This is a guest post by Arlia Delphonse.
You could say that Edmonia Lewis gave me the idea. When I saw an illustration of her peeking out from the new books cart, I knew my Black History Month programs would center around Black artists.
The main event? A Black artists booklet featured as the month’s first Teen Take & Make craft, a pick-up-and-take-home craft kit program that has been our most popular offering during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Celebrate Black Artists Booklet
Teen Take & Make crafts debut on Tuesdays and are available for pick-up throughout the week, while supplies last. Past crafts include Shrinky Dinks, quill pens, and blackout poetry supplies. We provide the main crafts supplies and instructions in a baggie.
The Celebrate Black Artists booklet features instructions for three art projects designed by three living Black artists. I chose to highlight T. J. Dedeaux-Norris, Tschabalala Self, and Jace Clayton, drawing from You Are an Artist: Assignments to Spark Creation by Sarah Urist Green. Green worked as a curator at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and also hosted a PBS Digital Studios series called The Art Assignment, the basis for her book. I wrote short profiles for each of the artists, selected pictures of their art, and included examples of my own crafting attempts.
I plan to re-use this artist booklet idea for other heritage and history months, too.
Considerations
I had a number of goals to guide me through the development of this craft. As a mixed-race Black person, my personal experiences led me to many of these decisions.
First, I wanted to make my programming informative for teens of all backgrounds and celebratory for Black teens. By centering Black History Month around Black art, I hope to put the focus on Black expression and creativity rather than only on how Black people respond to discrimination. Hence, I chose to highlight living artists instead of artists of the past. I wanted the teens to see how Black history is being made in our own times.
Next, I wanted the teens to learn something even if they skipped the contextual information. I know their attention spans are short and they may read only half of the instructions. The art projects from You Are an Artist are so reflective that the teens are bound to get something out of the process with even minimal engagement.
I also wanted the Black History Month craft to be also easily replicable in case patrons visiting later in the month were interested. I wanted to stretch “while supplies last” a little further than usual, since this is a special program and one with cultural importance.
Finally, I wanted to point the teens in the right direction if they did want to learn more. With each artist profile I included a list of other artists exploring similar themes. I also made a video with comic book recommendations on the theme of Black Women & Girls in Comics, including a QR code and link to the video in the booklet.
Arlia Delphonse is a Library Assistant I in Teen Services at Largo Public Library in Florida. She graduated from The Catholic University of America MLIS program in 2020. During her graduate studies, she worked with as a Library Technician at the National Gallery of Art. Her professional interests include language and cultural study in the library.
The Art of Diversity 