experiences of African Americans as part of our collective American history.
A child participates in "Ashley Bryan’s ABC of African American Poetry" writing workshop by The Telling Room at the Children's Museum & Theatre of Maine in 2021. Photo: Rylan Hynes, The Telling Room
In Maine, we won't soon forget an artist and storyteller who touched many lives from his home on Little Cranberry Island. When Ashley Bryan died Feb. 4 at the age 98, he was celebrated across the country for the more than 70 children’s books he wrote or illustrated and his many honors, including the Maine Library Association’s Lupine Award, Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Newbery Honor.
Bryan could captivate audiences of all ages. “His young readers,” reported The Washington Post, “would sometimes follow him off the stage and down the hall, walking behind him ‘like ducklings, smiles as big as their faces could contain’ as he continued to recite a poem or tell a story.” In 2020, Gov. Janet Mills proclaimed July 13, his birthday, as Ashley Frederick Bryan Day for his lifetime contributions to the state.
Bryan’s contagious energy and poetic words illustrate his impact on children in this just-released video from 2011, produced by Maine Public Television and Schoodic Arts for All.
Marcia Minter, co-founder and executive director of Indigo Arts Alliance, at the artist gallery of the Maine Beautiful Blackbird Exhibition at the Children's Museum & Theatre of Maine last year.
In Portland, Indigo Arts Alliance honors Bryan’s legacy of uplifting the roots, identity, and resiliency within the Black Diaspora. The Beautiful Blackbird Children's Book Festival takes its name from Bryan’s book Beautiful Blackbird, illustrated with birds of many colors he cut from paper with the sewing and embroidery scissors of his mother, a homemaker and seamstress. It tells a Zambian tale of Blackbird, the most beautiful bird in the forest, who cautions his admirers that true beauty comes from within.
Now in its third year, the program features read-aloud videos, in-person and virtual workshops, and a yearlong accessible website rich with content for educators and families, reaching more than 100,000 young readers nationally and internationally, and giving away over 30,000 books.
Books like these can have lasting effects, says Marcia Minter, Indigo Arts Alliance co-founder and executive director; they combat childhood bias, build intercultural competence, foster literacy, and support development of positive identity. A grant from MaineCF’s Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Fund helped launch the program.
“Ashley Bryan’s legacy is a treasure for all of us,” says Minter. “His generosity of spirit impacts us through his art and love for humanity”.
