User:Darbyjoan94/Carole Boston Weatherford

Carole Boston Weatherford is an African-American author and critic, now living in North Carolina, United States. She is predominantly known for her children's literature, but also writes historical texts, poetry, and commentaries.

Biography:

The music of poetry has fascinated Weatherford and motivated her literary career. In an interview with The Brown Bookshelf she said, "The Creator called me to be a poet. I hear words strung together in my head just as a composer hears notes and chords. Scenes unfold in my mind just as they do on a filmmaker's storyboard. Like poetry, quality children's literature compresses language, distills feeling, evokes scenes, and can be experienced on multiple levels. The best poetry makes music with words."

Weatherford began writing in first grade by dictating poems to her mom. Her father taught printing at a local high school and published his daughter's early works. As a child, she enjoyed reading Dr. Seuss and Langston Hughes. Continuing to pursue creative writing as a hobby through high school and college, she later earned her M.F.A from the University of South Carolina and an M.A. in publication design from the University of Baltimore. Although a Baltimore native, she currently resides in North Carolina and teaches composition and children's literature at Fayetteville State University. Initially, Weatherford was invited to FSU as a writer-in-residence, but in 2007, she received the position of associate professor.

In an interview with The Brown Bookshelf, Weatherford stated her motivations for writing:

"I want my books to nudge young readers toward justice. I want children to celebrate African American culture, while at the same time acknowledging the most shameful chapters of our nation’s past-slavery and segregation.  I hope that my young readers understand that freedom was not free and that people of conscience must speak their minds and live their values."

As an author, she acknowledges her calling "to mine the past for family stories, fading traditions and forgotten struggles." The books she writes, in poetry and prose, explore African-American history from a children's perspective and relate the past to new generations. Her works are often inspired by true events, many of which took place in the areas where Weatherford has lived. In her Author's Notes for each book, she includes a portion of her historical research, from which her fiction or poetry emerged.

In 1995, Weatherford made her literary debut when Lee & Low Books published her first picture book, Juneteenth Jamboree, about a summer celebration in memory of the Texas Emancipation. In 1998, she co-authored Somebody's Knocking at Your Door: AIDS and the African American Church, and then published a collection of poetry, The Tar Baby on the Soapbox. After establishing herself as a versatile writer for both children and adults, she published two nonfiction chapter books before penning her first award-winning children's book, The Sound That Jazz Makes, a poem that traces the history of African-American music.

Since then, she has continued to write poetry, historical fiction, and nonfiction biographical works for children. She said in an interview with The Brown Bookshelf that one of the most important poems she has written was Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom: "Those inspired words came together with Kadir Nelson's soulful paintings and Ellice Lee's brilliant art direction in a perfect publishing storm. Moses propelled my career to another level." Moses has won a Caldecott Award for Illustration as well as an NAACP Image Award as an Outstanding Literary Work for Children and became a New York Times bestseller.

Personal Life:

Weatherford has formed a mother/son duo with her son, Jeffrey Boston Weatherford. Jeffrey Weatherford often illustrates his mother's books. Carole Weatherford was supportive of her son's desire to create art by enrolling him in extracurricular art classes and encouraging his studies.

Allegations of racism in East Asian popular culture:

Weatherford has regularly criticized representations of people of color in Asian media, predominantly Asian Animation, or anime.

Literary Criticism: ''' Pokemon In January 2000, Weatherford wrote an op-ed piece that ran in newspapers across Alabama. "Politically Incorrect Pokémon" explained how she believed that Pokémon #124, Jynx, was a negative stereotype of African Americans:"The character Jynx, Pokémon #124, has decidedly human features [in contrast to most other characters]: jet-black skin, huge pink lips, gaping eyes, a straight blonde mane and a full figure, complete with cleavage and wiggly hips. Put another way, Jynx resembles an overweight drag queen incarnation of Little Black Sambo, a racist stereotype from a children's book long ago purged from libraries."Weatherford was just one of many cultural critics who remarked on Jynx's character design. Following the controversy, Jynx's in-game sprites were given a purple skin color in the American versions of Pokémon Gold and Silver, released in late 2000. By 2002, Nintendo officially redesigned Jynx, changing her skin color from black to purple; this change was not reflected in the animated series until Jynx's purple skin appearance debuted in the episode "Mean With Envy!" (混戦、混乱！ポケモンコンテスト・キナギ大会！ （前編）), which originally aired in 2005, with the Amazon Prime release of "Holiday Hi-Jynx" recoloring Jynx accordingly even though she is still black on the thumbnail.

Dragon Ball[edit]
In an article published in the Christian Science Monitor in May 2000, Weatherford reiterated and expanded on her argument. Jynx had looked like "an obese drag queen", and she also offered Mr. Popo, a character from the Dragon Ball franchise, up for critique:"Mr. Popo is a rotund, turban-clad genie with pointy ears, jet-black skin, shiny white eyes, and, yes, big red lips."The Dragon Ball manga later released by Viz in 2003 had reduced the size of Mr. Popo's lips.

Weatherford was not the only person to criticism these characters, so redesigns cannot be definitively linked to her, although she certainly contributed to a cultural conversation about racist representations in children's animated media.

Awards:

2001[edit]

 * Carter G. Woodson Book Award (Elementary Level), The Sound that Jazz Makes

2002[edit]

 * North Carolina AAUW Award for Juvenile Literature, Remember the Bridge

2005[edit]

 * North Carolina AAUW Award for Juvenile Literature, Freedom on the Menu
 * Capitol Choices: Notable Books for Children, Moses
 * Bank Street College Best Children's Books, Freedom on the Menu

2006[edit]

 * Capitol Choices: Notable Books for Children, Freedom on the Menu
 * Notable Books for a Global Society, A Negro League Scrapbook
 * Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, Freedom on the Menu
 * Golden Kite Honor Award for Picture Book Text, Dear Mr. Rosenwald

2007[edit]

 * NAACP Image Award, Outstanding Literary Work for Children, Moses
 * Caldecott Honor Book, Moses
 * Teachers' Choice (International Reading Association), Moses

2008[edit]

 * Jane Addams Children Book Honor Award, Birmingham, 1963
 * Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, Birmingham, 1963
 * Jefferson Cup Award, Birmingham, 1963

2009[edit]

 * Coretta Scott King Award Honor Book, Becoming Billie Holiday