Please join the Brown Club of Miami and Shani King ’95 for a family-friendly (8 and up) book chat and lively conversation in celebration of Black History Month.
Learn more about the resounding success of this lovely children's book in this review from the New York Times and this official press release.
About The Book
This book is a tender and powerful affirmation that Black lives have always mattered.
Black lives matter. That message would be self-evident in a just world, but in this world and this America, all children need to hear it again and again, and not just to hear it but to feel and know it.
This book affirms the message repeatedly, tenderly, with cumulative power and shared pride. Celebrating Black accomplishments in music, art, literature, journalism, politics, law, science, medicine, entertainment, and sports, Shani King summons a magnificent historical and contemporary context for honoring the fortitude of Black role models, women and men, who have achieved greatness despite the grinding political and social constraints on Black life. Frederick Douglass, Toni Morrison, Sojourner Truth, John Lewis, Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, Maya Angelou, Aretha Franklin, and many more pass through these pages. An America without their struggles, aspirations, and contributions would be a shadow of the country we know. A hundred life sketches augment the narrative, opening a hundred doors to lives and thinking that aren’t included in many history books. James Baldwin’s challenge is here: “We are responsible for the world in which we find ourselves, if only because we are the only sentient force which can change it.” Actress Viola Davis’s words are here, too: “When I was younger, I did not exert my voice because I did not feel worthy of having a voice. I was taught so many things that didn’t include me. Where was I? What were people like me doing?”
This book tells children what people like Viola were and are doing, and it assures Black children that they are, indisputably, worthy of having a voice.
Have I Ever Told You Black Lives Matter? is a book for this time and always. It is time for all children to live and breathe the certainty that Black lives matter.
About The Author
Shani is a Professor of Law at the Levin College of Law at the University of Florida as well as Director of the school's Center on Children and Families. He received a B.A. from Brown University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and an Mst. in International Human Rights Law from Oxford University. Following law school, he was a Harvard Sheldon Knox Traveling Fellow with EDUCA, a not-for-profit organization in the Dominican Republic that was conducting an analysis of a major educational reform effort. Afterward, Shani practiced securities litigation and white-collar criminal defense at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson and Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason & Silberberg in New York City. Just prior to joining the faculty at the College of Law, Shani practiced at Legal Services for Children, Inc. in San Francisco, California, where he litigated cases under the United Nations Convention Against Torture and represented children in immigration, dependency, guardianship, and school discipline proceedings.
Shani has been active in local, regional, and national child welfare and juvenile reform, serving on the board of the Youth Law Center and the Florida Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Children, and on the advisory board of Florida Children’s First. Shani currently serves on the advisory board of the newly formed Florida Health Justice Project. Shani teaches and writes in the area of international human rights, children’s rights and family law, immigration law, and legal ethics. Shani is also an award-winning author of books for children.
Cost
There is no cost to attend the event.
Please register in advance so that we can plan the capacity accordingly and distribute the webinar link in advance.