Tag: Girl Balancing Knowledge

READ YOUR WORLD by Veronica Jorge

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!