Books With Color, a Charlotte-based authors alliance, made its first public launch last Monday. The alliance is focused on increasing access to inclusive reading materials in homes and classrooms. According to the 2023 School Diversity Report, 75.5% of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students identify as one or more minority races. But nearly 71% of children’s and young adult books are about white characters, animals or things.
Books With Color, a Charlotte-based authors alliance, made its first public launch last Monday. The alliance is focused on increasing access to inclusive reading materials in homes and classrooms. According to the 2023 School Diversity Report, 75.5% of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students identify as one or more minority races. But nearly 71% of children’s and young adult books are about white characters, animals or things.
Traditionally, the arts and the sciences have been viewed as two distinct fields of study, disconnected and distant to each other. But it isn’t uncommon to see Duke students with defined paths in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) also majoring or minoring in the performing and visual arts adding these disciplines to not only their course loads but also their career goals.
Berkshire County’s performing arts seem to be suffering from long COVID. Despite attempts to adapt to the post-pandemic era – reduced budgets, discounts, or streaming performances – internal data from