 This is your host, Beatrice Cantelmo. A lot goes on behind the scenes while we are sorting out how to make our dreams come true. For years, my friend Verlina Johnson had the vision to write a children's book. Her perseverance, flexibility, determination and skills as an artist paid off. The Adventures of Kai and the Magical Machines book is ready and is projected to be released on December 15, 2018 at Amazon. I had the privilege of reading the final draft of the Adventures of Kai and the Magical Machines book this summer and fell in love with it. The adventures of Kai and the Magical Machines book is ready. This is the final draft of the Adventures of Kai and the Magical Machines book this summer and fell in love with it. This is a very darling story of a young boy, Kai, and his grandfather, Gero, a retired aerospace engineer. The book is suddenly rooted on a lot of imagination play and yes, science, which transports its readers to moments of pure bliss and magic. I welcome Verlina and possibly her kind-hearted, fun and science and math loving nine-year-old son, Kai, who may choose to join his mommy to prospect his own global justice platform. On that note, welcome to our program, Verlina. Thank you very much for having me on the show, Beatrice. Absolutely. Wow, I feel like this aunt, you know, was expecting the birth of this very awaited and wanted baby, new baby, you know, which has been a pure labor of love. So I would like, before we get started, to talk about this beautiful conception you've had so many years ago to give our viewers a little background about yourself. Where are you from and what is your educational background? Yes, as you said, my name is Verlina and I was actually born in Chicago, Illinois, a long time ago, and grew up in Wisconsin, primarily in Madison, but also in Boyd, Wisconsin, in the 70s and the 80s. I went first to the University of Wisconsin Platteville, but very early on realized that I loved making art. Initially I was doing just very general art, painting and design and those types of things, but when I was about 22 or 23, I became very interested in sculpture. I transferred from the University of Wisconsin Platteville to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where I began to study sculpture formally, but I also started studying Afro-American studies with an emphasis in art history. And it was there that Professor Frieda Haytesburg-Gorgias introduced me to sculpture and sort of the power of three-dimensional objects in space. Prior to that time I'd done primarily drawing and painting. Then after that I went to the Art Institute of Chicago, where I, after finishing my master's thesis, and I got a master fine arts in sculpture and did multimedia installations and videos and those types of things. And all this while I was enormously interested in children's books and illustration, but it's something that I participated in more as one who just purchased books and looked at books and just really had such a passion for them, but I really didn't start or become interested in them until a little later. But I moved to California about 15 years ago first to the Bay Area, and then to Los Angeles and Long Beach about 10 years ago. So I've been here in Southern California for about a decade. Right, and you've been doing your day job, but you also have been doing walk as an artist there. And I want to ask you then about this lovely vision that you had about writing children's books. Hopefully this is the first of many books that you will be writing, but when did this really start to be like a project that you said, I have to do it and why? What prompted you to get started with this particular project? I think that you asked that question because I've been thinking about that and I do feel very inspired to do it. My thesis, actually the master's thesis I finished in 1996 was about the artist Faith Ringgold, an African-American artist who used images and texts in her work. She started out as a sculptor and then also painted, but initially during the 1960s she used image and text composites together and eventually her text became more narrative and were less statements and she would do these amazing and intricate story quilts. I was very interested in how she used these central panels and her quilts to visually tell stories and then have these narratives about these fictitious characters and they would have these interactions with modernist artists and other actual historical figures. And so looking back in terms of where I'm at now producing these books I often think about how in the mid to late 90s I was actually interested in this visual artist who then eventually started illustrating children's books. She wrote We Flew Over the Bridge. She wrote Dinner at Aunt Connie's house. She did a beautiful story book, a picture book about Harriet Tubman. But it didn't dawn or click on me that would be something I would do. But then I was actually at work proctoring a language exam and I had been looking at manuals and policies and doing work while the students were taking these language exams and I started with a pen just making these little doodles. And this little doodle in particular was of a machine, a little magical whimsical machine. And then I became really involved in this machine and I'm not even sure why but I decided to fill an entire sketchbook with these machines. They became more whimsical and they literally almost felt like characters in the sketchbook. And then I asked this question and this was about eight years ago where do these machines come from? Like if I were to imagine that they came from somewhere besides my own imagination, where would they have come from? And that is where the grandfather character came into being. I literally thought he was an aerospace engineer. He had been retired. He was very much into robotics and he created this little robot named Remy. Remy built the machines but how could a machine do that? And literally from posing these questions about these magical machines and at this point my son was about a year or two years old and so I was of course reading to him and he enjoyed me reading to him and I began to see the power I think of reading and sharing stories with children in a very different way. Outside of just reading them for my own enjoyment. And then from that point I started thinking this seems like a viable story and I introduced Kai named after my son this little character who was at the time seven. Now my son is actually nine. It's been a project that I've been working on for some time but it took a very long time for me to think of the narrative, the story I wrote a manuscript which I took very serious. I sent it to an editor and then I started doing character development and then I had to really think about how these machines like what was magical about them. So in the story narrative basically it goes from and I started had to think about the style. I did so many paintings and drawings to think about what it looked like. I taught myself watercolor because I really like that but I also wanted the machines to be very graphically like I wanted them to pop and I knew that colored pencil could do that. So I integrated the two mediums in order to get this aesthetic but then the thing that I thought about conceptually in terms of moving the story because I'm so visually based was that I started the story in gray or black and white and then the story basically goes and you sort of introduced it in the beginning is that grandfather and Kai are spending this time together working on Remy in grandfather's shop and one day in the beginning of the book grandfather says Kai I'm almost finished with Remy and then he can help me in my shop. Well Kai hears this and he goes to bed but he's very nervous, he's filled with anxiety and has this nightmare that grandfather and Remy the robot are in a spaceship together in space. There's this dream sequence within the story and grandfather turns to Remy and says you are my best boy. Well of course Kai wakes up and it's very anxious and he goes out into the shop but Remy is not there and then there's a page in which the story there's a frame of the door and through the door you begin to see this color and that is where the Remy character who's animated now he has life magically and then there are these machines that are musical and lyrical and they make noise and they're cuckoo clocks and they're all of these things so the question then becomes for Kai and of course the reader is how this happens and so really the story for me is sort of an origin story it talks about how the machines came into being within the context of the narrative and also how Remy came to life it's really the beginning of the story and sort of the evolution and I actually think of this in terms of a trilogy or possible more so it's a series and then I imagine in my mind that Kai with friends and with others do space and time travel to explore sort of the universe if you will or imagination and because there's this narrative and it's really about robotics and there are these references to science and engineering I wanted to have a glossary for the young readers because it's really geared towards readers or pre-readers also children ages four to eight so I included glossary where I talk about what is imagination what is an aerospace engineer what is a chemical engineer but then the other thing that was hugely important to me and particularly because my son who loves science I wanted to introduce African-American scientists to the reader because I feel so often we do not think we know who Einstein is or many of us do but often we don't think of science as being something that people necessarily or that women do there's a huge gap and so I put two historical science in the back of the book with their biographies trying to introduce us to this idea or this notion I'm so glad that you brought all of these wonderful layers up because when I read your book one of the things that really captured my heart was suddenly this endearing closeness in relationship between grandson and grandfather which I don't think there are many books who shares and shows that and actually highlights also and values the wisdom and the lifespan of grandparents so that was one theme but the science aspect of it also was very intriguing to me and very exciting because I'm a nerd and I imagine that many children will really be excited with the story and the robotics and science in itself there's so many layers of science that this book and hopefully the trilogy will bring up but the part that there aren't many books for children that has all African American characters and that this is as normal and as attainable life and goals and dreams and I just think that there is such a need for that in today's world not just in this country but across the globe so that is very special so I wonder if you would like to speak a little bit about the intention if you thought about all of that as you were working with this project with your book and that we have a little minute to get an introduction to that and then we'll take a break right back with that Yeah I'm really glad Bia and I'll just say and I just spend a moment but that you mentioned the relationship between the Kai and the grandfather that was really really important to me because I think this intergenerational relationships we often forget about them or we don't necessarily showcase them I think just as a culture society for me it was really important to show a tenderness between Kai and his grandfather which is in part why there's a scene in which the grandfather not a woman but the grandfather is helping wash the little boy's hair in the bathtub like at night time because I wanted to show that men can care for children and they do and I wanted to show also like you were talking about the transference of information that here's this man who worked at NASA and of course the movie Hidden Figures was a huge I think introduction for a lot of people in terms of the role that African American women and women generally had in the NASA project in the late 60s but very early on and I wanted to show that as well so that you know there's an image it's just hugely important because so much has happened that I think about my relationship with my father and me watching as a mother my son interacts with my father who was born in the south you know in the 30s and you know was there in the 40s and the 50s during segregation and things of that nature but when grandpa is telling Kai's stories and Kai's eyes are so big you know you cannot replace those things with video games or you know things like technology which you know a lot of people were very connected to our phones and to Facebook I am certainly and so is Kai but I think these human stories and the connections that we can make and the power to me of love was just a hugely important theme for this book. Let me give you a quick stop here so we can take a minute break and we're going to jump right on the theme of love the hot second segment. Aloha I'm Wendy Lo and I'm coming to you every other Tuesday at 2 o'clock live from Think Tech Hawaii and on our show we talk about taking your health back and what does that mean? It means mind, body and soul anything you can do that makes your body healthier and happier is what we're going to be talking about whether it's spiritual health mental health, fascia health beautiful smile health whatever it means let's take healthy back Aloha Hello I'm Yukari Kunisue I'm your host of New Japanese Language Show on Think Tech Hawaii called Konnichiwa Hawaii Broadcasting live every other Monday at 2 p.m. Please join us where we discuss important and useful information for the Japanese language community in Hawaii The show will be all in Japanese Hope you can join us every other Monday at 2 p.m. Aloha Welcome back to another episode of Perspectives on Global Justice Beatrice Kuntomo and I am here with our guest Verlina Johnson and so Verlina before we took a break we were talking about how much this endearing in a relationship between grandparents grandfather and Kai characters were so important for you to share this know-just about the magic and the creativity and the science of robotics there is definitely this love connection and so let's talk from an author's perspective what is it about this love and this relationship that you wanted to convey through this beautiful book that you just produced? This tenderness and I think in terms of from a structural perspective in the beginning it really does open up with this anxiety of children because I think children like many of us feel like there is a limited amount of love that you can only love one person or we feel sometimes that there's a competition or that there's such thing as love loss but in terms of unconditional love like the love that a grandfather could have for his grandson there is no such thing of course grandparents couldn't have many grandchildren I love them all and so I think though that developmentally I understand that children oftentimes do fear that so it started with the fear and I think for me this tension I wanted to really to show that but then I wanted to illustrate through the illustrations and the narrative that in fact there's limitless love that there's enough love and that literally what Remi the robot ends up doing in the end is adding something special to Kai's life and I think so in that regard he need not have felt threatened by Remi or the idea of Remi or it could have been anyone really because his grandfather will always love him but that he was adding something and so I think that was really important for me and again I think you know it's this idea that you know we love people and that love is a constant and a continual kind of thing but sometimes certainly we need reassurance and I think that you know by the end of the narrative I think there's no doubt in Kai's young mind that his grandfather loves him and he's made a new friend right so it's so lovely I really hope our viewers will you know become the they that the book will be released and so it will be available through Amazon so tell our viewers what is the best way to check in I know that the projected date is December 15th right so what do they need to do in order to check out Kai's book yes there would be several different things that one could do one of the things is that you someone who is interested in the book could certainly go to I'll have a website which I'm currently is under construction and I will be launching it within the next few days I would say 48 hours or so and on my website and that website address is www. B is in Victor E R L E N Com so that's just my first and my last name .com and I'll have a link directly to Amazon where the book can be purchased also I'm going to provide my email address which anyone who's interested in the book interested in learning more about the project or just would like to connect with me may do so at this email the email is J O H N S O N V E R L E N A 339 at gmail.com but the adventures of Kai and the magical machines also one could in a few weeks enter that in and do a Google search and I'll come up and I'm sure would take anyone directly to Amazon and also to my website I'm expecting the proof from create space actually to be delivered tomorrow so I'm going to be just going over that and so the book really is complete it's just going to go under a review process and then it'll be available for purchase so I'm very very excited it's been I often get up at 2 30 3 30 in the morning to work on this project I wanted to ask you a little bit of that because I have followed your process vicariously and lived a little bit of it vicariously through Facebook since we are friends you've been doing this for many years I think at least 5 6 years that I can recall and it's always been many awakenings like in the wee hours of the morning to do the drawings or to do the painting or to learn a new technique so what was it like to make this commitment but this long in order to get this dream come true yeah it definitely is a labor of love but I think as a creative person it's really important in what I've learned from this project is many things so one of the things and one of the reasons that I wake up so early in the morning is that I know that my best mind of my creative mind after rest I'm far more fruitful and I can focus in a way I work full time actually so I have a full time job and of course I'm also a parent and so what I wanted to do is provide two or three good hours of work where my mind was fresh and I know that after a long day of work and commuting in LA etc to start working at 6, 7, 8 o'clock not going to happen I'm so tired and so once I started actually waking up I felt like my productivity was just outstanding and also to be perfectly honest I wanted to make a commitment to the book and to my art where I was saying this is really important to me and I'm not going to give it what I have left over in terms of energy and my focus and that kind of thing so that was really important but I think the other important thing in terms of a creative process for me to come to terms with was that this project is huge and you've mentioned a few times the complexity or the layers of the story and the narrative and so forth to work on something like that that's that involved you need time so sometimes I would be working for hours or days or perhaps weeks on something and then I might take a break honestly and work on several paintings and then come back to it because some of these things they needed time space to refresh and just to be allowed to germinate if you will and then I would come to it and then other ideas would flow and so just as a project even the character development alone and trying to understand these characters and at this point and I think other people who write screenplays and movies and novels and things talk about how when you begin to write a character I felt like I was really fueling grandfather and Kai but at this point I feel like I know them as being separate from myself so they have a voice what would this character Kai do because he's seven years old and certainly having a son has helped me understand what a seven year old is like in a way that it wouldn't have let's say had I not had the son in this relationship with him so I think some of the tenderness honestly and some parts of the book have evolved as I've evolved as a mother and as one who has this relationship with a child for myself I couldn't say that right? I can't believe the 30 minutes have elapsed so quickly so thank you so very much for being here with us and to share a little glimpse a little taste of all of this love and passion and commitment that you have put forth for so many years for the creation of Kai and the magical machines actually the adventures of Kai and the magical machines I wish you can come back another time with Kai and that we do another follow up with this I definitely have more questions for you but this is hopefully will entice our viewers to check your work out and to also fall in love with this magic book and with its many beautiful layers thank you so much and to our viewers thank you so much for watching us and see you next time we hope. Yes thank you very much Bea thank you so much