 All right, welcome. Hi, everyone. It's two o'clock here where I am. So I want to just welcome you all again. My name is Eliana and I'm a librarian for the San Francisco Public Library. Thanks for joining us. I am just ecstatic that you guys are all here to celebrate Women's History Month with this dynamic duo, Micah and Maritza Mollit. First, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge that I am here on the unceded land of the Ramatish Alumi people. And to learn more about the Indigenous land and the people where you are, those people who work and study and play and live on that land, please visit the link in the chat to learn more. We celebrate women everywhere with our program series, Her Story. So be sure to check out the Her Story webpage of the San Francisco Public Library to see our upcoming events, find great books by women authors and illustrators and more. Tomorrow, we will be full of poet joy with Elizabeth Acevedo in conversation with Mahogany L. Brown in partnership with our San Francisco Unified School District. So be sure to put that on your calendars. And then next week, we're welcoming our San Francisco Poet Laureate Tomgoe Eisen-Martin as he spends an afternoon with Mahogany L. Brown and Safia L. Halo. So so excited. Finally, thank you to the friends of the San Francisco Public Library for their generous support of this entire program series. We could not do it without them. But now what we're here for today. Let me introduce our sister writer duo Micah Molits and Maritza Molits, authors of Dear Hady Love Lane and one of the good ones, as they share their perspectives on writing, allyship, and the power of sisterhood. Yes, show those books. I have some very, very esteemed bios here that I want to share. So I hope they don't blush too much because they're amazing. But Micah Molits is a Miami native and the daughter of Haitian immigrants. She earned a bachelor's in marketing from Florida State University and an MBA from University of Miami, when not using her digital prowess to help nonprofits and major organizations tell their stories online. She's sharpening her skills as a PhD student at Howard University's Communication, Culture, and Media Studies program. Her research focuses on representation in media and its impact on marginalized groups. She's the eldest of four sisters and loves young adult novels, fierce female leads and laughing. Maritza Molits graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's in women's studies and University of Southern California with a master's in journalism. She's worked in various capacities for NBC News, CNN, and USA Today. Maritza is a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania, exploring ways to improve literacy in under-resourced communities after being inspired to study education from her time as a literacy tutor and pre-K teacher assistant. Her favorite song is September by Earth, Wind, and Fire. They are library lovers and I'm just so happy that they are joining us today. So welcome Micah and Maritza Molits. I am going to stop talking and let you all shine. Hi, thank you, Liana. We're so excited to be here. Hi, everyone. Yes. So I'm Micah Molits. I'm Maritza Molits, and we are sisters and co-authors of Zira, Katie, Love, Elaine, and one of the good ones. So we have a little presentation ready for y'all, and then we'll open it up for Q&A. So let's see if technology will agree with us. Let's see. Sharing. Oh, great. So not too painful. Let me present. And, okay. So again, let's talk about books. So here's a quick agenda of what we'll be doing. Again, we'll introduce ourselves again, because we clearly love to do that a lot of times. We'll talk about our books, Dear, Haiti, Love, Elaine, and one of the good ones. Then we will do a quick activity, and then we will answer any questions. And if you don't have questions, we will ask each other questions. Yes. So first things first, that is us. Yes. So the great thing about doing these presentations is that we can kind of do whatever we want. And we love talking about our two younger sisters, Jessica and Lydian. We're like obsessed with them. So we always just like to start off with this picture of us as kids, A, because it's adorable and B, because it's also embarrassing. Yes. And I don't know if they know how frequently we show this picture sometimes. But look at Lydian's cheeks and Jessica's crying face versus eating, and I am staring. All right, what I think I guess this was to be candidly at the camera. So a little bit about our author lives. So our first book is Dear, Haiti, Love, Elaine, it is our debut novel. Get into this cover. Yes, yes, yes, Black Girl Magic. So we have about 17 year old Elaine Bhopalange. She ends up getting sent to Haiti after a prank goes terribly wrong at school. And then when she's in Haiti, she gets to reestablish a relationship with her mother who is this high profile journalist who is laying low in Haiti after having her very alcoholic outburst on the air. So while Elaine is in Haiti, she learns about the family curse and she sets out on trying to break that curse. And of course, antics ensue. It's about Haitian American identity. It's about, you know, that duality of being a child of immigrants and trying to figure out your place from your family's home country and your, your, you know, your country. So I'm her learning to embrace all sides of herself and of course some magic because, you know, we love some magic. I was a great running dog. Thank you. Thank you. I still remember the book. I know. I always get her to do it. Okay, so our sophomore book and I am kind of concerned what we're going to do after our fourth book. It's like our grad, our grad school book. I don't know. But yeah, so our second novel is one of the good ones, and it is about 17 just turned 18 year old Kezi Smith, who dies under very mysterious circumstances in police custody after attending the social justice rally. To commemorate their history of sister's life. Happy and Jenny Smith decide to embark on a journey, going across Route 66, using Kezi's heirloom copy of the Negro motorist screenbook. We will get into later on, even more about one of the good ones but this book is about like, how to question if you are being the best ally that you can be like what a good ally means, and we are biased, but we definitely think that one of the good ones will leave you shook. And so we wanted to focus mostly on one of the good ones, which is again our most recently released novel, and we want to get into why we wrote one of the good ones so we have you know these three pillars that we have listed here which is social justice sisterhood and So I'll get into social justice. So really, we knew that when we set out to write one of the good ones we wanted to tackle social justice or injustice in the United States, and there's really no way of having that discussion with, you know, even though it's taking us in the modern day, without taking a look at the past. So, for us, the, I would say the inspiration for this came a few years ago, our great aunt had passed away and we were at the cemetery and we were walking around and looking at the mausoleum and the names of people who had passed away. And one of the names that we came across was Trayvon Martin's name. And that really resonated with us because you know the world was watching what happened to Trayvon and the subsequent events and how really no one it was held accountable for what happened to him, and being in this very private moment of our own grief to see, you know, really his final resting place it, it confirms this, you know this idea that sometimes when people are watching things on the media or on the news you forget that this, these are real people, right. So even though we were dealing with our very own private grief, we held that with us because what happened with him really resonated with us. I remember us all staying together and watching the verdict and seeing that nothing was going to be, you know, happening to the person who killed him in the way that it really impacted us so we knew that we wanted to tackle this story, but we wanted to focus on it from the perspective of a young black, excuse me a young black girl because there are very many times when we have conversations about you know police brutality or vigilante people taking things into their own hands, and we don't always highlight women or, you know, queer people or other folks, the way that we should so one of the good ones is was our way of doing that and we are able to integrate the past and the president throughout our story because our characters are embarking on this journey using the Negro motorist green book, and we get glimpses of their family members in the past, as it relates to them in the modern day. So next up, one of the good ones is also very much about sisterhood, like we just showed you with that embarrassing childhood photos of us. We are constantly thinking about sisterhood and what it means to be part of a community in terms of our, you know, immediate family dynamics but also just like what it means to be a woman. Travelling throughout the world. So, even though our sisters are incredibly close like we are the best friends and sometimes we beef with each other, obviously, but most of the times like we're just really we just know that we could turn to each other. You know, but that always is not the case. And then there are definitely moments where you feel like you're completely alone, or I feel like I just doesn't understand and she just doesn't get me, you know, or Jessica and Leigh Ann might feel that same way too. Maybe Maika, I don't know. But, um, you know, at the end of the day, though, you're still sisters like there, they're still just different variations of yourself, and that is just such a mind blowing thought to me. So we decided to tackle a story where these girls are sisters and society and the public see one side of their relationship and their family, but they have the real deal they're the ones who are actually living through what it means to be in this position. I mean, honestly, what happens in one of the good ones is like our worst nightmare come to life to lose a sister to lose her young to lose her in such a public terrifying terrible way is horrible so this is kind of unpacking something that we and, you know, everyone else would never want to happen to themselves. And what does it mean to the people who are left behind after the cameras go away and you're just left reeling honestly and just mourning a sister that in the case of happy, she doesn't really feel like she knew all the way. So we love the cover. Oh, can they see us? Yeah. Oh, okay. We love the cover. And here you have Jenny with her awesome twist out slash braids depending on what you want to call them. And then, Kezi, we thought would have a TWA T Winnie Afro she's grown it out you see her curls are popping. And then happy has a perm or relaxer, and she's not relaxed. This is the second time I've used this joke and I am very proud of it. Okay. And finally, we wanted to get into allyship in this book so of course, when someone picks up one of the good ones they immediately know that it is going to be tackling racial injustice in America. And that is racial injustice as it relates to people who are part of maybe the majority helping or you know saying that you're an ally or wanting to elevate the causes of black folks or other marginalized groups. There are so often times when things happen, and it feels as if folks are only elevating certain types of people and that's really where the title one of the good ones comes from it's this idea of allyship and when you are saying that you are an ally. What does that allyship only look like if the person speaks a certain way if they wear their clothes a certain way their hair a certain way the schools that they want to like if you're only elevating certain people from a marginalized group then you need to take a moment of you know self reflection and wonder and figure out why that is. And we also tackle allyship in terms of what it means to be an ally to folks who are part of the LGBTQ plus community. And as you one of our main characters is a lesbian, and she's growing up in this religious household and she doesn't feel that she can come out to her parents, and her family members because or a majority of her family members because of, you know, her upbringing and so she's carrying part of her identity hidden inside of her, just as she's having this really popular YouTube page and she's getting folks to talk about activism and you know self acceptance as well as acceptance of other people, but she is still afraid of, you know, disclosing that part of her identity to her family and there are so many times when folks consider themselves to be allies but they don't really exercise that. That moment of allyship comes up when let's say something terrible is happening to somebody and they have to speak up from the for themselves, and then afterwards the person pulls them aside and they're like, you're so brave. I just, I agree with everything you said, wow, you're so brave, and you're just like, well, where were you when I needed somebody to, you know, back me up and give me, you know, a little bit of a boost to add some more weight to the words that I'm saying because there's so many times when if you were part of a marginalized group, unfortunately people don't hear it when it comes from you. And when someone says they're an ally, you know, it's like, there's this this belief that, you know, I'm just going to sit back. I'm not going to rock the boat. I'm not going to talk to my family members who carry these problematic views and these harmful views. But what I'll do is privately pull you aside and say I stand with you. And so we wanted to kind of turn that on its head and really get folks to understand what it means to be an ally and how sometimes you will try to be an ally and you'll get it wrong. And it will be uncomfortable. But if you're a dedicated to the work, you will have that moment of self reflection, regroup, and then come back and continue because it is constant work. So now we're going to take a quick a little reading break, we're going to read an excerpt of one of the good ones. I don't know where these sniffles are coming from it's Colin is all over the place and I'm so sorry for that. Okay, so we are going to read right from the very beginning of one of the good ones actually want to read this part one, which is from. It's an excerpt that we have and it's from the Negro motorist Green Book, which is a book that our characters use throughout the story, which we'll get to in a little bit but I guess you can start from there. Sure. Part one. There will be a day sometime in the near future, when this guide will not have to be published. That is when we as a race will have equal opportunities and privileges in the United States. It's a great day for us to suspend this publication for then we can go wherever we please and without embarrassment. Victor Hugo green quote featured in the Negro motorist Green Book 1948 edition. Chapter one happy Thursday, July 26 three months nine days since the arrest Chicago Illinois. She was mine before she was anyone else's all mine, partly mine. Now she belongs to you and them and shirts and rallies and songs and documentaries. They say she had a bright future ahead of her. And she was a star whose light burned out too soon. She was going to make a difference. It's not true, but it's not the truth. Kezi was more than her brains and her great and her voice. She was more than her future. She had a past. She was living her present. She could have been mine, should have been mine. She was my sister before she became your martyr after all, even as I sit as still as a lion stalking her prey. Inside. I'm racing. My mind is buzzing with the thoughts I don't say my heart is knocking erratically against my sternum. I'm always one beat away from bursting through my chest. I should be used to it. But you never get used to strangers sliding their arms over your shoulders and solidarity to apologize for something that isn't their fault. Not when Kezi being gone doesn't feel real to begin with. How can it when I didn't get a chance to see her face. One last time before they incinerated her body and put her essence in an earn. My parents are already inside the auditorium seated in their place of honor in the front row. I will join them eventually, but not until the millisecond that I have to. When everything went down, we made an agreement. I will play along and be a cheap carbon copy of the daughter they lost, a constant reminder to the world that she was one of the good ones. But before the lights shine on us and cell phones are trained at our grave heart broken faces, I will be me, the prodigal daughter. Yes, so we wanted to read that quick little excerpt for you and we actually ended up reading this quote, but, and this was essentially the quote that was featured in the Negro motorist green book in the 1948 edition and I guess Mercy can you tell everybody what is the Negro motorist green book. Sure. Yeah, so the Negro motorist green book is it was is a essentially like a yellow pages for black travelers across the United States. It was first published in the 1930s and was in print up until the 1960s. And Victor Hugo green was a postal service worker who essentially was sick and tired of being sick and tired because of having to travel across the United States to visit relatives in the south or elsewhere across the country, and just never being sure about where he would be welcomed and where his family would be safe. And he decided to, you know, take advantage of the resources and the connections that he had as a postal service worker to get information about all of the different businesses, the restaurants, the tourist homes which are like boarding usually a woman would rent out a room in her house for travelers, and they could stay for the night and get a meal. But all of those places the hotels the gas stations at any potential place that you could think of to stop at when you are on the road. So we had these stops in the green book so that when you decided to take a trip because you were able to make enough money to have a car. You didn't have to be scared that walking into this restaurant could potentially cost you your life because they did not serve black people. So, um, with this quote, Mr green was essentially saying in a very polite way because of political things that had to do with publishing the green book that one day hopefully you don't have like we won't need this book, it will be okay for black people and other marginalized folks to walk into any space and know that they will be welcomed. Even though just a year or two after the Civil Rights Act was passed and 64 the green book did stop being published with the new additions. It's unfortunate that we still need such things and there are actually apps and different websites and things in the present day that are inspired by the green book because these markers these places that are safe for us are still so needed. So we also wanted to share some cool black history with y'all because we found out and we learned a lot of gruesome history, you know, and so much of that history isn't taught when you're in school. And that's really unfortunate there there's this tendency to make it seem as if black American history is this separate thing from American history general American history when truly black history informs American history and it's really important for us to not forget that so we also wanted to highlight some cool black history or black facts that we learned as we were going through our research process our research involved. Our research involved using the New York Public Library Schomburg Center has this really great interactive. Am I pronouncing that right. So it has this really great interactive website that allows you to essentially map out your own road trip using copies of the Negro motorist green book so you can choose okay what year of the addition do I want to use plot your starting point and your ending point and then it fits everything else in the middle and it's super cool and So we applied on you know that as a resource we read a ton of news articles and you know just like really informing ourselves and learning things about history and you know the great migration and all of these different things that really impacted the characters and our story and black folks in America in real life. So first we wanted to highlight the 761st tank battalion. I'll take it from here. So the 761st tank battalion, also known as the original black panthers will come to has nothing on them. So the black panthers they will call that because the insignia on their uniforms was a panther that was black, but they were an all black military regiment in World War two. So at the time, the military, the army was still segregated because hashtag racism, and they put all of these black men together in this battalion, and they didn't know what to do with them essentially. So the leaders, they kept them training for years longer than a typical person who was enlisted in the military would be because they just they just didn't know what to do with them. So they ended up being way more overqualified and trained than the average soldier. And there did come a point where the commanders knew that they couldn't keep them any longer just like hold up where they were in the United States. They set them abroad and they were major components of huge battles of World War two they were in the battle of the bulge I believe that they were represented on Normandy Beach, many of them ended up with purple hearts and other wonderful military battles that were delayed because of their service. And this battalion is just such an amazing reminder how black people have always been patriotic and stood up in defense of their country and their loved ones and something that we talk about in one of the I was like what are you doing is the is the double victory campaign where essentially the soldiers who would go out to fight would acknowledge that they were fighting for a country that did not see them as equal as the other white people in the United States of America they weren't going into this blindly or ignorant. They just knew that it was important for them to do because a America is also for them and be because they also have loved ones that they want to protect and have a future for and with so these men were going out there and just kicking butt and being really amazing soldiers on behalf of everyone, even if people did not see them that way. And we also wanted to highlight stagecoach Mary also known as Mary fields. I'm obsessed with her. Okay, so we have here it's written that she was a daring black pioneer protecting Wild West stagecoaches and that is all true and she was so much more than that she was a total bad believe I can't figure out what to say about her. But she was absolutely this like amazing woman like when you consider that she was, you know, in a time during the late 1800s early 1900s as a black woman so she is some of her history so she was a I would say a janitor of sorts for a convent and essentially her and one of the groundskeepers ended up getting into, or she might have been the ground keeper and the janitor, I can't remember but either way someone her and a man who tended to the convent ended up getting into an altercation. And it just escalated and they ended up pulling their guns out on each other. And they of course decided they were going to fire stagecoach Mary. So she ended up deciding that she was going to figure out you know like okay I'll find other work. And that's how she ended up having this job as you know a stagecoach protector and the stagecoaches were essentially like the what we say is like the first versions of the US Postal Service right the the mail was transported on the stagecoaches across the country, and they needed protecting because some folks would try to intercept that mail because, you know, somebody was expecting to check and they're like I'm still that right. So Mary fields was essentially protecting the stagecoaches from these folks who would try to steal it and to consider that she was a black woman at the time, holding a role like this and she was described as this, you know, alcohol drinking wearing cursing like just a total, you know, just a legend in her life. And, you know, now as we talk about her so I just thought she was totally fascinating I really wish that this was somebody that we had learned about when we were growing up when we were in school. So much of black American history that you're taught about in school focuses on the pain, and it is true the pain exists and it's real, but black people are so resilient. And as we talk about these conversations about, you know, these very painful histories that we have throughout our country. It's also important that we make sure to elevate the people who persevere through it all. So now we're going to play a quick little game. I actually don't know how many people are here so this might not work. But we're going to play a game. So what will you win. So you will win a copy of one of the good ones we will coordinate with Indiana and the folks at the San Francisco Public Library to make sure that you receive it. But what we're going to do now. Okay, let's see if technology will continue to work to our benefit. Hold on. Let me. Maybe we should get off the Wi-Fi if you're on your phone by the way. Okay, okay. So, wait, hold on a second. I think it's trying to make me log in. Are you off your Wi-Fi? Okay. What is my, hold on. Let me log in, y'all. And it logged me out because that is what technology does. All right. No, not now. Okay, so we're going to play this quick game where we're going to be going through some black history facts. So what you will do right now is you will go to W on your phone or maybe another window on your computer. Maybe there is a delay if you're watching it on YouTube. So we'll wait, you know, a few seconds so that you can join, but go to www.cahoots.it and then you will have a field where you will enter in a game pin, which is this big number that you see right there. So go ahead and do that. So we'll wait a little bit as it catches up on YouTube. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, we're watching it sync up on YouTube. So we'll wait a little bit. Okay. We'll do the Jeopardy theme song as we wait and then we will get started. So I know that again, that there is a lag on YouTube. So if you know, once it starts streaming to YouTube, if you see the game and you're hearing this message now, you will still be able to enter. You'll just go to www.cahoots.it and excuse me, and then you'll enter the game pin which you see here, which will also be displayed once we start playing, which is 1214744. Okay, so let's go ahead and get started. I think there's still some folks joining. Wait, like 10 more seconds and then we'll press play. All right, here we go. Let's do it. We're playing a game of black facts that Maika decided to randomly put together. Now, something to keep in mind. These are your traditional black history facts. They're fun facts. This year was Howard University founded. That's not fun. I think this is fun because I am a student at the illustrious university, right. Okay, so Howard University. I am currently a PhD student again like we have like Eliana mentioned in her wonderful intro for us. I am a PhD student studying representation in media and Maritza is also a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania. So, and what are you studying literacy. Yeah, I am studying. Okay, I'm going through a lot right now. So the correct answer is 1867. All right. So, let's see who is in the lead me or Navy. Okay, so let's or never. Sorry, there's lots of ways to pronounce it. Okay, so we will keep it moving. Question number two, where does by Felicia come from. Is it Friday, YouTube, the longest yard or Facebook, you have a few seconds to select your answer. All right, it looks like everyone has voted the correct answer is Friday by Felicia, you know believe Felicia was asking for some money. Okay, so who is in the lead. Leah has taken over the lead. Next up, Cardi B asked, what was the blank question reason time answer. Right. So if you watch love and hit pop, I believe this is New York. You will know the answer, but the correct answer is reason. What was the reason. What was the question. It was what was the reason is the correct answer to confuse is everyone moving on to the next question and let's see who Derek has really popped up. All right, let's see can Derek be dethroned. So next we have and get out. What was the name of the other world state black people were trapped in when their bodies are taken over the broken place, the infinite place, the tethered place, the sunken place. Let us see, we'll have folks answering. We selected this question it is from Buzzfeed which is what the astros BF stands for gotta give credit or credit it's due. Good job. But we selected this because one of the comps for one of the good ones is get out because something that people don't realize is that one of the good ones is a thriller. So it incorporates all of this, you know, contemporary issues and then it has a twist that we, of course our bias, but we think it's amazing. And so we hope you will be prepared when you get to that point. Wow. So let's see. Oh, Derek is killing it. All right, let's see Malia, Lisa, Neve or Neve, sorry for mispronouncing and Pat, let's see who can dethrone Derek if he's able or they or she are able to be dethroned. All right. Next, what year did Cash Money Records take over? Okay, I love this question. If you know the song, you know the answer. Damn. All right. And you know the beat. Is it 1999 to 2000, 2010 to 2012, 1975 to 1999 or 1800 to 1890. We have a few more seconds. Let's see who will get the right answer. Cash Money Records. Cash Money Records taken over for the 99 to 2000. 1800s. Yes, I love that song. It's explicit, but it's about, okay, that version is the one that, the non explicit version is the one that starts with it. Oh, really? I mean, let's put it like this. All right, Malia has dethroned Derek. Lisa is bringing, was that how you say bring up the rear or would it be Neve? I don't know all of the sports terminologies, but everybody is putting up a great fight. Okay. So our next question. How many fights did it take for Will Smith to get sent to Bel Air? Was it four, three, two, one. You have watched the French French. Wow. Sorry. Goodbye. Thank you so much for coming. If you have watched the French Prince of Bel Air, then you should know this answer. Okay. He got in one little fight and his mom got scared and said, you're moving with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air. Wow. I am going to judge you later, but we are going to keep it because we are on a time crunch. Okay. Yeah. All right. So let's see. Malia is in the beginning is in the beginning is in the lead. And Joseph is on fire. Derek, we're going to see what happens next. Okay. Leo and Neve are also hanging in there. So our seventh question. Lauren, how do you know that the Blackest King is on which streaming platform is it Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video. This is hashtag not sponsored, but we love Beyonce. So of course. We're part of the Beehive. You should know. Yes. And you should have watched it multiple times right now. Okay. So the correct answer is Disney Plus. Oh, we got a lot of Beyoncé fans here, the Beehive is here. that wrong. All right. So next, we'll see. Malia is still in the lead. Alright, this is our last question. Our last question. Now, this isn't necessarily a black fact, but this is the fact that everyone should know. What is the proper way to wear a mask? Request it. Below your nose, above your nose, under your chin, holding your nose where your chin is out, or all the way down with the mask at your neck. So there's only one answer to this, and hopefully everyone gets it right. So it's five, four, three, two. All right. Yay. Everyone knows how to properly wear a mask. It is over your nose, under your chin, over your ears, and you are secure. Alrighty. Thank you, everyone. And now we're going to see who the winner is. In third place, we have Derek. In second place, we have Lelisa. And in first place, the spotlight is on Malia. Congratulations, Malia. With our runners up, Leo and Neve, or Neve or Nev, sorry, we were pronouncing in so many different ways. We just gave you the Spanish, Creole, and English versions. Okay. Thank you everyone for playing Malia. Please, please get in contact with us. You can do that by reaching out to Eliana from the San Francisco Public Library and then we will coordinate to make sure that you get a copy of one of the good ones. So you should be seeing on YouTube an email address that you will be able to reach out to in order to claim your prize. Congratulations. Congratulations, everyone. All right. Now, that was lots of fun. Don't know about you. I truly, truly enjoyed it. I feel so alive. So we're going to wrap it up soon so that way we can open it up for any questions, but we wanted to make sure that we highlighted some more black stories. Oops, sorry, kind of sped right through that. Oops, sorry, sped through it again. Whoa, don't know what's happening here. Okay. Okay. So, if you recall that absorbable picture that we showed at the beginning of the presentation, something that is a canon to our storyline as humans, like part of our life that we think about a lot and think back on fondly is the fact that we have spent so much time in the libraries. That's one of the biggest things that I miss being away in a pandemic, you know, like just being able to be in that physical space and be free and explore the books. And our parents would not let us watch TV on the weekdays because boo, but every single weekend we would go to our neighborhood library and check out the max number of books each. So we would check out the four of us like 30 books each and we come home with like 120 books, not read all of them in one week, but just keep renewing them and just switch them around. Some people would lose them and it was fine. I always lost the ones that worked under my name, interestingly enough. But yes, so even though like we love the books that we read, and we were always able to find something in common with the characters, we never really got to see characters who looked like us, you know, like black girls, Asian American girls, girls growing up in Miami. And, you know, so it would have been wonderful to have more that experience in our books. And even though we have come a very long way, the fact that we are able to like publish multiple books and like be here speaking to you as a testament to that, but we do still have a lot of work to do, which is what this infographic from the University of Wisconsin-Madison is showing. Still, 50%, half of books have white characters as their main characters. And they're still over a quarter of children's books that are about animals and inanimate objects and much less of characters that are black or Asian or Latinx or Native American. And it just shows that we do have a very long way to go because ultimately we do want everyone to feel represented and to feel like anything is possible for them, for us. And so we wanted to highlight a few books that we love, a few books that are on our TBRs, to really just show that it's so important for us to make sure that we aren't only highlighting the books that focus on Black pain, right? We need books where Black people are the love interests, where they are the villains, where they are the superheroes, where they are the protagonist going on an adventure. And so we just wanted to highlight books that run the gamut and that show really the diversity of stories that we can tell about Black folks. And we want to make sure that our stories are inclusive, right? That we include queer people, that we include people who might come from economically challenged backgrounds, that we include people who are immigrants, right? Because there's just so much to tell about Black identity. And although we know the importance of narratives for people to really put themselves in the positions of people and truly be able to begin to identify with some of the hardships, we also want to make sure that we highlight books where Black people get to be fully actualized characters who are not only focusing on their pain. So we have this wonderful category of books highlighted before you that really run the range from powerful books that are also very painful, but also books that are just about falling in love and trying to become a prom queen or searching for your missing grandmother and all of these different amazing things or really identifying and figuring out who you are as an individual. And so we're wrapping it up and we wanted to thank you all for indulging us with our Black facts game and also for being with us today as we went through this information with you. So we will stop sharing and answer any questions or any questions and then maybe we will bring Eliana back to join us. Hello. That was so much fun. I'm not being right. No, that was so much fun. Yay. We love so who it is. Awesome. I use it with my students and Howard, you know, just to break the ice and it's great. Yeah, cool. Cool. So we have a couple of questions. One was that I noticed that in one of the good ones, that phrase is a fantastic title and it gets repeated by different characters in different situations. And I was wondering if that was intentional and if it continues and what your, yeah, what you guys think about that? Yeah. So the first thing you should know is that we are actually terrible at titles and what we called this book and it's still like all the labels in our email and folders is the Green Book Book because we just didn't know. But that's what we sold it as an untitled Green Book project or something like that. Yeah. But our editor pointed out that like at the beginning of the story, Happy is talking about how so many people saw Kezi as one of the good ones and suggested that as a title and we were like, oh, that's amazing because it really is a wonderful way to frame what we are trying to tackle in this story about how some people try or think that they are being a supportive person and ally and trying, they try to like basically like serve someone up on a platter as a good example of what this entire race could be, you know, but we wanted to push back against that. Like, you don't have to be a good one. There's no such thing as a good one. You can just be one. You can just be a person and that should be enough to like have the dignity to exist in this world without fear of your life, you know. Yeah, that's fantastic. So thank you for sharing a little bit more about that and the title and kind of the circular nature of it, I think, right? So I also really appreciated the shout out to New York Public Library and the Schomburg Center. I believe that's how you say it. So, you know, that's three of us. And just like the research, you know, I think people in the chat were throwing flowers for you both around the research and just your story and sharing your sharing the facts. Those are the facts. So that seems like it also takes a lot of work. How long was the process? Yes. So I would say compared to, so like Dear Hady Love Elaine, we wrote that before we had an agent, before we were like contractually obligated. So we were a little bit like, we'll get it done. And then we ended up quickly finishing it because Maritza entered us into a contest, which I will get it to. But for one of the good ones, because we had a deadline looming, you know, it was our first time working under like, this is a contractually obligated deadline. So we were way more intentional about how we would tackle this book. So, you know, we had like a really extensive outline before we even got started because when you're working with another person, you can't really rely on like, I don't know where the story is going. Like we have to sit and discuss it. And we flesh that out. And so that outline was like maybe 20, 30 pages long before we even got started. And then we started writing. And there were definitely things that we knew that we had to research before we even got started. So we want to learn about the Great Migration and World War II and Black soldiers and all of these different things. So we read a lot of, you know, like journal articles from academic journals because of, you know, nerds, but also because, you know, it was just really important for us to make sure that we were getting it from credible sources. And then we also had things that we would find out as we were in the middle of writing it. So we would leave like a placeholder, but I know something that popped up was if you are going on a road trip in like, I don't know, the 50s or 60s where seatbelts are already in cars at that time. Like we want to make sure that if we're saying the character is reaching for their seatbelt, that seatbelt actually existed. So there are certain things that we wouldn't know until we got to that specific point. But yeah, there was a lot of research and really shout out to the New York Public Library and libraries in general. They I'm just going to give a little get on my soapbox right now. Libraries are awesome. Okay, they are a institution. It's free for you to use. You just have to go in and you know, give your identification so that you could get a public library card and you have access to books and movies and like just everything in between magazines. Like I have been living off of my audio events. Yes, I've been listening to like my audio books through the Libby app, which is through Miami-Dade County Public Library hashtag shout out to us and hashtag but shout out to the Miami-Dade County Public Library. But yeah, so libraries are great and we totally relied on them for our research process and I will stop rambling because that's what I'm doing. No, we are here for the library love. So thank you. I mean, we say it and it's great to have other folks here too, because we really do believe in it, right? And, you know, you guys have been just so generous with your time and sharing also your book and your journey, but also other recommendations because it is about Black Joy, right? It's about Black Joy, Black Girl Magic, Black Families, like all of that is what makes own voices shine. So thank you so much for that. We didn't get too many questions because I think you guys just wowed everybody, but tons of flowers and just appreciation for you both. Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much. And if you guys wanted to share kind of a last, you know, if there's a teen out there that's watching, what would you say to that teen that just might want to pick up one of the good ones? Yeah. Oh, okay. First, I'd say hi. Thank you. That's so nice. There are a lot of books out there. So for you to pick this one, I mean, great taste, but also thank you. I would say to be inspired as you read this book, even through the hard parts, if you have to put it down for a bit and then come back to it, that is all right. And to use it as like a stepping stone to do something that you're afraid of doing maybe, but feels very important and urgent for you to pursue, like use that as inspiration to do that. And also do your homework, eat your dinner, eat food. My grandfather would want me to say that. Eat. Drink water. Yes, I would add that, you know, if you're reading one of the good ones, like Mercer said, if you have to take a break, do that. We took breaks as we were writing it because there were definitely parts that were very, you know, hard for us to get through. So we definitely understand if you're reading and you take a break, you can 1000% do that. But we really hope that when people read one of the good ones that they just have moments of self reflection and they consider what does it look like when I say that I'm an ally? Who do I lift up? And to take the things that you're learning and not only, you know, get the book, but you read the book and then you carry it with you and you apply it and you're constantly doing that. And also pick up some other books, pick up the books that we highlighted there. Like don't let, you know, one of the good ones be the only book about a black person that you read, right? Like there's so much out there and, you know, it's not as much as it could be, but it is steadily growing. So just make sure to immerse yourselves and see the humanity in everybody, even if you don't hold that same identity. Well, thank you again to you both and to your team for saying yes and for being here and for shouting out just everybody can get these books with SFPL to go here if you're local, but also support your independent bookstores and support your local libraries. And that's it. So take good care of yourselves and everybody watching and stay safe and we hope to see you guys again. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Thanks for watching.