 The Black Lives Matter protests and calls to action have enlightened, energized and empowered children and young people like me across the country. And it's also left us wondering how we can really assert ourselves, find answers and do something during this moment of resistance and reclamation across our country. This forum is an opportunity to help young people like me to teach us and to share our thoughts and feelings and to listen to our questions about our community, our country, what goes from there and what our role is in these solutions and this resistance. 10 students from various parts of America will pose the questions today and 10 Black artists, writers, educators, prize winners, you know, fancy people will answer these questions and help us provide answers. This is not a masterclass in activism, but it is a workshop on freedom, a moment where those who have seen history's mistakes and lived through thriving times can now help a new generation like me correct them and we can solve these problems. So thank you all for coming and I hope you enjoy call and response. And I'm seven years old, what are some ways kids in the world can help in the fight for justice and equality? Jace, my God, Jace, nice shirt, buddy. You know what, man, I'll tell you this, Jace, first of all, I'm so sorry that this is even a question that you have to ask at seven years old, first of all. And so to answer the question about how to fight for justice and equality at seven, I think the way I want to frame this to you is to say, first of all, as an adult, we always tell you how the child can change the world. And I think sometimes what you take it as, what young people take it as is that you individually have to do all the things to change the world and that's not true. And so if you want to fight for justice and equality at your age, the real thing that we have to do or that you should think about is what's a small thing that I could do that I really believe in, whether it be how do I say thank you to every single person around me or how do I say, how do I speak to my neighbors every single day or can I make sure that I hold the door? These are small things that feel very small. How can I treat everybody the same no matter what they look like? And if you hammer that nail, just that one little thing, and if your friend down the street picks a thing and hammers that nail, and if your friend at your school picks a thing or a good thing to do for people every day and hammers that nail, then sooner or later, as you guys get older, as you all get older, you realize that you would have built an entire house of equality and justice and a question like this no longer needs to be asked. That's the goal. You change your corner of the world. You fight for justice and equality by making sure the people around you are being treated equally, that you're treating people equally and that you're being fair. And if you continue to hammer, I promise you'll build a beautiful structure where the quality and peace and justice will just be paint on the walls. I appreciate your question, little brother, and I hope to see you soon. Hi, my name is Chiara. I'm 13 years old and eighth grade attending Dearborn Stem Academy. I live in Boston, Massachusetts. And my question for you today is why do racist white people feel like black people are being racist when they say and feel that all lives can't matter until black lives do? Thank you. Thank you, Chiara. What I want to say to you is I feel like when we say black lives matter, it's us taking control of our past and our present and our future, right? We're changing the narrative that racist white people believe in, right? When we say black lives matter, what we're doing is taking our control back and we're saying that the English language, the language, the use in the United States, as far as our English that we speak here, when we say all, it's a mathematical lie, right? And we can point to that when we talk about the Declaration of Independence, right? When they say we hold these truths to be inalienable, right? That all men are created equal. We already know that they're all never included us. So the short answer is that they are mad and they are scared and they are confused and angry because we don't believe the lie anymore, right? And they can't say all and have us just go along with the okidok. So the racist white people that you're talking about then have to either reckon with the fact that they have been sold the same bill of mess that we have, right, or they have to change. And quite frankly, racist white people don't want a change. They are quite fine with the with the way that all encompasses them and not us. So thank you so much for that question, because I think a lot of people have it. And I just can say we keep saying black lives matter because we know we matter, right? And there's always going to be racist white people, but there will also be those of those people who are born to those racist white folks who want to change, right? And who want to make a difference? We're just going to keep coming and doing the right thing for the real reason. Thanks, sis. My name is Raja. I'm 17 years old and I'm from North Carolina. And my question is how can I encourage the people around me to start to care more about the issues that face our society and to want to make a tangible change, especially since covid started, I've started really learning a lot more and educating myself about the different things that are going on in the world. And I'm just wondering how I can help other people start to care more and want to educate themselves as well. Deraja, what a great question. And and I feel that question really personally, as I try to get the folks around me to care more to to see what's happening in the streets, to see what's happening online, to see what's happening around us and to care. And and quite honestly, it's hard. It's hard. It can feel defeating. It can feel like you're doing an uphill battle because sometimes people don't want to care. So my my advice to you is first to tell your story. I think there's so much power in our own personal stories. And we we share from that first person about our struggles, the things that we face, the things that we're up against. That gets people to just care a little bit more. And then I think from there, you keep getting educated, keep learning more, keep finding out more things that are going on. And then share what you learn. Share that with the folks around you. And I think when you tell that story, your own story and tell those things that you've learned, it becomes a little infectious. And then the last part is let time do its thing. This isn't a one day thing or two day thing, a one or two week or month thing. This is the long game. Keep telling your story. Keep telling what you learn. And I think I think I hope I pray that it'll become infectious to those people around you and that they'll care just as much as you do. So thanks for your question, Taraja. Hi, my name is Kennedy. I'm 13 years old and I live in Pennsylvania. My question is, how do I get kids my age to read more books that are written by black authors? Oh, Kennedy, thank you so much for that great question. So I'm a child of a world of black stories. My mom was from Jamaica. My dad is from Nigeria, and I was born in New York. We moved a lot all over the place. I'm the oldest, which is something I've always been very proud of and had absolutely nothing to do with. But from the moment I was born, I was given the precious gift of black stories down to even my name on our bookshelves at the dinner table at bedtime from their own lives from black authors across the diaspora. The stories helped me understand that black lives are beautiful, powerful, dynamic, and come in infinite flavors. Black authors reminded me that I don't have to be anyone other than who I am. They gave me the space to dream of being who I wanted to be. I read to make meaning. I read to ask questions. I read to figure out what I thought, where I belong. I read to laugh. I read to cry, to be comforted or empowered. Black authors offer all of those gifts and more. And I know you know this because you asked this question. You know that despite, you know, the systems that seek to deny it, black people are rich in story. We drip in story. We have a legacy of stories that is so deep and wide and high and long. They are a blessing to anyone fortunate enough to connect with them. So remind them of that. Share the joy of what they are, that if you want to be, I don't know, freaked out a little, you could check out Ron L. Smith. If you want to see girls who are living and loving and thriving in the real world, read Renee Watson. You want to be inspired by hidden heroes. There's Kelly Starling Lyons or Don Tate, Wendell and Hooks. You want to be immersed in lush and lovely fantasy stories. There's Danielle Clayton. You want to sleep tight. You read a lullaby by Tamika Fryer Brown or travel on wacky adventures with the books of Lamar Giles. You want to be hit straight in your heart and feel all the feels. There's Rita Williams Garcia or Nikki Grimes. Tell them about Malika Rose Stanley, about Mallory Blackman, Alex Wheatle, Atenuke, Marguerite Abouay. You know I could go on and on and on. Tell them to check out the Brown Bookshelf, Just Us Books, the African American Children's Book Project, Golden Baobab. You can share all of our particular stories of Black joy, mistakes, innovation, of pain, of struggle, endurance and ordinary small days. We bring our whole Black selves to our stories because we see all the different selves that you are. So Kennedy, just tell them what you already know. Just share the infinite power and beauty of our stories and just let that shine. I know you got this and thank you, Kennedy. Hi, my name is Mason. I'm nine years old and I live in Massachusetts. My question is what role can authors play in the fight for racial justice? Hey, Mason, I am so sorry. I came late to that question and it's such a wonderful question. I think one of the major roles that authors can play is just talking about racial justice and writing about it and letting people know that this is something we deeply, deeply care for, for that we care that everyone can walk through this world safely. And I love that you're thinking about this. I love that you're thinking about authors. I love that you're thinking about human beings just being able to move through the world without having to be afraid. So let's keep writing our stories, as Bemi said. Let's keep telling our stories and let's keep making ourselves and our stories and our histories more visible so that everyone knows that we have a right to be here and that we're amazing. Thank you for asking that question, Mason. My question is how do I get black girls and white girls to believe their skin color is you'll always be great. Oh, oh, my goodness. Parker, Parker, Parker. Oh, my goodness, your statement at the end there, no matter what your skin color is, you will always be great is incredible. And I hope everybody in the world hears that. I want you to know that it is it is just you understanding that this is an issue and that the issue is a problem. Is actually a big jump to resolution. And here's the complicated part. Sometimes you know something and other people are very slow to it. And it is so frustrating. I feel your frustration. It is so frustrating to know, to know that you are right and that like other people are wrong. And if they would get enlightened to your truth, they would feel better. But there's a big thing that I have learned. Sometimes you cannot change people. You have to be yourself, be your beautiful self, keep your energy, keep your vibration up, live your life the way you think you should live your life. And sometimes people will witness your positive transformation. And that's a big word, transformation. Maybe somebody at home can show it is when you keep changing and growing and becoming the person that you are. My mother wrote a song for a great civil rights leader named Ella Baker. And Ella Baker said this, we who believe in freedom cannot rest. I hope you clap in your hand with me. We who believe in freedom cannot rest. Till it comes. And she actually wants you to take care of yourself and rest. OK, she's not telling you to stay up all night long. But she is saying that the road is long and we have to stay on it until we get to where we want to go. So you want to try singing with me? We who believe in freedom cannot rest. We who believe in freedom cannot rest. We who believe in freedom cannot rest. Till it comes. Until black mother's son is as important as the killing of white men. White mother's sons. To me, young people come first. They have the courage where we fail. Hi, my name is Lex. I'm 15. I'm from Massachusetts. And my question is how can my generation help normalize expression of mental health and artistic creativity in our community? This is such a great question. Such an important question. It is such a big question, Lex. And I can't give you everything right now. So I thought of three things that I think that you can do that your friends can do to foster community that makes everyone feel comfortable about expressing themselves. And the first thing is something that you can do, which is to talk about your own feelings and express yourself and surround yourself with people who also feel comfortable doing that because the more you are in community with people who feel comfortable about talking about how they feel is the more everybody in that community and all of the people who are surrounding that community will start feeling comfortable about expressing themselves and talking about their mental health. The second thing would be to listen to understand, which is really different from listening to respond or listening to fix. When you're listening to understand the person that you're listening to feels that they feel that you are trying to reach them deeply and they will be more willing to dig deeper to express themselves further to express themselves more often. And this is really the best way to address mental health is to listen deeply to people. And the third thing that I would ask you to try is to when you are experiencing somebody's artwork, whether you're looking at it or you're listening or you are participating in it, experience it as well to understand it rather than experiencing it to evaluate it, which is again a completely different thing. It puts you in the position to ask questions, to have the artist themselves think more deeply about their work and their connection to their work and how they are expressing the things that they need in their work and they will see that you are really invested in them and their artistic expression. So they will be more willing to do more of that in the future. So these are all things I think that are really simple for you and your friends to do in your friend community, in your home, in your school. And I know it's a much bigger question and this is only a very small piece, but Lex, thanks so much for that. It's a great question. Thank you. Hi, my name is Madison. I'm eight years old. We live in Connecticut. Our question is what is the best advice you could give to young black kids living in America? Thank you. Bye. Wow. Barrington in Madison. That's a question. The best advice. So here's a few things I'm going to suggest for all the young people who are watching today. And this is stuff I learned from my parents and the people in my community. Tracy talked about surrounding yourself with people, the right people. So the people in my community always taught me and my grandmothers, my aunts and uncles, my parents act like you belong in the room. The room is a metaphor for the world, for whatever space you find yourself in. Act like you belong in the room, okay? Which requires a certain level of confidence. Like you got to be confident. So when I was three years old, which was a little younger than you, Barrington in Madison, I went to a school in New York City. It was a preschool. And my mother had read to me a lot of books. She had read to me books by Lucille Clifton and Nikki Giovanni and Langston Hughes. Ask your parents to read you that. And Dr. Seuss. And my favorite book was a book called Fox in Sox. Fox, Sox, Knox, Box. Fox in Sox, Sox in Box. I love that book. I wanted it read to me all the time. So one day when I was in school, at the end of the day, I built a house out of some wooden blocks. And my house was fly, y'all. But this kid in my class came and knocked over my blocks. And I was mad. And so I went up to him and used the only weapons I had, my words. And I said to him, those were my blocks that you flipped. Lest you want a quick payback, better fix my quick block stack. And this kid started crying. Oops. And so when my mother came to school to pick me up, the teachers were like, Mrs. Alexander, we have a problem. Your son Kwame is arrogant. He intimidates the other kids with his words. And my mother said, thank you. We teach him to use his words. Here's what I'm saying to you. You got to go through life. Arrogant, super confident. And when I say arrogant, I'm not talking about arrogant in the sense that other people are less than you. No, here's one of my favorite quotes. And I think Muhammad Ali said it. I am the greatest, not because I am better than anyone, but because no one is better than me. And I've tried to go through my life thinking that way. And I suggest, here's my advice. You got to go through life, Madison and Barrington, feeling confident, feeling arrogant. People probably going to be like, Kwame, you're telling kids to be arrogant? Yes. I'm saying be arrogant in who you are. Love everyone else. Hopefully everyone else is arrogant in who they are. Be great. Know yourself. Surround yourself with the right people. Act like you belong to be in the room. That's my advice. Thank you, Barrington. Thank you, Madison. Hi, my name is Adedayo. I'm 16 years old and I live in New York. And my question is, what would you say to people who feel like their vote won't count? Adedayo, that's such a great question. Having just voted today with my 18 year old daughter, this is the first time that she voted and I'm so proud of her. I'm so proud of Gen Z. I'm so proud of the young people who are so eager to vote. I want to say to you that even though little ones in the room, if you care about your school lunches, if you care about the books in your libraries, if you care about the stores in your neighborhood, if you care about where your family can go to see a good doctor, if you care about the things that your government is doing to keep people healthy, then you gotta vote. You gotta vote. You gotta vote from everybody from the school board to the person who runs your block association to the president. It's really, really important. And I also want to say to you, women didn't get to vote until when the 1920 and 1920 and black folks got to vote in 1870. But what happened was then white folks tried to take the vote away from them. And when white folks tried to take the vote away from them, they made it very hard for them to vote. Sometimes they beat them up. Sometimes even worse than that. And that happened for a very, very long time. And even now, when some people went to vote this year, they had to wait three hours, four hours, five hours to vote. This is kind of similar to what happened back then. People are trying to, they're trying to keep people from voting. And you know why that is? Because voting is powerful. Remember enslaved people weren't allowed to learn to read, right? And the reason they weren't allowed to learn to read and write, reading and writing is powerful. And voting is powerful. Your one vote does a lot to change a system. And so get out there, encourage your parents to vote, encourage your cousins and your aunties and your uncles. And think about this tool you're going to have when you turn 18, you're going to be able to walk into a room, cast that vote and change the world. So go do it. Thanks so much for that question. I did IO and I'll see you somewhere in Brooklyn. Take care. I live in New Jersey. My question is I am not old enough to vote. So how can I, in my peers, affect change in our communities? First of all, Stephen, where you at? You at your penthouse roof? Where you hanging out at? I'm trying to be where you are. It's a good question, my man. Good question, brother. You know what, you know, Jacqueline Woodson just said a lot about sort of all the reasons that we should be voting and all the things that we should be thinking about in your questions or what if I'm not old enough. First thing we have to know is there's no age requirement on, on effectively changing something. Right. So first you have to understand that there is no, I have to be a certain age order to make change or I have to be a certain age order. I have to be a certain age order. I have to be a certain age order. So I'm glad that you're already thinking that way because so many people feel like I got to wait until I'm 18 before I can make a change. I mean, I think about Marley Diaz who is on this call on this Zoom, right? Marley Diaz started to change things when she was very young. And the reason why she started to change things is because there was something that she wanted that she could not get. Right. That simple. And so she figured out a way to get it and to make sure other people, you know, you know, I think there's a lot of reasons that you're not going to see that. And also I think there's a bunch of answers I'm supposed to give you right now, like all the ways that you and your, your friends who are 11 years old, could play in protests in your school and in your neighborhood how you all can, can, can make sure that you can ask for what you want when it comes to your school lunches right. Like, like Jack, I wasn't just saying it or what you want to see in your neighborhood. You're not too young for that. Right. person's gonna change every single year. You'll have to reintroduce yourself to yourself every single year. But I wanna, I think sometimes what happens is we tell you all at 18, all of a sudden, you're supposed to have all the tools to go vote and then change the world. But what we never tell you is at 11 years old, this is the time to start developing courage. This is the time to start developing confidence. This is like Kwame Alexander said, to figure out what your version of that arrogance is going to be, right? To figure out how to tap into that greatness. Who are your friends? And do you all agree on the things that matter most? You don't gotta agree on everything, right? Cause friends don't gotta agree on everything. But on the things that matter most, like what's fair, what's right, what's just, right? And the reason why I think this is important, Stephen, is because one day, one day you're gonna be in a situation where it's gonna be time for you to actually make that change or push for something to change. It's gonna be time for you to vote. It's gonna be time for you to stand up for someone who might not be able to stand up for themselves. And if you haven't done that work to figure out where your courage is, you won't be able to tap into it to actually make the change happen, right? So I wanna make sure that you've had those conversations with yourself, talk to your friends about it, ask your friends, next time you're around all your buddies, ask them what they're afraid of. And figure out if there are ways for you to then go and face those fears. I promise you down the line, it will be very important. It might be important for you next year. And lastly, what I want you to know is, I wanna say this to you. I love you, I love you, Steven. And the reason why I want you to hear me say I love you and why I want you to hold on to me saying I love you is because one day, and it could be soon, it could be later, you're gonna stand up for something that's right and you're gonna look around and you might feel like you're standing alone. And that's okay. Because I want you to be able to tap into this moment and be like, I know Jason Reynolds loves me, I know my parents got me, my friends love me, even if they're not here, I'm never actually by myself, especially when I'm doing the thing that I know is right. Okay, thank you for your question. I'm gonna come visit you in your fancy house, in the water, I'm gonna get me a red sweatsuit, get fly, and we can have this conversation in real life, man, please. The night is beautiful, so the faces of my people. The stars are beautiful, so the eyes of my people. Beautiful also is the sun. Beautiful also are the souls of my people. That was Langston Hughes, and this is us. This is us answering questions because questions are the things that keep us sort of confused or they stall us in our growth or we're unclear about how to move forward. And so we wanted to come together tonight to offer some answers. It may not be the answer, but some answers for you all so that you can spend your time, young people, being beautiful, embracing all the beauty that there is in this world in your life. I think we have a little time for some questions from you all. You all have been watching us on ArtsEmerson's Facebook and YouTube page as well as on the Howl Around page. So we're gonna take a few questions from you all and then we've got a treat, we've got a surprise for you. Question number one is, we're gonna ask, we're gonna ask Jelani memory to answer this question. So Jelani, here's the question. How has racial discrimination affected your journey to being successful today? You run a really successful publishing company, a kid's book about, so how has that kind of, how's the discrimination affected you and your work? You know, I think I can point to definitely some negative effects. You know, I always felt like the odd kid out growing up, going to mostly white schools with mostly white kids who were curious about my hair and my name and where I was from. And that caused a lot of uncomfortability in me as I grew up, but it also created, I think, some resilience. I had to learn about who I was at a really early age and I think that's a powerful thing for young kids of color is to find out who they are. And so I began to try and understand who I was, what was my identity? And now as I think about myself as an adult is I am full of resilience and the ability to overcome things. Do I, am I glad that the discrimination happened as a kid, whether that was not being included or getting left out or getting called names? No, I'm not glad about it, but it is part of what's made me who I am to this day and it's part of why I'm so passionate about pouring into young people, especially my own kids, for them to find out who they are, for them to find out what their identity is and for them to build that resilience, whether they face discrimination or not. Now it's important, Jelani, that these young people know what you're doing now. You gotta give us the elevator pitch for you, you got 30, 45 seconds. Tell us what it is you do so they can see that journey from facing the challenges to now what you do and what's so special and unique about what you do. You got 30, 45 seconds, hold up a book, go. All right, let's see. So I wrote this book two years ago, a kid's book about racism as a way to talk to my six kids about race, culture, color and racism. I wrote that book only for that audience of six and now it has gone on to sell over 50,000 copies and I built a company around it. We have 27 plus books, we'll have 40 by the end of the year and we make them on challenging, empowering and important stories because we think these underrepresented voices need to be heard and so we go out and we find those authors, those voices, those stories to tell through our books. And just one last little bit is we write them all in a single day, we bring in authors so you don't have to be a prolific author that's the best in the world, a good writer, you just have to have a story. Roya, thank you, thank you, Jelani. This next question I'm going to throw to the coordinator of this event, Toshi Regan and I wanna throw this to her. I wanna recognize her for putting this together but also more importantly, maybe we can get another song out of the answer. Cause that was sister, that was so beautiful and empowering. We needed that, we needed that. One love. The question is, and we were talking about this before we started the rally. How are you taking all the racism that is happening in the world today in your life? How do you handle it and are you scared? This is the question we're talking about. This is such a great question. You are allowed to have your feelings. You're allowed to feel what you feel and you're allowed to tell the truth about it. One of the genius things about our people and our journey is that we did use the sounds that our body makes as a way to home ourselves as the way to have something that somebody can't take away from us. And a lot of that ended up being music. Maybe some of you have heard about the spirituals but it's not just the spirituals. We stay in our practice of creating, of drumming and sometimes they would be like, you can't have the drum but we would just be up in here like this and doing what we had to do to be who we are. And there's a great song and he goes, Lord, I got a tree of life. And then you can say everything that's happening to you, right? You can say the bad things. I've been tossed around but I got a right, Lord, tree of life. And these songs are adaptable. So even if you're like, I don't know about that Lord part you can just be like, oh, I got a, you can kick this song any way you need to. And the point is, is that you cannot keep all of this inside. It is actually, you deserve better. You deserve better. So don't keep it all up inside, get it out somehow and keep moving. Toshi, is there one album? Do we say album anymore? Is there one? Yeah, you guys say album. Is there one album that we can offer, that we can share with parents right now so they can get this particular album for their kids? They can listen to it as a family. What's that one big lovely, what's that one Toshi album that you wanna shout out right now for all of us to sort of gather? My favorite record that I've done is There and Back Again. I love that record. It's just one of my favorites. And I love the song There and Back Again. It's kind of a mix of a camp song and like a Sam Cook song and just all kinds of things going on. So yeah, There and Back Again is my one. And my daughter, I think her favorite record is called Toshi as basically my record called Toshi. So yeah. Word, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we got another question and this is from an adult, but we're gonna answer it cause you know, we're gonna answer it cause I don't have any more questions that are coming up right now. So, and I don't know. Well, let me go ahead and say it. All right, Jason. So here's the question. I know you're looking at me like really quiet, what you about to ask me? You already know what you're gonna say. Oh, I got a right. Right, right. And this, I'm gonna generalize this question and not specify it as it already is cause I wanna make it wider. What can white people in particular white, young white people do to use their privilege to fight racism without undermining those with less privilege? I was like, you know, that's a good question. Okay, okay, cool. I thought it was gonna be, what can you tell? How do you tell a white person to be less racist? And I don't answer that question. I got refused to answer that question. But this question is all right. How do you use your privilege? First of all, the fact that you even know you have that privilege is step one, right? And the fact that you know that you must use it or that it would be nice, it would be helpful to use it for the benefit or for, to make life a little more equitable and fair for people who don't have it. That's step two, right? So far, we're already halfway there. But the question is, how do you not step on people who might already be doing this work or who might, you know, like, how do you not undermine the people who, black people, how do you not undermine black people? I think first of all, the first thing you have to know just because you have privilege don't mean you got, doesn't mean that, like privilege don't equal a halo, right? It don't equal a cape, you know? Privilege is sort of a superpower, but it doesn't actually make you a superhero. And you have to remember that, which means your job isn't to save people. Your job isn't to use your privilege to save people, right? If anything, your job to support, your privilege should be used as assistance, accompaniment, right? Your privilege is the difference between me singing an acapella and me singing with a guitar, right? Like, that's the point, right? And so the real question becomes, if you are trying to do good using your privilege, then before you enter into any space, the first thing that has to happen is you have to survey the space. You got to know exactly who it is that you're trying to, quote unquote, help. You got to ask some necessary questions first, right? Because a lot of the things that people step in to do have already been done by the person who's dealing with it, you got to see who's, like I have a prime example is like protests, right? So that young people are showing up to protest and droves and they're ready to sort of be a part of a movement and they feel good, young white people and they feel so energized and it's a good thing. But remember that just because you are part of the protest doesn't mean that you have to lead. There are already leaders there, right? When it comes time to talk, just know that you don't always have to be the person talking. There are already speakers there who never get a chance to speak in your job when they hand you the megaphone because you have the privilege is to create space for the other people to then get the megaphone to save their peace, right? Like that, and you take that metaphor and you blow it up and expand it into every other part of our lives. Even as you get older and all of a sudden you're in a business environment and you walk into the boardroom and you don't see no black people on the board and you say, hey, where the black people why is it not diverse? Boy, you see a black woman on the board who never gets to speak. Your job is to say, hey, let's hear what she has to say. It's probably very important, right? Like so these are the things, these are the ways that it works but you never ever ever assume that your job is to be a savior or that you know that because you have privilege you know more than everybody else. That's the thing that becomes harmful. Word. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Ola Bemisola, this is for you. My question is, did I pronounce your name correctly, sister? Yes, you did. Ola Bemisola. Wonderful. My question is, how can I support the Black Lives Matter movement and help other kids support it? We both have daughters, so we both got kids and kids, they wanna know what can they do and how can they get people around them to do the same thing? Like that's a legitimate thing and it's raised on their minds a lot, I know. That's a real question. And it's hard for me, like other people have talked about this before because part of me feels like it shouldn't be on kids to do so much of this work that we as adults in supporting them and doing the things that we need to do, the focus should be on that. But it is a real question for kids. And my daughter, who you mentioned Kwame, she was feeling this very strongly last spring and she wrote about it. She's a musician. She wrote poetry, she wrote songs. She wrote an op-ed. She wrote very honestly about her feelings and shared some ideas that after they were published helped other kids feel like, okay, my feelings are valid. I'm gonna express myself. So that's one thing that I think kids can do is, as Tracy said, speak up and say how you feel and be honest about how you feel and be honest about when you feel like someone might be saying Black Lives Matter or you see it as a slogan or a trend, but you don't feel that it really matters in your day-to-day life to the people who are around you, to the people who may have some measure of authority over you, to the people who are saying things that they're just not doing. So speaking up is one thing. And speaking up to people that you trust, people that you know care about you and ask them to do their jobs and support you. Ask the adults around you to do their jobs and support you. Other than expressing yourself, speaking up and asking the adults to step up, take care of yourself. Know that just by living and being who you are, you are supporting the Black Lives Matter because you are living and thriving as yourself and that matters and that's important and you are precious and your story is precious. And just knowing that and holding on to that in spite of all the things that can be happening around you and all of the things that can really hurt, knowing that is an act of courage, being joyful is an act of resistance. So I say hold on to those things. Thank you, thank you. We're gonna bring Toshi Regan back in right now and she's going to sing an intro to our special guest. I mean, we can't get enough of it, the song. I'm good, I'm good. You know what I would like to do is uplift Rakesh Kwantu who it did the opening song that you heard and it's gonna enlighten us again at the end. Rakesh is my nephew and you know how you steal other people's kids and make them your nephew or your niece or your nibbling. So I got you Rakesh, he's brilliant. So I wanna uplift him for his powerful work and then I wanna shout out how round for helping us get this all out to everybody and shout out Arts Emerson for helping us get this all out to everybody. But I am so excited to introduce this next person and you can go to Levar Burton.com and see all the spectacular things this man is doing. So without further ado, please welcome Levar Burton. Thank you Toshi very much, I love you. Every single one of us, every single one of us is here for a specific purpose. If you're here, you are here for a reason. If you have a body, you have come here to do a very specific thing. We are all on a mission, we human beings and that mission is to deliver our gift. We all have something special that we are here to offer the world. Like, I love to read aloud. And when I was in the third grade, I had a teacher named Mrs. Twig. Mrs. Twig would sometimes want to go to the teacher's lounge and make herself a cup of tea and she would put me in front of the class with a book because I was the best reader in third grade. And Mrs. Twig knew that when she came back with her cup of tea, that there would still be order in the class, that the kids would still be in their seats and everything would be good. Well, Mrs. Twig, outside of my family was the first person to recognize that I had a gift, a talent and that's what I want to share with you today. Not only do you have a gift to deliver but you don't have to be totally responsible for discovering what that is. We all have people in our lives that help us define why we're here, what our specific offering to the world is. We don't have to do it alone. So I'm gonna ask you to engage in an experiment with me. No matter how old you are, no matter where you are, no matter who you are, no matter what you do, I want you to close your eyes for just 30 seconds and I want you to focus on someone in your life, a parent, a sibling, a coach, a teacher, someone who is helping you discover who you are and why you're here, okay? Just 30 seconds, focus on that person, send them some love and appreciation and I will watch the time. None of us gets through this thing called life alone. We are never by ourselves on this journey. I'm offering every single one of you who are in this moment, peace, and blessings this day and every day. We are in this thing together, y'all. Thanks for joining. Thank you, thank you. LeVar, go ahead and stay on the video and I'm gonna bring everybody else back on one by one in a second. But LeVar, tell us the name of a Jason Reynolds book that kids should read. Mm, boy, my mind just went blank. I put you on the spot. See what? I think you read from Look Both Waves. I know, Look Both Waves, thank you. Look Both Waves, Look Both Waves, absolutely. Jason's one of my favorite storytellers. I love that, man. I love me some Jason Reynolds. Kids, y'all gotta read Look Both Waves. It's short stories, LeVar cosigns on it. Tracy, can you come back on? Can you name an Ole-Bemme Solar book that kids should read? Oh yeah, I'm gonna go with Two Naomi's. I love, and that's a series, so it's a Too Far. There's Two Naomi's and then Naomi's too. Word, word. Hey, Ole-Bemme Solar, can you come on and name a book by Tracy that everybody, all the kids that are listening should read. A book, I can name a whole series, the Jumbies, the Jumbies, the Jumbies. The Jumbies. The Jumbies, Rise of the Jumbies, the Jumbie Guys Revenge, Jumbies all the way. Jelani, come on back on. And we've already seen one of Jelani's books that he's written, so we know which book that is. A kid's book about racism. We're gonna ask Jason to come back on and to name a book by Jacqueline Woodson that you recommend we all read. Ooh, there's so many of them. I should probably name the new one, but the truth is that the one I love, one of the ones I love the most, gotta be Brown Girl Dreaming. Brown Girl Dreaming. I think it's a masterpiece. Brown Girl Dreaming. Toshi and Letta come back in. And Toshi, you recommended a couple of albums. Can you share with us Letta, some work by Letta that you think we all should pay attention to? Oh yeah, you should pay attention to Letta as a human being. You should pay attention to Letta. Letta is a powerful part of the residency I have at Arts Emerson and has designed a project. It's a five book project and it is a collaboration between artists who are gonna make these book covers and then the book covers are gonna be in public safely and people are gonna be able to write their own stories and put them into the book. And then the book will travel around and keep gathering stories. And one day when we can all be together, all of the books will be someplace where people can actually view them and move through them and probably have to make a digital platform. But that's Letta, like Letta be thinking about all kinds of things. So yeah, just Letta as a superstar. And I do have to shout out Jackie's last book because Jackie, I've been waiting for Jackie to do a sports book forever. I'm a big sports fan and my favorite sport is football. And I have been boycotting the NFL for like eight years because of how they've been. And Jackie's latest book is Before the Ever After. And it is such a beautiful story about a young musician and about his dad who is a football player. And it's basically my whole thing. So I gotta shout that out. And it's in Burt's. Shout out to Jackie and it's in Burt's. Five of Burt's. Shout out to Jackie. We love you, Jackie. We love you, Jackie. We are the genius of Genius, Jackie. And Jackie's getting this love because she's a certified genius. All right, Jackie, can you share a book by Kwame Alexander? I gotta shout out Muhammad Ali. Come on, man. Becoming Muhammad Ali is fire. If anyone has not read it yet, well, it's new. I mean, we can talk about the crossover too. We can talk about your body of work, but I think the thing about being such a Muhammad Ali fan and getting to see his young life in Kentucky and his early days as a boxer and seeing it in both prose and verse is fire. So I'm all about seeing myself some caches clay on the page and you brought it. And let it nearly, I just gotta throw your ear into the mix, you know, which is a brilliant collection of poetry. So, you know, we are fire up on the screen. Thank you. I want to shout out Marley Dias gets it done. So can you. And Marley wrote that book. I want to say that she was like eight. Six. She was like three and a half years old. Three and a half years old. Right. Yes. That book really sums up night. Getting it done. Like we got to put in the work and we've been trying to engage and entertain and empower young people throughout this entire Q&A call. They put out the call. We responded and one love to everyone. Thank you. I mean, can I say something right quick? I'm sorry, really quickly just because we got to make sure we give our flowers LeBart Burton and American Cornerstone. Right. And I think we got to make sure why we have him while he's upright, he's breathing, he's healthy and he does everything he can for us. He ain't that old. I know, but still. I mean, I'm saying like, but he been around, everybody on this call, he been around all like, we all have experiences with him in some capacity. And I just want to make sure that he knows and that the world knows that like, he's one of the greatest living Americans and he's woven into the fibers of American culture in a way that not many people are and we just have to acknowledge him. Yeah. And because of him, we're all here. I mean, thank you for, you know, telling that original story and reading rainbow and all the ways that you made us realize how much our stories matter. And the truth is, he doesn't age. He doesn't age. Look at him. He doesn't age. And look, when I first met him, I said, bro, hey, you look like this. He said, I live in California. That was his response to me. All right, look, thank y'all so much for tuning in. Toshi Regan is going to take us out with a final special treat. Oh, no, not true. What I'm going to do is say, let's give a big shout out to true biz ASL interpreters who have like completely rolled with this bunch of people. Thank you so much. And I want to say, VJ, you can kick us off on home. Thank you so much for taking care of us tonight. Thank you. Good night, everyone. Good night, everybody. Love y'all. Yeah. And now the sun is burning, I had to pull the trigger. I had to raise the sound, I had to make it do it. I had to pull the crowd so I could be everything. And what is for you?