Aurora Public Library newest exhibits reflect Black History Month

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Everyone can celebrate Black History Month with The Aurora Public Library’s (APL) newest featured exhibit at Santori Library, Telling a People’s Story: African-American Illustrated Children’s Literature.

Originally shown at the Miami University Art Museum in Oxford, Ohio, and now visiting schools and libraries throughout the Midwest, Telling a People’s Story is a traveling panel exhibition which features cover art and illustrations from African-American children’s picture books printed in both the 20th Century and 21st Century. The exhibition consists of 12 vinyl panels that trace the African-American experience through children’s literature. The panels illustrate a cyclical process of telling and re-telling that exemplifies traditions of oral storytelling and allows the viewer access to history with a firm grip on the movement of time and hope for the future.

A panorama relates the story of Telling of People’s Story: African American Illustrated Children’s Literature at Santori Library in Aurora. Submitted photo

The traveling exhibition piece of the larger museum collection comes to APL through a grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio. There are sets circulating through Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, and Kentucky through early 2021.

“The panels bring a surge of color and excitement to the Atrium in celebration of Black History Month, and spark curiosity in visitors of all ages,” said Krista Danis, events and program coordinator at the Aurora Public Library. “By emphasizing and legitimizing the role children’s literature plays in communicating cultural meaning, and validating the work of a creative cannon of African American authors and illustrators, as well as the African American literary audience, the exhibition confronts the continued under representation of black voices and visions in the presentation and performance of our American story.”

From the Middle Passage to Civil Rights and beyond, Telling a People’s Story brings a unique and important perspective from which to examine the past and inform the future.

Of course, the Aurora Public Library owns and has access to all 95 of the books highlighted in the exhibition, which allows visitors the opportunity to delve into specific texts at their own pace. After viewing the panels, take a look at the accompanying book display and choose some to take home! Telling a People’s Story opened at Santori Library January 3 and will be available for viewing until February 19.

• Interested persons can visit the exhibition at Santori Library February 18 and can enjoy Motown: Music that Moved the World, a musical journey to the Motor City and 1960s Motown Records! This program will be from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in room 125/126. Enjoy the history of African-American rock, pop, and blues through artists such as Marvin Gaye and The Supremes. The program is presented by music historian and lecturer Gary Wenstrup, who uses both audio and visual content to entertain and educate around the revolutionary influence of Motown, as not only a record company, but a music genre.

• The Eola Road Branch will be host to a viewing of the 2014 film, Selma, from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22. Directed by Ava DuVernay and starring David Oyelowo, Tim Roth, and Carmen Ejogo, this movie is a biographical journey through Martin Luther King Jr.’s campaign for black voting rights and the march from Selma to Montgomery that compelled president Johnson to sign the imperative Voting Rights Act of 1965, which made illegal many of the offenses of Jim Crow era segregation and intimidation of African-Americans. Selma is rated PG-13.

Miriam Meza-Gotto is communications manager for Aurora Public Library.

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