Ntozake Shange – Poet, Novelist and Playwright
March 6, 2022
Ntozake Shange (1948- 2018) was an African-American poet, novelist, and playwright famous for her activism work and her play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered
Born and raised in Baltimore, Carole Boston Weatherford is an African-American author and critic.
She writes children’s literature and historical books, as well as poetry and commentaries. Her books talk about African American history, families and traditions, and jazz.
To date, she has written more than 40 books and bagged many awards and medals for her work.
Born on February 13, 1956, to parents Joseph Alexander and Carolyn Virginia Boston, Carole Boston Weatherford grew up in an all-black neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland.
She revealed in an interview that she has some pleasant childhood memories of doing things that she loved – riding bikes, writing, drawing, and singing and tap dancing to her dad’s collection of jazz records.
In an interview, Weatherford says, “When I was growing up, there was no multicultural literature. … So that was a void in my life. I was just happy to see that there were so many more opportunities for my kids to read books about children of color.”
The love of writing was ingrained in her from a very young age, and she recited her first poem in the first grade!
Even as a child, she was an avid reader and enjoyed reading Dr. Seuss and Langston Hughes. Continuing to pursue creative writing as a hobby through high school and college, Carole Boston Weatherford earned a B.A. from American University.
She later earned her M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and an M.A. in publication design from the University of Baltimore.
Weatherford’s first piece of writing has an interesting story. She composed her first poem in first grade and dictated the verse to her mother on the ride home from school.
Her father, a high school printing teacher, printed some of her early poems on index cards. And like that, Weatherford saw her work in print while still in grade school.
Throughout elementary and middle school, her teachers recognized and encouraged her artistic and literary talents. But she had not seriously considered becoming a professional author until one of her poems, “Made Of Jazz,” was published in a city magazine in 1980.
And when asked how she became a poet, Carole said: “The Creator called me to be a poet. I hear words strung together in my head just as a composer hears notes and chords. Scenes unfold in my mind just as they do on a filmmaker’s storyboard. Like poetry, quality children’s literature compresses language, distills feeling, evokes scenes, and can be experienced on multiple levels. The best poetry makes music with words.”
However, her debut children’s book was published in 1995. “Juneteenth Jamboree” – a picture book about a summer celebration in memory of the Texas Emancipation was published by Lee & Low Books.
She then went on to write a series of board books for preschoolers. In 1998, she co-authored Somebody’s Knocking at Your Door: AIDS and the African American Church and then published a collection of poetry.
Soon, Carole proved herself as a versatile and quality writer for both children and adults. She went on to publish two nonfiction chapter books and then penned her first award-winning children’s book in 2001.
It was an elementary-level book illustration book named “The Sound That Jazz Makes,” based on a poem about African-American music’s history.
Weatherford received many awards and acclamations from 2001 to recently till 2019.
Among her major accolades are:
Weatherford also received the Ragan-Rubin Award from North Carolina English Teachers Association and the North Carolina Literature Award for her outstanding career. Both of these are among the state’s highest civilian honors.
But, like all meaningful successes, this did not come easy. Weatherford says that persistence and not giving up were two key reasons for her success.
In an interview, she revealed, “I had manuscripts that had been rejected 20 times before finding a home with a publisher.” She further added. “But I keep going, and I believe in what I write about.”
Many of Weatherford’s books explore African-American history from a children’s perspective and relate the past to new generations. Her writings are often inspired by actual events in the areas where Weatherford has lived.
Let’s look at a few of the most famous works produced by her:
This story is about a little girl named Cassandra who does not understand why this day is so special. Cassandra and the readers gradually learn the importance of this historic celebration, which is amplified by the jubilant crowds, dances, parades, and the picnic, all of which bring the community together.
Freedom in Congo Square is a very colorful, rhyming children's book about slaves in Louisiana. They're enduring all the hard work of the week and counting down the days to Sunday when they can be free for a time to celebrate at Congo Square. Congo Square in New Orleans was where slaves could gather, socialize and make music together on Sundays when the law declared that everyone was free from work. Weatherford won the Caldecott Medal for this marvelous piece.
The book is a series of thirty-two poems written in the second-person voice. Weatherford brings to life the experiences of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. Pilots, bombardiers, instructors, maintenance workers, and navigators trained at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama as part of the Civilian Pilot Training Program to fly and maintain combat aircraft.
This nonfiction children's picture book was written by Carole Boston Weatherford and intelligently illustrated by Floyd Cooper. The book depicts the formation and destruction of an illustrious, predominately Black community called Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, from the 1800s to the present day. On June 1, 1921, 10,000 armed white Tulsans attacked this thriving Black, leaving between 150 and 300 people dead and more than 8,000 homeless. The book was recognized with a Caldecott Honor for its illustrations, and the Coretta Scott King Award was given to both Weatherford and Cooper
She now resides in North Carolina and teaches composition and children’s literature at Fayetteville State University (FSU).
Interestingly, she now often writes with her son, Jeffery Boston Weatherford, who is also a poet and a talented illustrator.Â
Visit Carole Boston Weatherford website by clicking the link below:
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