2005 BORN TO READ Conference — Ashley Bryan
Ashley Bryan finds "the joy of the voice in the printed word.
Ashley Bryan thanks his audience.
Portland community members enjoy Ashley Bryan's Friday evening performance.
"Ashley Bryan was amazing-very informative, enthusiastic, and a joy to listen to."
On the evening of May 6, 2005, community members of all ages filled the auditorium at Portland High School to see Ashley Bryan. During the conference on May 7, Bryan appeared again before an audience of early childhood professionals. Both performances celebrated the joy of language and the power of creativity, using poetry to unlock "the joy of the voice in the printed word." Bryan shared the works of African-American poets like Langston Hughes, Nikki Giovanni, and Eloise Greenfield. Everyone from restless toddlers to staid grandparents joined in to recite the poems with him, call-and-response style. Bryan also read his most recent book, Beautiful Blackbird, an adaptation of a folktale from Zambia. His energy and enthusiasm inspired all who heard him to fill their lives with poetry.
"Ashley Bryan was excellent!! I definitely would like to see him back!"
An interview with Ashley Bryan, by Ray Routhier, appeared in the Maine Sunday Telegram on May 1, 2005. This article about Bryan's Friday evening performance, written by Meikie Jenness, appeared in the Community Voices column of the Portland Press Herald on May 12, 2005.
"To experience Ashley Bryan rocking back on his feet while urging that the audience on to join him in a recitation of a Langston Hughes poem was magic."
Ashley Bryan was born in New York City and now lives on Little Cranberry Island off the coast of Maine, where he writes and illustrates books most of the year. Bryan is an artist, storyteller, and folklorist who has compiled, written, and illustrated numerous books, many of them African folktales and collections of spirituals. His book Beat the Story Drum, Pum-Pum received the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration and Lion and the Ostrich Chicks was a Coretta Scott King Honor Book.
"Ashley inspired me to try to incorporate more poetry into my programs."
A selection of picture books by Ashley Bryan. Newest titles listed first. Books are written and illustrated by Bryan unless otherwise noted.
A Nest Full of Stars (poems by James Berry)
Beautiful Blackbird
Contes et Fables d'Afrique
Salting the Ocean: 100 Poems by Young Poets (edited by Naomi Shihab Nye)
The Night Has Ears: African Proverbs
Jump Back, Honey: Poems (by Paul Laurence Dunbar)
Carol of the Brown King: Nativity Poems (by Langston Hughes)
The House With No Door: African Riddle-Poems (by Brian Swann)
Ashley Bryan's African Tales, Uh-Huh
Ashley Bryan's ABC of African American Poetry
The Sun Is So Quiet (poems by Nikki Giovanni)
It's Kwanzaa Time! (by Linda Goss)
What a Wonderful World (by George David Weiss and BobThiele)
Turtle Knows Your Name
The Story of Lightning and Thunder
Sing to the Sun
All Night, All Day: A Child's First Book of African-American Spirituals
Pourquoi Tales: The Cat's Purr, Why Frog and Snake Never Play Together, The Fire Bringer
Turtle Knows Your Name
The Ox of the Wonderful Horns, and other African Folktales
What a Morning! : The Christmas Story in Black Spirituals (edited by John Langstaff)
Lion and the Ostrich Chicks, and other African Folktales
Beat the Story-Drum, Pum-Pum
The Dancing Granny
For more information about Ashley Bryan's life and work, see www.cbcbooks.org/html/ashleybryan.html, www.rif.org/art/illustrators/bryan.mspx or falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/bryan.htm.
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