“Words as Witness, Words as Healing,” Dr. Jewell Parker Rhodes speaks on Wednesday, June 7 at 5:00 pm / PT:
Join award-winning writer Jewell Parker Rhodes on Wednesday, June 7, at 5 p.m. for the 27th annual Effie Lee Morris Lecture.
In partnership with the San Francisco Public Library Main Children’s Center and the SFPL Racial Equity Committee, the Women’s National Book Association, San Francisco Chapter invites you to join us to participate in the 27th Annual Effie Lee Morris Lecture.
This is a hybrid event; attendees may opt to attend in-person or online on Zoom.
- ONLINE: Registration is required for Zoom attendance. Register now on Zoom.
- IN-PERSON: Registration is encouraged for in-person attendees to help estimate crowd size. Register now to attend in-person.
We are thrilled to announce that for the first time since 2019, the Effie Lee Morris Lecture returns as an in-person event to the Koret Auditorium. Masking is strongly recommended. This event is for all ages.
Dr. Rhodes’s topic is “Words as Witness, Words as Healing.” Her books for youth include Ghost Boys, where the long shadows of violence against Black kids and teens reach from the past into the present. Louisiana Girls Trilogy: Bayou Magic is about a young girl who learns to carry forward her family’s magical legacy. Paradise on Fire tells the story of a group of Black city kids who learn wilderness skills and how to survive in a perilous world. And Black Brother, Black Brother is about a Black kid who joins the fencing team, faces off against injustice and a bully, and makes a place for himself in a world that prefers his light-skinned brother.
Dr. Rhodes is the recipient of a Coretta Scott King Award for Louisiana Girls Trilogy: Ninth Ward; a Walter Dean Myers Award for Ghost Boys; an American Book Award for her adult historical novel Douglass’ Women and numerous other honors. She lives in Seattle and serves as the founding artistic director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing and Narrative Studies Professor and Virginia G. Piper Endowed Chair at Arizona State University. She is also the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Carnegie-Mellon University.
A leader in advocacy for women, people of color, and the disabled, Ms. Morris was Coordinator of Children and Youth Services for the San Francisco Public Library, having previously opened avenues for success for Black and visually impaired readers in Cleveland and New York Public Libraries.
In 1996, the WNBA-SF Chapter established the annual Effie Lee Morris Lecture Series to honor their founder.
To read more about this event, please visit here: https://sfpl.org/locations/main-library/childrens-center/effie-lee-morris-collection/effie-lee-morris-lecture-series
To learn more about this event’s featured author, Dr. Jewell Parker Rhodes, please visit here: https://jewellparkerrhodes.com/children/meet-jewell/