The Kennedy Center's Thirteenth Annual

Saturday, November 1, 2008, Noon - 6 p.m. on Roof Level and Millennium Stage

Sponsored by Target Stores

Volunteer for the Multicultural Children's Book Festival, application due Monday, October 20, 2008.

Authors & Illustrators

Jorge Tetl Argueta (www.jorgeargueta.com) is a celebrated Salvadoran poet and writer whose bi-lingual children's books have received numerous awards. His poetry has appeared in anthologies and textbooks. He won the America's Book Award, among other awards for his first collection of poems for children, A Movie in My Pillow. He was the Gold Medal Award winner in the 2005 National Parenting Publications Awards (NAPPA) for Moony Luna/Luna, Lunita Lunera. His other works for children include Xochitl and the Flowers, 2003 America's Award Commended Title, Trees are Hanging from the Sky, Zipitio, Talking with Mother Earth, The Little Hen in the City and The Fiesta of the Tortillas.

Adjoa Burrowesis a children's book author and illustrator of over a dozen books for children including My Steps, Destiny's Gift and Grandma's Purple Flowers, which she both wrote and illustrated. Honors for Grandma's Purple Flowers include the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People and was an American Booksellers Association, Kids Pick of the List winner. Burrowes presents art and creative writing workshops and presentations across the U.S., that includes the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA, and a series of popular art workshops for the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Recent public art installations in the District include a 24-foot long print contracted by the D. C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities and a 10-foot painted mural installed at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library entitled, The Gift of Words. Both large scaled works were based on her children's books.Burrowes has a B.F.A. degree from Howard University's College of Fine Arts. 43 of her children's book illustrations are touring museums and galleries around the U. S. in a two year travel exhibition entitled Color All Around.

Bryan Collier, a native of Pocomoke, Maryland, exhibits a unique style of painting that incorporates both watercolors and collage. In 1985, Collier won first place in a congressional Competition, and his art was displayed in the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. Later that year he was awarded a scholarship to Pratt Institute in New York City through their national talent competition. In 1989, Collier graduated with honors from Pratt Institute with a bachelor of fine arts degree. While attending school in New York, he began to volunteer at the Harlem Horizon Studio and Harlem Hospital Center with a program that provides working space and materials for self-taught artists in the community. Collier went on to become the Program Director, a position he held for 12 years. He still works with the program in Harlem as a volunteer, feeling a deep sense of responsibility to be a positive role model for kids. Today, Collier spends his time working on his book illustrations, creating his own studio pieces, and going into classrooms to talk with teachers, librarians, and students about books and art.

Lulu Delacre (www.luludelacre.com) has written and illustrated many beloved books for children including Horn Book Fanfare Book Arroz con Leche: Popular Songs and Rhymes from Latin America and Salsa Stories, an IRA Outstanding International Book. The Bossy Gallito and Arrorró mi niño: Latino Lullabies and Gentle Games are winners of the Pura Belpré Honor Medal for Illustration. Rafi and Rosi, and Rafi and Rosi: Carnival! are selections of the Junior Library Guild. The Storyteller's Candle and Alicia Afterimage are her latest books. A common thread in the artist's work is the celebration of her Latino heritage. The author illustrator has exhibited in Paris, France; and in Puerto Rico, New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maryland and Washington, DC, USA. A graduate of L'Ecole Supérieure d'Arts Graphiques in France, she has lectured throughout the United States. Owners of her art include Keene State College, NH; The Kerlan Collection, MN; Mazza gallery, OH; and individual collectors in Canada, France, and the United States. Lulu is a grantee of the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, MD, and has been honored as a Maryland Woman in the Arts and a Write from Maryland Author.

Edwin Fontánez is an accomplished artist, author and illustrator. His most recent project, a book of illustrated poetry in Spanish entitled Hadas, Sirenas y Sapos,was recently released to great reviews. On This Beautiful Island (En esta hermosa isla) and The Vejigante and the Folk Festivals of Puerto Rico are some other outstanding examples of his literary work. Born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, Fontánez earned a BA in Fine Art at the School of Plastic Arts in San Juan and an Associate degree in Communication Design from the prestigious Pratt Institute in New York. As a fine artist, he has exhibited his work in San Juan and Washington, D.C. Fontánez serves as a creative cultural consultant to institutions and children's museums throughout the nation, including the legendary John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for which he produces and organizes the annual Washington Chalk Festival. Through his company Exit Studio, founded in 1994, Fontánez explores the history and traditions of his native island and Latin America. For more information about this extraordinary artist, please visit www.exitstudio.com.

Nikki Giovanni has written many collections of poetry for both children and adults as well as several books for children including the Caldecott Honor-winning Rosa; The Sun is So Quiet; and Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate: Looking at the Harlem Renaissance Through Poetry. Nikki lives in Blacksburg, Virginia, where she is a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech.

Uma Krishnaswami is the author of more than a dozen books for young readers including The Broken Tusk(August House), Monsoon (Farrar, Straus Giroux), and The Happiest Tree: A Yoga Story (Lee & Low). She is originally from India and now lives in New Mexico. In addition to her writing, Uma also teaches at Vermont College of Fine Arts in the MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults.

Nicole Tadgellwas born in Detroit, Michigan. While studying studio art at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, Tadgell recalled how much fun it was to draw her own stories and realized illustrating children's books could be the right path. Encouraged to develop her art in a more realistic direction, she created a portfolio showing lively characters with an authenticity that was uniquely hers. Today, Tadgell has fourteen books and numerous educational pieces published. She also visits schools, gives lectures and conducts workshops.

Carole Boston Weatherford, Baltimore-born and raised, is an award-winning poet and author of over two dozen books for young readers, including: Birmingham, 1963 and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. Birmingham, 1963 won the 2008 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, the Jefferson Cup and is a Jane Addams Children's Book Award Honor Book in the category of Books for Older Readers. Her book, Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom received the Coretta Scott King award for illustration and a Caldecott Honor. Other titles by Weatherford include: A Negro League Scrapbook; Sidewalk Chalk: Poems of the City; Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-ins; I, Matthew Henson: Polar Explorer; Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane, and her young adult debut, Becoming Billie Holiday. In 2007, Carole received the Ragan-Rubin Award from the North Carolina English Teachers Association.

Carole worked as a publicist for 20 years. She earned a Master of Arts in publications design from the University of Baltimore and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. She teaches at Fayetteville State University.

Janet Wong (www.janetwong.com) is the author of 19 books for children and teens, including Minn and Jake's Almost Terrible Summer. She has performed at the White House Easter Egg Roll and the National Book Festival, and her lawyer-to-author career switch was featured in a “Remembering Your Spirit” segment on The Oprah Winfrey Show.