UC Educator Joins National Artists in Discussion on Culturally Diverse Literature

It’s becoming a familiar journey for Darwin Henderson. The University of Cincinnati associate professor of literacy and early childhood education takes a short trip to The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass., this weekend to lead a discussion featuring some of the nation’s most prominent African-American illustrators. It’s the same trip he took in 2005 when he served as guest curator of an exhibit featuring award-winning illustrator and writer Ashley Bryan.

Henderson will serve as facilitator for a panel of four illustrators for the discussion, “Critical Connections: People, Pictures and their Stories,” which takes place at 1 p.m., Saturday, May 5, at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. The discussion will explore the importance of literature that positively portrays children of many cultures, an issue that Henderson has emphasized throughout his career in preparing future teachers for teaching literature in early childhood classrooms.

Henderson’s expertise is reflected in the graduate course, “Teaching the Literature of Ethnic-American Populations,” and in the textbook he co-edited, Exploring Culturally Diverse Literature for Children and Adolescents (2005).

Among the artists taking part in the discussion is Henderson’s friend, Ashley Bryan, whose works were featured in a 2005 exhibit at the museum where Henderson served as guest curator. “His [Henderson’s] critical essay on Ashley Bryan, included in the [2005] exhibit’s catalogue, and the way in which he encouraged Ashley Bryan to talk about his art at the show’s opening event clearly reflected his expertise in African-American children’s literature and his sense of caring about those materials,” writes Rosemary Agoglia, curator of education for The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. “It is therefore easy to see why, when thinking of a facilitator for this panel discussion, Darwin Henderson came to mind.”

Other illustrators taking part in the panel discussion are Adjoa Borrowes, Floyd Cooper and Daniel Minter. Their work, as well as the art of Leo and Diane Dillon, Faith Ringgold, Bryan Collier, Eric Valesquez, James Ransom and Leonard Jenkins are featured in a national traveling exhibit at the museum, titled, “Picture Stories: A Celebration of African-American Illustrators.” The exhibit runs through June 17.

Henderson is the outgoing chair of a national panel that selects outstanding African-American authors and illustrators for the American Library Association’s Coretta Scott King Book Award.

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