woodson vividly in skillfully captures the mind of a young person, searching for sure footing in a fragmented world. brown girl dreaming is the first book of poetry to be featured here on the velshi banned book club. poetry has not been excluded from the shameful history of censorship in this country or even in the recent uptick in bans, far from it. from alan ginsburg, howell, to shell silver stains iconic, a late in the attic, celebrated by generations of children, to brown girl dreaming, there is a tradition in america banning poetry. we ve talked before about the inherent truth of fiction books, the way they shine a spotlight, poetry does that to. it s more of a partial shade, the truth finds you in a palm. in just a few lines and some carefully placed indentations, a poem can put words to the pain of adolescence, the waves of love, and the wake of racism. it illustrates the biggest feelings you felt but could
never properly draw yourself. a good palm is both universal and deeply personal at the same time. woodson took to twitter when she discovered brown girl dreaming was being challenged and wrote, quote, i just found out brown girl dreaming is being challenged because of crt. teachers and librarians hip assisted to the challenges you re having, please. if you click on the tweet and scroll, you ll see hundreds of responses, some from fans of woodson s work, others from teachers who have read her book to their six clay classrooms, several lamenting critical race theory. ben book club members hardly need refresher on the frequent messiest of crt. especially when it comes to literature about brown and black people, but here it is. if your middle school child is learning about crt, critical race theory, you have every right to be upset, it s an academic and legal framework that argues races a social construct, it s a theory for college age students to delve into, it s not for little
jacqueline woodson, the young peoples part laureate from 2015 to 2017, a mcarthur fellow, and the author brown girl dreaming. jacqueline woodson, thank, you and welcome to the velshi banned book club. thanks so much for having me here. i m so sorry, i m out on the streets of washington, d.c., on my way to the kennedy center. it s so nice to take some time to talk till. i love you for breaking down crtc. i so appreciate that. yeah, it s a bad reason, at least banned for the right reasons. let s talk a little bit about poetry, it s exciting to us. we don t typically have poetry in the banned book club. it s new to us for some people, that s a barrier to entry, they think shakespeare. how do you remove that barrier and get people to take a look at years which is a story like any other? it s an experiential story.