The Shimmershine Queens by Camille Yarbrough

Cornrows is a story about our people, our culture, our family, and our heritage. You can learn more here where it reads in part: “Today it is just as necessary and important now as it was then. The ancestors ensure that my work has meaning for all age groups.”Ĭornrows, a 1980 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award winner, debuted more than three decades ago, and remains in print. Recently, Yarbrough launched an indiegogo campaign to fund the production of a Cornrowsdocudrama. That’s why the themes of my books and my music are not bound to my generation. That work, with me as a keeper of our culture, transcends time and space.

As a griot, I am charged to do more than share stories but I must preserve the meaning and beauty of our culture. On her website, she says: “The freedom of the African mind depends on us being re-educated about our history and our culture.

Perhaps best known in the children’s literature world for her pioneering picture book, Cornrows (illustrated by Carole Byard), Nana Camille Yarbrough is an acclaimed singer, actress (co-starred in Lorraine Hansberry’s To Be Young, Gifted and Black), dancer (toured with Katherine Dunham), activist, educator and middle-grade novelist. Her books, The Shimmershine Queens, The Little Tree Growing in the Shade and Tamika and the Wisdom Rings (Just Us Books) tackle tough issues including colorism and violence while reinforcing cultural pride and celebrating friendship, family and intergenerational relationships.

The Shimmershine Queens by Camille Yarbrough