This morning I\u2019m here to share with you one in a series of books from the Durham Meeting Social Justice Books Project. \u00a0I\u2019m honored to be a member of this committee, to be a part of this important work, and I thank Margaret Leitch Copland for finding this book.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Richard Wright and the Library Card is a fictionalized version of an incident in Richard Wright\u2019s life that he later wrote about in his autobiography, Black Boy. \u00a0As you all know, Richard Wright went on to be a best-selling author \u2013 writing about the often brutal and dehumanizing experience of being a Black boy, and then man, in America.\u00a0 In this book he pursues his dream of gaining access to books and stories with persistence and agency and is transformed by this experience.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In my everyday life I teach first\/second grade \u2013 so I read a lot of picture books. Picture Books are a powerful art form \u2013 the combination of visual art with a relatively small number of very carefully chosen words often results in a work that is more than the sum of its parts and worthy of rereading, discussion, and contemplation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Since we don\u2019t have time for repeated readings here, I\u2019m going to direct your attention to a couple of things that you might not notice the first time through.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m sure there\u2019s a message here for us.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n You can see and hear a reading of the book here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n +++<\/p>\n\n\n\n In opening worship before the reading, Renee Cote read a Maya Angelou poem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BY MAYA ANGELOU<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n You may write me down in history<\/p>\n\n\n\n With your bitter, twisted lies,<\/p>\n\n\n\n You may trod me in the very dirt<\/p>\n\n\n\n But still, like dust, I’ll rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Does my sassiness upset you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why are you beset with gloom?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2019Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pumping in my living room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just like moons and like suns,<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the certainty of tides,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just like hopes springing high,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still I’ll rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Did you want to see me broken?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bowed head and lowered eyes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shoulders falling down like teardrops,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Weakened by my soulful cries?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Does my haughtiness offend you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don’t you take it awful hard<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2019Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines<\/p>\n\n\n\n Diggin\u2019 in my own backyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You may shoot me with your words,<\/p>\n\n\n\n You may cut me with your eyes,<\/p>\n\n\n\n You may kill me with your hatefulness,<\/p>\n\n\n\n But still, like air, I\u2019ll rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Does my sexiness upset you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Does it come as a surprise<\/p>\n\n\n\n That I dance like I’ve got diamonds<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the meeting of my thighs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Out of the huts of history\u2019s shame<\/p>\n\n\n\n I rise<\/p>\n\n\n\n Up from a past that\u2019s rooted in pain<\/p>\n\n\n\n I rise<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leaving behind nights of terror and fear<\/p>\n\n\n\n I rise<\/p>\n\n\n\n Into a daybreak that\u2019s wondrously clear<\/p>\n\n\n\n I rise<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am the dream and the hope of the slave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I rise<\/p>\n\n\n\n I rise<\/p>\n\n\n\n I rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maya Angelou, “Still I Rise” from And Still I Rise: A Book of Poems<\/em>. Copyright \u00a9 1978 by Maya Angelou. Drawn from the Poetry Foundation website<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The March 5, 2023 message at Durham Friends Meeting was “Richard Wright and the Library Card,” a children\u2019s book by William Miller and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. Jeanne Baker Stinson read the book this morning. It is one of … Continue reading \n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nStill I Rise<\/h1>\n\n\n\n