This official Brooklyn Book Festival Bookend event was a free outdoor back-to-school celebration for young readers. House of SpeakEasy brought author readings, visual art, craft workshops, book signings, and giveaways to READ 718’s Bed-Stuy center.
Program
- 11:30 a.m. Children’s book illustrator Daniel J. O’Brien presented an author reading and activity sheets.
- 1 p.m. Tight and What Lane? author Torrey Maldonado gave a talk and book signing.
- All day. Bed-Stuy artist Michela Martello led an interactive community mural.
- Throughout the day. Community-Word Project teaching artist Nichelle Ryan led craft workshops, including “Create Your Own Superhero Trading Card.”
Participants
Torrey Maldonado is a Brooklyn-born middle-grade and young-adult novelist and educator. His books include What Lane?, Tight, and Secret Saturdays, and his writing reflects his life and the experiences of the students he has taught in New York City public schools.
Daniel J. O’Brien is a Trinidadian-born author and illustrator whose training at the School of Visual Arts and interests in science, folklore, and nature inform his otherworldly illustrations. His work helps children in the Caribbean and of Caribbean descent see themselves in the books they read.
Michela Martello is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice combines traditional and contemporary sources through a distinctive symbolic language. Her work has been collected, commissioned, exhibited, and published internationally, and she collaborates with Pen + Brush.
Nichelle Ryan is a multimedia visual artist and teaching artist working across painting, photography, illustration, printmaking, and sculpture. Her work has appeared in gallery exhibitions in New York City, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.
Community partners
The event was presented as part of the Brooklyn Book Festival with READ 718, Brooklyn Book Bodega, Pen + Brush, and Community-Word Project. The SpeakEasy Bookmobile distributed books for children and teens throughout the day.
