Beautiful Blackbird book festival, highlighting Black and immigrant children’s stories, keeps spreading its wings
Kirsten Cappy, left, of I’m Your Neighbor Books, and Marcia Minter, right, co-founder of Indigo Arts Alliance, at the Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine in Portland. The museum will be one of the sites for this year’s Beautiful Blackbird Children’s Book Festival. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
By Ray Routhier |Portland Press Herald
In its fourth year, the festival named for a book by Ashley Bryan will include events Friday though Sunday in Lewiston, Portland and Rockland.
PORTLAND - While he was growing up, OD Bonny was not likely to find many books where the characters shared his story.
Bonny spent much of his childhood in refugee camps in Uganda after his family left war-torn South Sudan when he was 4. He eventually made it out of the camps and, in his early teens, settled with his older brother in Portland’s Kennedy Park.
See the story at: https://www.pressherald.com/2023/09/17/in-its-fourth-year-festival-featuring-books-about-children-of-color-keeps-spreading-its-wings/
BEAUTIFUL BLACKBIRD CHILDREN’S BOOK FESTIVAL
WHEN: Friday through Sunday, Sept. 24
WHERE: L/A Arts, Lewiston; Indigo Arts Alliance, Portland; Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine, Portland; Mayo Street Arts, Portland; Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland.
HOW MUCH: $1 admission at Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine, free at all other sites.
WHAT ELSE: Organizers will give away more than 3,000 of the festival’s featured books to Maine children this year through various partner organizations. The event honors the legacy of Black children’s book creator and artist Ashley Bryan, a longtime Maine resident who died in 2022. Some festival-related events will continue beyond the weekend.