The world’s treasures, many of them at your fingertips, in the pages of a book.
Such was my experience during a recent museum visit when I discovered an inspiring and uplifting work of art, Girl Balancing Knowledge, by the sculptor Yinka Shonibare. A British-Nigerian artist, he explores themes of cultural identity in a globalized world. The bright colors of the African Ankara fabrics he uses in his pieces are appealing and strikingly eye catching.
As you can see in this picture, the sculpture depicts a girl standing on one foot with a pile of books on her back begging the viewer to consider the following. The challenges children face to obtain an education. The joy of learning. The ability of children to learn and their amazing versatility to navigate through complex and difficult lives.
Relatives and friends from other countries often speak about the wonder of America’s libraries and bookstores. Books are available on any topic to borrow or to even buy and keep for your very own. Not so in all parts of the world, even in this day and age.
Girl Balancing Knowledge made me value books all the more increasing my eagerness to hear voices from other cultures, to discover the ways in which they use words, to enter into and to experience the worlds they inhabit, to see the lives they live and gain new perspectives; all from the pages of the books that they write, and the stories they have to tell.
I know that every reading journey will be a flowering new discovery.
Veronica Jorge
See you next time on August 22nd!
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Featured Author Veronica Jorge credits her love of history to the potpourri of cultures that make up her own life and to her upbringing in diverse Brooklyn, New York.
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Featured Author Veronica Jorge credits her love of history to the potpourri of cultures that make up her own life and to her upbringing in diverse Brooklyn, New York.
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The last of the leaves have fallen from the trees and covered the ground in colors of orange, yellow, red and green.
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I didn’t lose my voice. I just can’t find the heart of my story or the right words to express it.
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When you love someone, you want to know everything about them. That someone, in this case, was my maternal grandmother. We shared a close bond, but there was a wrinkle on the face-map of her life that I could not trace. I wish I had asked her my questions while she was still with me.
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Featured Books
THE FALLING OF THE MOON
In the gloomy mountains of Shadowvale, Ascot Abberdorf is expected to marry a somber Count and settle down to a quiet life terrorizing the villagers.
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I love that statue and your book vase! I just went down a rabbit hole looking at Yinka Shonibare’s other. Such talent.
Thanks, Marianne,
The book vase I made at our local library craft event. We read and discussed the book, Paradise Under Glass by Ruth Kassinger,
and then we participated in a flower/book themed craft. The book is about a lady who, after the death of her sister, and dealing with her
own health battles, finds comfort in creating an indoor garden.
And yes, Yinka’s work is awesome!
Thanks for commenting.
Veronica