By: Kamichi Jackson

It’s National Poetry Month and we’re putting the spotlight on one of the coolest and kid-friendliest writers ever: New York Times Bestselling and Newberry Award-winning author Kwame Alexander. Kwame is currently on tour with his latest release The Playbook, a collection of basketball rules for life. Classrooms and reading groups around the country are praising his book as “inspiring”, “stirring” and “earnest”.

But Kwame has been motivating readers long before this most recent release. He comes from a creative family and wrote his very first poem when he was just twelve years old.  In college, his love for poetry grew under the guidance of his college professor, award-winning poet laureate Nikki Giovanni. Fast-forward several years, and Kwame has captured the hearts of millions of fans around the world with his twenty-four published books, several of which have won prestigious awards along the way.
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As much as he loves poetry, though, Kwame doesn’t limit himself to that one form of storytelling. He also writes traditional literature. And since no writer can truly call themselves a writer unless they encourage kids to read and write, Kwame is also an advocate for literacy and creative writing—even holding literacy camps for kids and designing writing curriculum for teachers to use in the classroom.

Kwame is a funny, engaging, talented author and educator. Get to know him better during this year’s National Poetry Month by visiting his website at www.kwamealexander.com and following him on tour via Twitter (@kwamealexander).

Be sure to check out Kwame's The Playbook through Sweet Blackberry's Amazon Smile offering by clicking on the image below. 

By: Sweet Blackberry 

In February, our friends at the Mary Baker Eddy Library in Boston, Massachusetts screened Sweet Blackberry's animated films on Henry "Box" Brown, Janet Collins and Garrett Morgan to their your library go-ers during their "February Vacation Week." 

Throughout the week, children were able to also able to see the Harvard Passus Stepping team lead a demonstration and learn about historic African American fraternities and sororities, create writer and illustrator Ashley Bryan inspired puppets and even color Jean-Michel Basquiat inspired illustrations. 
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Thanks to the staff at Mary Baker Eddy Library for sharing images of this amazing event with us. These ideas are truly amazing and we deeply appreciate you including Sweet Blackberry among your Black History Month activities. 

​Check out the images from the event below!