Photos: Families celebrate books and social justice in North Oakland
Adults and kids gathered at Emerson Elementary in Temescal for an afternoon of author readings, crafts, and giveaways at the 7th annual Social Justice Book Fair.
Families filled the gym at Emerson Elementary School in North Oakland on Saturday to celebrate the 7th annual Social Justice Holiday Book Fair. The fair offers a safe space for attendees to discover new titles written by local and independent publishers and authors.
The event featured an array of book genres for young people of all ages, including coloring books and graphic novels, with a focus on children’s stories related to social justice. Many of the books that were featured tell stories about different cultures and diasporas, covering topics from gender identity to language diversity to feminism, among other themes.
One of these books was created by 7-year-old artist, Amari Rashad. His coloring book, Before They Were Giants, includes AI-generated images of iconic Black public figures as children, ranging from James Baldwin to Bob Marley.
Laura Atkins, Alejandra Domenzain, Peter Limata, and Rob Liu-Trujillo co-organized this year’s event in collaboration with Emerson PTA members Edward Frank and Shawna Reeves to raise funds for the school. The PTA held a bake sale and had tables set up where arts and crafts were being sold, such as t-shirts and totes with the Emerson mascot screen printed on them.
Limata, a former Emerson teacher and producer of the online program, “Story Time with Mr. Limata,” emceed the event and hosted a live stream on his channel throughout the afternoon.
“Events like this help normalize things,” Limata said of seeing Oakland’s diverse cultures and experiences reflected in literature. “We have varied people in our community. How do we get them to be represented?”
Limata said that when messaging the book fair to families, some asked, “Oh, is it like, the Scholastic Book Fair?” To which Limata replied no—this was something better. “I feel like this organization, this event, is needed because it actually is in touch with people,” he said. “And we’re not afraid to speak our truth,” Limata said.
Timothy Goodspeed, a second-grade teacher, expresses himself through songwriting. He is a social justice musician and performs under the name The Soapbox Salute. Goodspeed performed “Lullaby for the Separated” during the book fair.
“I feel like it’s so critical for kids to learn the true history of who they are, and see themselves represented in school,” Goodspeed said. “And there is, as we all know, a big fight against having true history or history that makes people feel uncomfortable.”