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>> Welcome everybody.
My name is Mark Johnson.
I'm a professor in the Art Department,
and also the university's gallery director.
And we're here-- thanks to Susan Shimanoff again
for organizing today's program.
As part of a bigger collaborative effort,
so I just sort of want to ground us
into bigger collaborative effort.
First, there's an exhibition
of the gallery called the illuminated library that borrows
from the J. Paul Leonard Library as well as the Sutro Library,
which is on the fifth and sixth floors
if you've never been up there.
They've done a lot of [inaudible] also.
And, we're working with partnership
with the Merced Library [inaudible] library
and the Palo Alto Art Center which has a related exhibition.
So, there's all of these entities exploring art
and books right now at the fall in the Bay Area.
And I have to say our biggest inspiration
for this was the reopening of this library
as an intellectual center,
not only for San Francisco State University
but really the Bay area where [inaudible].
And, one of the things that we think
about when we're doing stuff like this is
of course literature for different age groups.
I will mention that last Sunday, we performed in the gallery,
a Gregorian ship [phonetic] that was about 600 years old.
That's in the collection here.
And, at the same time there are lot of children in the gallery
that could have cared less.
[ Laughter ]
And they gravitated for the children's books.
And I was just joking that one of the children's books
that we have on display on the gallery,
I sort of dove [phonetic] to the parent and said I don't know
if that one is appropriate to read to your child right now
because it's the story where the two protagonists both die
and it's kind of a heavy picture book story,
check it out if you're curious.
[ Laughter ]
And, for us I think the most exciting part of any project is
to work in collaboration with so many people and so as they look
around [inaudible] creative writing,
his work is on display in the gallery.
We're still happy to work with [inaudible]
from the library here has been such a big part of many
of our art [phonetic] for so many years.
And I think we want to recognize also David Funk who is here
and just graduated so he [inaudible] other side.
Yeah, and at the conclusion of the program I do want
to invite everybody to visit the fourth floor
where there are cases that have been created as exhibitions.
Some of them were about children's books
but about other things as well, so please join the exhibition
after this is over on the fourth floor.
I'll be up there just to visit [phonetic] with everybody.
And, again, the instructions [phonetic] today,
we are very honored to have our head librarian.
Debbie Masterson.
So welcome.
>> Thank you Mark.
[ Applause ]
So, I don't have a big role today.
I just want to welcome you warmly to the library
and to the event's room and I hope you'll be back to all
of the spaces in the building many, many times.
We do have two collections
of children's books on the fourth floor.
There's the circulating collection of children's books
that has been developed in large part through the efforts
of Jeff Rosen, he's one of my colleagues sitting there.
And there's some historic collection
of children's book called the Archer collection,
that's part of our special collections.
I invite you to explore both of those.
But I learned in talking with Jeff and also
with Meredith Allison [assumed spelling] who is the one
who knows the most about the Archer collection,
that season has been very instrumental
in our shaping the circulating children's book collection
to reflect LGBT themes, and to bring
in not just the high-profile titles but titles that deal
with gender roles, with gender identification in children
and adolescence with parents, relatives and friends of parents
who are gay, bisexual in gender, books that recognize
and acknowledge the feelings that children have
about these issues and has resulted
in a really distinguished collection that has those kinds
of theme represented but also other kinds of themes that deal
with difficult issues for children, [inaudible] path
of parent or sibling, terminal illnesses, *** experiences,
a family member being incarcerated, is just kind
of broaden out to multicultural themes,
social justice themes, diversity themes.
And I think Susan was a real catalyst for that development
and we thank you for that.
And David Funk who's been mentioned has two books
in the display from the Archer collection,
"When Megan Went Away" and the "Harvey Milk" story,
the first of which was a gift from one
of our library faculty members who is now Emeritus-- Ameritas.
And, Meredith would say it's one of the pioneering works
for LGBTQ literature for children.
And the second one, the fine arts gallery has obtained a copy
inscribed by the author that they'll gift to Archer
so that the copy we had can go into circulation.
So, there's just wonderful, wonderful representation
of themes and issues that I think you're here to explore.
And I just wanted to offer you one other thing
which is the American Library Association does a list
of the top 10 challenged books every year.
And, from 2006 to 2010 there's a book that was number one
in terms of being challenged.
In 2009 it was number two.
In 2012 it was number five.
And it's a children's book.
Do you know what it is?
[ Laughter & Inaudible Remark ]
>> No, good guess though.
"And Tango Makes Three", illustrative story
of two penguins, follows [inaudible] true story
when they formed a couple, were given an egg to raise
and it was challenged for homosexuality and suited
for the age group, religious view point.
Other issues anti-ethnic, anti-family,
you name it was challenged for it.
So, don't read it.
[ Laughter & Applause ]
[ Inaudible Remark ]
[ Pause ]
>> Thank you Mark and Debbie and we want to thank all
of our sponsors for this panel and especially you for coming
to share your afternoon with us.
We appreciate the opportunity to share few ideas with you
and after all the panelist have spoken we hope
to have a few moments for question and we will go
up to the display and hope you'll join us
and we'll also be willing to answer your questions then.
I hope that you'll have the good fortune.
I hope every one of you to know the experience
of sharing a picture book with a child as they delight
in having their own experiences illuminated
and new experiences illuminated for them.
However, it is adults that have control
over what children have access to
and some adults have very strong opinions
about what children should be able to see.
Picture books with lesbian
and gay males have been among the most challenged books,
picture books for children,
the most challenged books in the United States.
Adults who make these books available to children advocate
for the millions of children do themselves identify as LGBTQ
or their family members.
And they also advocate for the millions more
who will interact with their families.
People who oppose these books do not want these lives illuminated
but those of us on this panel have and will continue
to illuminate these lives.
Marcus Ewert, author of "10, 000 Dresses",
will be sharing his perspective with us
as an author of the book.
Mike Dutton, illustrator for "Donovan's Big Day",
will be sharing with us his experience as an illustrator.
Loreta Torres who is a fifth-grade teacher and not here
yet because she's still teaching young people
but will be here before three and we'll welcome her then,
wrote with other co-authors a teacher's guide
to the book Antonio's Card, and she will provide us examples
of how you might use these books as an educator.
Amy Kilgard, director of Dragons and Dresses and Ducklings,
Oh my, will present to us some examples from the performance
that she directed of eight picture books
with LGBTQ characters.
I'm Susan Shimanoff and I'm going to share
with you some other research that I've done looking
at 185 picture books with LGBTQ characters starting from 1971
when the first was published to 2011.
Now, I promise you I'm not going to talk about the 185 books
or 40 years of the children's literature, but I am going
to take that research to put the seven books I'm going to talk
about in context and so I wanted to let you know about that.
In terms of our panel, I'm going to be the first speaker
and the rest of the speakers will proceed in the order
in which I introduced them.
When I talked about the books, I've chosen two topics
to share with you today.
We already got a little preview
from Debbie Masterson Banned Books.
Last week was the annual Banned Books Week.
So I thought too far away [phonetic]
and it seem appropriate that I share some of those with you.
And then I'd like to share
with you what I think is a positive trend in some
of the more recent publications
which is a more positive communal support for lesbian
and gay males in the children's literature.
Now, I suppose it's appropriate that I warned you that I'm going
to be showing you images from censored books but I'm hoping
that most of you are brave enough
or curious enough to remain anyway.
Daddy's Roommate.
Daddy's Roommate was number two from the decade of 1990s
and 1999 as the most challenged book,
that's two out of a hundred.
It was right behind scary stories.
Adults who try to keep this book from children did
so by officially trying to get it removed from libraries,
that didn't worth stealing [phonetic] it
or if they were little more [phonetic] hiding it,
putting it in adult's section only,
threatening library funding,
threatening educators and librarians.
They took a very serious attack of trying to keep this book
out of the hands of children.
So, let's see what this book has.
Yes.
>> Is the challenge process all those things that you just said
when you say a book is challenged?
>> Yes, it could be any of those things.
>> OK.
>> Yeah, thank you.
The book is told from the story of Nick, the young gentleman
that you see on the floor here and Nick tells us that Daddy
and Frank live together.
They work together which is how this was described,
they eat together, sleep together, shave together.
The three of them do grocery shopping together borrowing some
cereals are not OK, right?
They go to ball games together and they sing together,
and a whole lot of more togetherness throughout the book
in the text and in the illustrations.
And, Nick's relationship to Frank is much
like what you will see in other books about stepparents,
very similar to what you'd see
in heterosexual books on step-parenting.
Nick's mom is very supportive of Dad and Frank's relationship.
She's supportive in the text, she's supportive
in the pictures, she's supportive in this book,
and she's supportive in the sequel, "Daddy's Wedding".
When Nick asked her what does gay mean she says it's just one
more kind of love.
What I think is remarkable about this--
it has to be put in the context
of the 185 books that I reviewed.
And looking at those, less than half of them had allies
for lesbians and gay males in the books.
So having Nick's mother
as an ally I think is a remarkable quality of this book.
Another remarkable quality is the way
in which affection is expressed in this book.
And I think it's remarkable
because it's mostly absent from the 185 books.
Most of them don't show any touching
between intimate partners
and when they do show it it's very little like a little tap
on the shoulder maybe and arm
around a little bit but not much.
"Daddy's Roommate" has more touching than the average.
It only has four pages with touching out of 27
so you might not think that's much
but it is remarkable compared to many of the other books.
We have Frank putting his arms around Daddy,
Frank consoling Daddy when they're making up from a fight,
putting on sun-tan lotion and sitting close while watching TV.
None of these touching is referenced in the text,
but having it in the illustration,
I think illuminates the statement that's in that book
that gay is one more kind of love.
"Heather Has Two Mommies",
is probably the best known of all of the books.
And it too faced much the same censorship that was faced
by "Daddy's Roommate".
And so, Allyson Press, the publisher,
decided that it would offer to libraries
who would purchase copies of "Heather Has Two Mommies",
a replacement copy if someone had whacked off with their copy.
And as soon as that offer went out, more than 500 calls came
in with library saying "We need a replacement copy".
What you see here is the 10th anniversary edition,
not the first edition.
A first edition is very difficult to find.
Our library owns a 10th edition, not the first edition.
In the 10th edition and the 20th anniversary edition,
you will read that the book was changed from the first
to the subsequent editions.
The change was described as shortening the book,
and it did indeed shorten the book.
And it also addressed to criticism that have been levied
with regard to talking about Heather's conception,
that's been removed from the subsequent editions.
But as a researcher, I wanted to know what was the context,
what all other things that might have been removed
from that book.
And our librarians are fabulous.
They got me an original copy to look at.
Not to keep but to look at.
Yes?
>> When was the first edition published?
>> In 1989.
Thank your for your question.
I'm going to ask if you to write your questions down so
that we can get through all of the presenters.
So, anyway, when I looked at it, what I found was,
there are eight pages missing from the original edition
to subsequent editions.
I don't have enough to show you all of them but I'd be glad
to show them in my office if you want to see them again.
But what I want to do is summarize them for you.
So what's gone from the later editions?
Gone is a declaration of love between Mama Jane and Mama Kate.
Gone is the reference to their kissing.
Gone is the illustrated hugging.
Gone is any partner touching.
Not just gone from these eight pages
but nowhere else in the books.
In my opinion, the absence of these things
that have been removed has significantly diminished what is
being illuminated.
You heard about this book, "And Tango Makes Three".
This is a more recent book, nonetheless, controversial.
You heard all the ways and times that it too has been banned.
This is a story about two real penguins who lived, loved,
and parented in Central Park Zoo in New York,
but there are adults who do not want children to know
about this true story.
So this must be a really scary book.
It looks like [inaudible].
[ Laughter ]
Let's take a look.
The author tells us that Roy and Silo bowed
to each other, walked together.
They sang to each other, and they swam together.
These let their caregiver, Mr. Gamzay decide
that they must be in love.
Roy and Silo built a nest, found a rock which they thought look
like the eggs that other penguins were sitting on,
and they sat and sat and sat on it
and guess what, nothing happened.
But Mr. Gamzay had accessed to a fertile egg
that was not being attended to and he gave it to Roy and Silo.
And they sat and sat and sat on that,
until their daughter was hatched.
And when she was, Mr. Gamzay, decided to call her Tango,
because it takes two to tango.
And when she was hatched, then Roy and Silo did all the things
that other penguin parents do.
They taught her how to sing to them,
how to eat from them, how to swim.
All the other things that the other penguins were doing,
they were good parents.
Now-- And then at these pictures you see are ones
that we probably should banish, right, it's just scary.
As I read the books, evaluate them and think
about the comments that are made,
I asked why ban these books?
And as I look at what the comments are made
about the books, the only thing that I can conclude is those
who oppose them do not want us to illuminate the lives
that are represented in these books.
The books make truths the following--
make the following truths transparent,
that some males love other males and raise healthy
and productive offspring
and some females do the same with other females.
When school in Kauffman did a research study with fourth
and fifth graders, and shared with them pictured books
with lesbian and gay males in them.
The children's response was,
"Why haven't we been told the truth before?"
The truth needs to be told.
The lives of LGBT persons need to be illuminated.
The 85 books that I reviewed presented these lives
in a positive way.
But they also presented them as somewhat isolated.
This is a picture from "And Tango makes Three",
and I invite you to look at the illustrations.
I think you'll find this family is often separated
from other families in the penguin enclosure.
They're satisfied.
It makes it easier for you to find them.
But I also think it communicates a particular kind
of relationship in that community.
And it's one that is replicated over and over again in many
if not most of the books.
Daddy and Frank have no friends except for Nick's mother.
Kate and Jane have no friends at all in their book.
And that's true in many others.
But I'm seeing a change and I think this change is important.
The research shows us that in the bullying research
that children who identify as LGBTQ
or whose family members do are significantly bullied more
than other children.
But the research also shows us
that friends are really important in this process,
that friends can help interrupt and stop the bullying
and they can be a resource of it begets.
So, I think it's important that we're seeing in some
of these textbooks, this greater change towards
[inaudible] support.
One such book is the "Dear Child".
There's nothing in this book that would lead you to think
in terms of the text, that this is about lesbian or gay males.
What's it about is a letter from parents to a child
about the unsurpassed joy of being a parent.
Everything is more wonderful, why the sky and the clouds
and the moon and the stars and the birds and the flowers,
everything is more beautiful because you,
dear child have arrived.
The illustrator chose to represent these three families
in the following ways, a single white male,
a multi-racial lesbian couple,
and a heterosexual couple of color.
What's also remarkable about this book is
that these family show up repeatedly
on the pages of illustrations.
One family is fore-grounded
and the other families are in the background.
Now the scanner that I have access
to didn't give me the full two page scan, so you're going
to miss some of it as I show you.
But I encourage you anyway to get the original,
set a child on your lap and look for the families that are there,
and the relationships that they share.
They go lots of places together.
For example, they go to the beach together, a snow--
they camp together, they play the pumpkin patch
and at the park, and lots of other places.
They also show up at each other's celebrations.
So they are present at a baby shower, at a birthday party.
These illustrations and combinations illuminate
that these are friends.
They are playful.
They are likeable.
They share more similarities than differences.
And they are like so many other families.
The illustrator's choices haven't reached our
understanding of family and community.
In our mother's house,
this lesbian household is very popular
in their multi-cultural neighborhood.
Again, more popular than I'm going to be able to show you
because it goes way across the pages of this book, again,
put it on your lap with a child.
The multi-cultural neighborhood helps them build a tree house.
And on either side of the tree house in the book itself,
you'll see more members of the community working together
to build this tree house and enjoying a meal together.
Lots of people come to their house for lots
of different holidays.
This shows you one at their dinner table
and what you can see is another whole group that's sitting
on their steps listening to a story.
Lots of people come to celebrate with this family.
Each year they offer a block party, where they have lots
of different activities and food.
And here you can see just a few of them, cotton candy, sushi,
[inaudible], and in these examples of activities and food,
we get the sense and of the people
of the great multi-cultural group enjoying
and celebrating with this family.
Here's a wider view and gets a sense
of how big this block party is.
There is in the story also a sexually prejudice neighbor,
but it is this neighbor, not the lesbian mothers,
who were isolated out of touch and out of favor.
The neighbors are shocked at her behavior.
The book "123 A Family Counting Book", has no words in the text
of it that would lead you to recognize lesbian
or gay males in this book.
But the illustration invites you to multiple interpretations.
Let's take a look at the first page,
one family going for a ride.
Is this a family of one mother and two children,
two mothers and a child?
Or what configuration do you see, and does your image change
when you notice the bumper of the car that is going away
which reads "Hate is not a family value"?
Page two, two houses with families inside,
and on the lawn a sign that reads, "Welcome home, Daddies",
in the pool, a male in the front holds a sign
"It's a girl" and looks like boy."
And what you don't see is in the upper right
on the other page are three males, they look like adults
to me, looking down at that sign,
are these a new daddies waiting for news of their child?
Or are the new daddies in the house next door?
The readers get to allow to use their own experience, the words,
the illustrations to make their own illuminations.
Later in the book for the number 12, 12 friends swimming
in a pool and 12 parents watching, trying to stay cool.
The use of space and touch and eye contact,
allow and invite an interpretation
of lesbian and gay male parents.
And so it goes throughout the book up to number 20.
The "Harvey Milk" story, I've included this book here
because out of the 185 books, it is the only, and I repeat,
only biography for children under the age of 12 written
in English that makes explicit reference to a lesbian
or gay male relationship.
We need more books like this.
Marcus and Mike, and all the other illustrators
and authors, are you listening?
[ Laughter ]
Time will not permit me to show you much of this book
but I have selected a few of the illustrations.
One of the things it does is illuminate different
emotional experiences.
Here's one, a many, where you see Harvey likes people lay
like him.
His charisma comes through, throughout the book
in many of the illustrations.
But we also see his anguish as he feels the need
to hide his gay identity.
As the book progresses, we see more and more lesbian
and gay male couples as we do here on the steps of city hall.
And that's in part because of Harvey's political activities.
But I also think as the book progresses, it helps us to see
and mirror a greater openness and acceptance
that Harvey was trying hard to work towards.
The last page-- the last one I'm showing you is actually
from the first page on the cover,
where we also have a marcher from the Gay Freedom Parade
of 1978 with a sign "End hate now".
We can contribute to this worthy goal by sharing books
like the ones that I've just shared with you,
and the panelists is going to share with you, which illuminate
and celebrate LGBTQ individuals and families.
My thanks to all who have already done
that work concluding our panelist, and I'm eager
to hear more and we will hear next from Marcus.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
[ Pause ]
Here we go.
[ Pause ]
>> Hi everybody.
OK, hi. OK, so my name is Marcus.
I wrote-- I'm sorry, this book "10,000 Dresses",
which came out in-- coming upon five years ago, 2008,
published by a press called Seven Stories Press
in New York City.
Let's see.
Thank you Susan for putting this together.
So, I've been a writer all my life.
I-- Well, my first boyfriends were writers,
some pretty significant LGBT writers.
And, I did not start out in kids books but was
such a huge reader as a kid myself.
And I always knew I wanted to write kids books
because no matter how much a book touches me nowadays
nothing, nothing, nothing can compare to the impact
that book had on me when I was a kid.
And I think that's true for most people.
I also-- nowadays I'm a nanny, I have a little nephew.
He was now two and a half.
And I've been his nanny for the last two years.
And it's been really fun to read with him and it really--
it reconfirms for me what I was--
what I've thought I knew about kids and books
which is kids of-- especially of a young-enough age.
They just throw their whole being into the book.
They have no-- They maybe a shy kid
but their entire engagement is in the book.
They don't, you know, we as adults know how to be bored
and we know how to tune things out and stuff.
But a kid at a young age does not know how to do that.
So they're bringing their whole being into the book.
And as a writer why would you not want that?
You know, sometimes when I talk to people
about writing kid's books I was like, "Oh that's cute",
you know, it's like, well, you're nowhere,
do you touch the whole being of a person
as you do with a kids' book.
So I've always been super interested in kids' books.
I always knew I wanted to write some--
let's see the impetus for this particular book.
I have been writing a couple of other books and sending them
out to different publishers and including the people
who published "Donovan's Big Day" but they turned me down.
I got turned down a lot.
But I went to the big LGBT Film Festival, you know,
that's here every year in the City and I was watching a lot
of the movies on folks who are intersexed where it's--
people who have genitalia that's kind of doesn't line up exactly
with what we tend to think of, for like this makes you male
and this makes you female, there's ambiguity there.
So I was watching those ones and also a lot
of the transgender things.
I myself, I'm not transgender.
I'm cisgender which is the flipside
of the opposite of transgender.
However, a lot of my own gender identity development, I've--
well, the first I ever came out to was RuPaul,
so that gives you-- I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia and he was just
like some local little performer--
I mean, that's a long time ago,
and I wrote him a coming-out letter.
And we were friends there for a couple
of years, I was like 14, 15.
So anyway, I've had-- and then since moving
in this city I've lived here since '93
and I've been very involved in the, you know,
kind of *** communities.
So, a lot of dear friends had been gender fluid, trans,
and that's actually really helped me--
I had a real conflicted identity growing up as male.
That was a really-- that was not a fun fit
for me in a lot of ways.
And it wasn't until I saw Butch lesbians,
many from them later transition and they're now-- and now are--
their gender identity is male.
Then I really kind of saw some kinds of masculinity
that I liked, so that's sort of my background.
So anyway, so as watching these films in the Gay Film Festival
and there was just one thing about intersex people,
and some friends of mine were in the film talking
about their experiences and what happens to you or what used
to happen, it's happening a little bit less,
is if you have ambiguous genitals,
you will be surgically operated on
and like a lot and very invasive.
And some of these people were operated on so heavily
that they'd now can't-- they've basically have no feeling
in their genitals.
And this solely because people were so--
doctors and parents were so freaked out.
You shouldn't have this-- you know, and this is something
that occurs naturally.
I even don't know what the instances are.
Anyway, so it's really sad in this one person
like I said I kind of knew from the community was up talking
and I don't know how this person identifies gender wise
but they were saying, I just dream of the day
that one day little intersex kids can run around
and they haven't been interfered with, you know,
they haven't had this like really invasive surgeries.
And a person was chocking up as they were talking I was like,
"Oh God, I got to write about gender stuff."
And, another film that I saw maybe
that same afternoon was there was--
it was three girls and their uncle was in the process
of transitioning to female gender identity.
And the youngest girl had absolutely no problem with it.
She's like, "Fine, I get somebody
to paint my toenails with.
Awesome." And then
like progressively older kids were progressively more
uncomfortable with their uncle now, their aunt's transition
because they had received that much more acculturation.
So I was also really moved by that.
So, I knew I wanted to write a book about gender
with a transgender theme.
And I also knew that that had not been done
in kid's books as of yet.
And there are books about gender identity when I was growing up,
there was-- was it William's Doll,
a Doll for William, "William's Doll."
And there's another one called "Oliver Button Is a Sissy".
But there was no book-- so there were books
about people doing things that were gender atypical,
a girl who's a tomboy or a boy who likes dolls.
But there was no book where a child is saying, "No, no, no,
I am not this gender that you think that I am."
And, I'm not going to go
into the whole kind of sociology of this.
But, there really are kids who-- that's almost the first thing
out of their mouth, you know,
"You're a girl", "No, no I'm a boy."
Like right away, no one in their environment is telling
them this.
No one is-- I mean, this is solely self directed.
So, how much time do I have?
>> You have about 10 minutes more.
>> OK, great.
OK, so I sat down to write a book, and it was going
to be a book about some kids--
it was going to be from the perspective
of a girl watching her uncle transition,
change gender identity.
And so, I started writing it and I was all like, "Uncle picks me
up from school, car pool and I'm playing on a playground.
And here's my sack like."
And I was just like putting myself to sleep.
I was so bored with this book.
It was so social realist in this way.
If I were going to talk about LGBT books to there's--
I think because authors who've wanted to write LGBT books
for kids, there's such a social mission
until often the books are very social realist in is kind
of to me kind of heavy way of like, here's the suburban car
and here's the packed lunch and here's the cabbies
and here's the-- and when I was kid, I really wanted fantasy.
I wanted magic.
I wanted fantasy.
I wanted all that.
So no disrespect to those other books,
without whom, I would not be here.
But, I knew for me I was--
for what I just knew I was boring myself to pieces.
I could not write this story, I was so bored.
And a girl was going to have--
it was just like this after school special,
the girl was like, "They killed my uncle
and into that [phonetic]."
And I just didn't believe any of it, like I didn't give a ***
about those characters and I didn't believe in them
and I was like, "Oh God."
That's why I was like, "OK, dude,
you can write anything you want.
You're writing this book.
You have total creative control.
What do you really want to write about,
like what really seizes your part and your interests?"
And, I was like, oh, what if it was like dresses but they were
like made out of magical things like gold, or like windows,
or flowers, or-- and I was like,
OK there that's it, that's the book.
And that gave me the structure, again,
the book's called "10,000 Dresses".
So it's about a child named Bailey,
I'll get into that in a sec.
And, every night Bailey has these dreams
of these different dresses.
This kind of magical or fantastical dresses and she goes
to the people on her life and asks, you know,
"Can you help me get a dress?"
And they're like, "You shouldn't be thinking
about your dresses, you're a boy".
One thing I'll thing I'll tell you is that I--
throughout the book, I only use "she" and "her"
and "girl" to refer to Bailey.
Some of the characters will say "Bailey, you're a boy."
And, it's amazing how just that one little pronoun switch.
I mean, that's all I did is I always refer to Bailey as "she"
because that's how Bailey, the character, would identify.
And people like can not-- I've read so many book reviews
and they're like, "This is about a boy
who wants to wear dresses."
And the gender pronoun changes every line.
It's always something different and it doesn't,
it's only ever she for Bailey but it's like it's so--
I mean, that's like the most radical thing that I did.
It's not that radical.
Let's see, what else do I want to tell you guys?
Oh, and it was also very important to me too,
so I was very happy when I came up with this magical dresses,
one 'cause like I said that my part was now engaged
in this book, and it was this longing
that these character have for this beautiful dresses.
Now, obviously gender is more than just the clothes
that people wear but it gave me an in-road into talking
about Bailey's gender.
And also it's very important to me too that another problem
that you see, and this isn't just for LGBT books
but like books about kids with a multi-cultural backgrounds,
or divorced or whatever that is very single issue books.
And they can be really heavy handed.
Actually a few years ago when I was coming to visit your class
and this one woman in the class said "Yeah,
they are like social policy books".
And that just doesn't make for a good kid's book
and I really wanted this to actually work
as a kid's book whether you gave a crap or not about the message.
I really wanted it to be evocative
and be magical and be enchanting.
And I just think that does--
you know, because as LGBT people does not just the one thing
that we are, we have all the things that we love.
So equally, this book is about somebody who's an artist,
who has these visions, these dreams, and these things
that she wants to create.
And people also don't want to hear--
people don't want to hear it because of the gender component.
But also no one is sharing her artistic vision
until at the end she meets somebody
and then they're making dresses together.
So, I think it's super important to--
just to always address people in the round.
And what I love-- And now we'll talk a little bit
about the artist.
What I love, what the artist did.
So the artist is a friend of mine, Rex Ray, he is a--
he lives locally, but he's an international artist.
He's very cool.
And, I just gave him the text
and he basically did his own thing with it.
And I love this radiant verse around Bailey because--
yeah, it's Bailey's center stage, it's her story.
And that's the other thing too, I didn't want this book to be--
I forgot where I was going with that, sorry.
So let's see, so I wanted
to tell you a few things about the artwork.
So, one thing, had I given Rex more direction?
He didn't want any direction, he just wanted
to go off and do his thing.
I was going to actually ask for Bailey
to have more ambiguously length hair so that
when you open the book you're thinking, you know,
Bailey basically reads as a boy in this picture,
I think for most people.
And I'm actually glad that he went the way that he did,
because to me that actually underscores the message of--
OK wait, reading this kid as a boy probably,
just because it sketched the child has short hair
and little [inaudible] and stuff,
but the text always says she, she, she.
So, I though that was actually really cool
that Rex did that, I'm glad he did that.
And then a couple of other things too
that I think he did really well.
So here's Bailey on her first--
one of her first dream dresses was made out of crystals,
and then Bailey goes and talks to her mom.
And you don't see the parents.
You never see the parents.
And, you just see this like disapproving back.
And that's repeated a couple of times when Bailey goes and talks
to her dad and her brother and stuff.
You do not see anybody else's face, just Bailey's.
And again, I thought that was a really brilliant until--
so here's Bailey confronting her brother.
That doesn't go well.
There, little tiny Bailey, big disapproving legs
of mean brother, until-- OK great, thanks,
bailey finds a friend, a neighbor girl.
And, this is the first time you see somebody else's face
in the book.
And I thought that was brilliant.
And I didn't even get that consciously
until I read a book review, where somebody was explaining
that or maybe it was you or-- I can't remember, somebody pointed
that out to me that, yeah, when no one gets to have a face
until they are an ally [inaudible] those kind
of beautiful.
I have been banned in Texas, I think it's
like one school in Texas banned us.
Actually though we have not--
we've kind of flown under the radar,
every once in a while some right-winged groups do this
videos and again they always talk about it in terms
of cross dressing and like oh it's teaching your boys how
to wear dresses and all of this stuff.
Whereas I think-- The message
that I think would be even more threatening to them of,
you know, this is saying that your child gets
to choose what identity-- what gender they are.
That goes un-remarked or I just think they're not even
noticing it.
That said, the book came out kind of right at the time
where anti-bullying became such a big deal,
so I can't actually complain in terms of how the book's done
out in the world and also the American Library Association
which was referenced earlier.
They championed this book very early
on which was great 'cause you want the libraries on your side.
And then just one other thing I'll say in my last few minutes
and thanks everybody for being here, is-- I read this--
I've only read this a couple of times to actual kids and I went
to this one school here in the city and I read it to the kids.
And, this one little kid raised his hand and he's like
"Do you live in San Francisco?"
I'm like "Yeah".
He was like "Do you live across the street?"
I'm like, "No".
"Do you live like over there across the street?"
"No". No one's had-- basically no one asking me
about the gender of Bailey.
That's not the issue of where do I live.
And then the same-- I think it's the same--
oh boy, he was adorable.
He-- we were-- they were-- all of the kids were like--
there was like 40 kids.
And by the way they were all dressed in dresses.
They all showed up in this like sarongs and serapes and stuff
that they had made and these head dresses and stuff.
All the boys and girls are just really sweet.
And then this boy, basically 'cause
since I've written this book,
clearly I've written every book that's ever existed.
So he's pulling every book off the library shelf,
like you know, "Good Night Moon" and "Caps
for Sale" any kid's book.
He's like "Did you write this one?"
"No". "Did you write one?"
"No". "Did you write this one"--
I think that's it, thank you very much.
[ Applause ]
[ Pause ]
>> Hello everybody.
My name is Mike Dutton, I am an illustrator.
Let's see if I can get this in full screen.
No. No. Sorry, technical difficulties.
Yes. So first, I want to thanks Susan for inviting me.
I'm really honored to be here, very excited.
A little bit nervous.
I have had very little human contact
in the past two months due to this thing.
And so, I could either not know what I'm talking
about for the next 20 minutes, or I can maybe over talk.
So-- But I promise, hopefully it's going to--
it'll go somewhere, but we'll get somewhere.
But yeah, little bit about myself.
I'm an illustrator.
The book "Donavan's Big Day", was published by Ten Speed Press
which is-- was actually Tricycle Press which was kid's division
of Ten Speed Press, a subsidiary of Random House.
I've since learned unfortunately that Ten Speed--
or Tricycle is no longer around.
But I had the great honor and pleasure
of this being my first children's book.
But before I get into that, I want to talk a little bit
about my sort of journey getting to where I am--
how I got into illustration.
Much like Marcus said in his presentation
from a very early age he was writing.
It was just something that he's drawn to,
and for me that was drawing.
Here I am with my two brothers, this was in Korea.
I'm the one on the far right, the oldest of three boys.
And we grew up in the army.
So we moved around a lot.
And, because of that we had to make friends
from scratch quite often.
So this left us with a lot of time to kind
of play with each other.
And one of the things that we did to kill the time was
to make drawings and play games based on these drawings.
So that's something that has stuck with me for, you know,
apparently my whole life.
And I don't know if you can see the drawing,
it's a little-- it's a bad scan.
But from an early age I had this interest not just in drawing
but in making comics and trying to be funny.
And this was my idea of a one panel gag
but not knowing anything about work, but it seems
to actually be kind of appropriate and accurate
of my current state today.
But, from an early age there was this very--
there was this element of art that I was drawn
to which is the sort of marrying of pictures and words,
and how they sort of play off each other.
What can words say and what can pictures say and how they--
and there're sort of a language--
unique language for both.
Moving forward, I became more interested in children's books.
And, it was actually a very strong sort of moment of clarity
that I had as to why I wanted to get into kid's publishing.
And I've been sort of doing a little bit of everything
and Marcus' kind of-- he actually lived it to fantasy art
and that's actually where I got my start.
I was doing freelance work for companies like Dungeons
and Dragons, and stuff like that and I got tired
of drawing figures with 17 belt-buckles,
it just didn't make sense.
And I wanted to do something a little more substance.
And, after a while I-- it wasn't until I had gone on a trip
to Europe and discovered all these other artists
that I realized that this was my calling.
But the moment of clarity was actually one winner.
I was, you know, in the children's book section
of Barnes S& Noble and it was during
that particularly difficult time that I was having with my dad.
And this book was by Pearl S. Book--
Pearl S. Buck, and I think it was called "Christmas Morning".
And, I just remembered the book is--
just to kind of take you though that really quickly,
it's about this boy who knows his father works very hard
and gets up-- they live on a farm and his dad gets up at four
in the morning everyday to take care of the farm
and be a responsible, hardworking dad.
And so his son on Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning,
I can't remember, decides that he's going to step in
and give dad the morning off and he goes in and he wakes
up at four in the morning and he, you know, milks the cows
and does all that And, I was sitting there and just,
you know, thinking about my situation for my dad
and how I wanted to be that, that person that could step up
but it was sort of a-- it was such a difficult time for me
as well and I just started falling in the middle
of the children's book section in Barnes & Noble,
and luckily my wife was there and she, you now,
kind of shielding me from the other kids.
But that was a very decisive moment for me that I knew
that I'd always known that children's books carry,
you know, there's a potential there
to really carry strong message.
And this was to me-- for me it felt like children's books was
for me anyway the best way to communicate, you know,
a message without being, you know, heavy-handed or, you know,
hitting somebody over the head with it.
So, in my own illustrations, you know, like you can see
from here it's very-- it's based on a lot of observation.
It's about being sort of immersing yourself
in your surroundings and making informed decisions
on what you draw.
And I think, you know, there's a place for magical unicorns
and rainbows and even 17 belt buckles.
But for me powerful art is made when it's sort of based
on you being able to stand behind the art work.
And so here you have-- with the far left,
it's based on this concrete slide in Berkley.
You can actually bring your own cardboard
or there's usually cardboard lying around
and you can actually go down this winding slide.
The top right is based on just painting trips.
I like to go out and just sort of paint on location.
The window there is from solving and I was there on a paint trip
and sitting out on the sidewalk with the headlamp
so that I could see my paint.
Then the bottom is just from a day of the beach with my family.
But sometimes I still like to find a way for words
and pictures to play off each other and much to the chagrin
of my co-workers because I tend to make ponds in meetings
and it makes people unhappy.
But I thought I'd share them with you anyway.
So that kind of brings me to what I do now.
I'm actually one of the Doodlers, we call them.
I worked for Google as a full time illustrator
and we illustrate these things
that you guys may see on the homepage.
I don't know if you guys use Google or heart of it.
And, I've been there for three years.
And, trust me this is going to lead
into Donovan beautifully I think.
But what it's about is again it's about context,
it's about trading a picture where in a very,
very brief moment and the people are on their way
to the homepage tool search.
And this is something that kind of--
it sidetracks them very momentarily.
Sometimes it takes them down to rabbit hole of searchers
and that's for me a good thing.
It means that I've done something that compels somebody
to kind of stop and pause and sort of taking this other thing.
Even a briefly or to say, you know,
that's nice and then move on.
But if it compels you to be sort of dive
in into this person's life, you know,
for celebrating a famous poet or artist or a writer,
then I feel like I've done my job.
That leads me to another thing that we've--
that we do at Google and we have this event called best Doodle 4
Google, where we invite children
to submit what their best day ever is.
That was the theme of this year's contest.
And we had a lot of things, you know,
the beach was really popular, that was kind of like a lot
of kids best day ever.
And other one was the day that he got [inaudible]
to become a bigger brother when his sisters born,
that was like the best day ever.
And the winner was actually a girl whose best day ever was
when her daddy just come-- when her daddy just returned
from being stationed in Afghanistan
and she did this progression where she meets her father
after a while of not seeing him and then to have this embrace.
So again, there's this opportunity to really use art
in a very compelling way with minimal use of words.
So, that finally brings me to the book
that I illustrated "Donovan's Big Day".
This actually is something that I did several years ago.
It was-- actually I got the e-mail from Ten Speed Press
in 2009, the same week actually that Google contacted me.
And it was this perfect storm of doing our test
for both companies and somehow being able to land this book.
But maybe I'll talk a little bit about the process
of what the art test involved.
So Joanne who is the editor there wanted me
to draw what I thought Donovan might look like.
And I thought we have kind of been just
where I was artistically, I wanted to do something sort
of playful and very childlike.
And so I did this where Donovan is obviously a lot more
cartoonish and proportions are really kind
of all over the place.
And Joanne actually had this bit of feedback
where she really wanted Donovan to look more realistic.
And she based that feedback
on something I did several years ago,
where this girl is just sort of staring wistfully
out the window while she's doing laundry.
And so, what it-- her rational which I, you know,
I thought was a little bit, I didn't agree with that first
but I'm definitely glad that I came around was that,
the message in the story should dictate the design.
And in this case we really wanted a story
that would be very human.
And I think doing something very playful
and cartoonish just have might kind of cheap in that message.
And I think it works in the hazards place in other means.
But for this particular book, she really wanted to feel
like this was a significant day for a very small boy.
Let's really draw him in a way
that we can explore the four range of emotions.
And so, you know, I thought, "Well, that's going
to be a lot more work for me."
But I went with it and we came up with this design here.
The drawing on the left is the one that she actually saw
and said, "That's Donovan."
And kind of going back to what I was saying
about your illustrations being informed by your experiences,
I have to admit I don't have very much experience with gay
and lesbian, bisexual, transgender themes.
In fact I knew when I first got this book that it was--
is going to be a bit challenging because I'm not having
that experience, I was afraid that I would create something
that wasn't authentic.
And one of my other guiding principles when I'm working
on illustration is to always illustrate for one person,
have somebody in mind that you're sort
of devoting this piece to,
that makes the piece feel more authentic.
And, as long as I did that, I knew that I would have something
that felt authentic even though--
even if my own experience was limited.
And I did that by basing the character on my own sort of--
my own upbringing and sort
of channeling my own unique experiences into the character.
And in this case, it was me growing up in a biracial family,
my mom is Korean and, you know, I grow up
and was teased a little bit when I was living in Korea
for one not being full Korean,
two for having a name Michael so,
they would call me Michael Jackson and then kind of laugh.
And so, so channeling a little bit of that experience
into this character and sort of help me feel
that I was creating something that would fell authentic.
And then this was just very briefly,
in other test they wanted to see where I drew the actual moms.
So we'd see on the left that the mom is possibly biracial
and that would be the biological mother of Donovan.
And then the one on the right she said she wanted it to kind
of channel a little bit more of Leslie Newman, the author,
a little bit of her personality, a little bit of respond,
and kind of crazy hair, here tamed in this case.
And actually, I apologize for the bad quality of the image
that was actually-- I think I shot it
on a cell phone while I was in vacation in Greece
and had this send it over to the editor and just while
as a broads [phonetic].
You know, kind of continue to be unsure if I had the book
or not, they said yes.
This is a pretty bad-- the slide is really kind of blown out.
But actually if you guys at the end, I don't know if we're going
to stay but I have actually a lot of these originals
and sketches with me if you guys want to take a look
and see the process here.
In here, this is actually the deep [phonetic] boards
or storyboard in the publishing where they call it the dummy,
which is basically a mock of how the story is going to play out.
And, I don't know why they call it dummies.
I don't know if anybody in publishing can tell me why,
because I feel like this is where the most--
for me anyway is where the most thinking as required.
You know, how are going to pace the story?
What sort of things are you going to hold back?
What are you going to allow the words to say?
And where does the illustrator need to step in and sort
of illustrate what words are there or not there
and what's between the lines.
So you can kind of see in the bottom where I've sort
of circled to illustrate these things or not.
And so, this is the opening page.
And here we just see that he's like many boys or just--
he's just that kind of typical boy and this is just stuff
that I had in my room when I was growing up.
So again, kind of channeling that personal experience
to sort of inform your work.
Also as a side note, a lot of the furniture I'm looking
in the side can't help it to be reminded by Pottery Barn Kids.
And I was doing a lot-- I guess I was doing a lot
of catalog design for them at that time.
So, you see a lot of-- it's not product placement,
I was just drawing it a lot,
so it's [phonetic] interesting to do.
And here, another thing you don't see in every illustration
but I wanted as much as possible for this to be told
from the child's point of view.
'Cause really that's ultimately what the story is.
Well, it's not about-- it wasn't about making a very broad--
a very grand statement.
It's just really about this very important event
and how this child's day unfolds as, you know, he-- as he--
as the day progresses and how he's just--
he's got a big job to do.
And so, here he's kind of running up the chapel and--
or running it to the-- I think they said it was city hall
and they're running through the lobby.
I've gotten some-- I've seen comments online like,
"Why does the kid get to hold on to the ring?"
But I've argue that he's just--
he's a big boy and he can handle it.
[ Laughter ]
And here's, you know, kind of going back
to what Susan was saying a little bit earlier about allies.
That was definitely something that I felt pretty strongly
about in this book as well is that I wanted to create a sense
of community and really to have
as many loved ones there and as possible.
And I did that by actually showing a lot of people
that were-- that in my own wedding,
you kind of see Donovan sort of leaving through this crowd.
And so, there's a sense that he's actually engaged
with this crowd and they're sort of stopping him along the way.
And that sort of strengthens the idea
that these aren't just people casually showing
up to a wedding.
These are people that are extremely happy to be here
and are along the way congratulating him
on his big job.
And, this one is probably my favorite piece from the book
because it's really showing the story from his point of view.
We see, you know, that everybody is sort of above eye level.
You kind of have this big moment of attention.
And the text I think says something like he wasn't suppose
to skip, jump, run, back-flip down the aisle, it's just,
you know, just walk down.
And this here is the moment where you see
that he is performing his duties as the ring bearer.
And then here again kind of strengthening the idea
of allies, and here, you know, you have the parents there
in the front row crying and they have other loved ones behind
and you have this moment where both of their moms are crying.
And there's actually this reveal a few pages before
where we actually see for the first time, oh,
these are two moms that are getting married.
And, it's again to sort of strengthen that the idea
that is just any other wedding and there, you know,
there's no really special exceptions
that needed to be made.
It's just two people.
It's just another kind of love.
And that was definitely something--
another guiding principle on--
for me when I was working on this, but here again,
sort of putting people that I know and loved into the crowd.
We actually have my dad in the front row who-- he is actually--
actually both of the dads are kind of mix
of my dad in different times.
There's like young dad with--
that used to always to have a mustache.
And then there's older clean shaving dad.
But both dads-- for me again a challenge
for this book was also being able to write something
that would speak to my dad and it kind of goes back to,
you know, my first book or the book
that I saw in Barnes & Noble.
And, one of challenges for me working on this is
that my dad is actually--
he is against the idea of gay marriage.
And you know he's, you know, kind of staunch conservative
and I was brought up that way and,
you know, being an army brat.
And so this was sort of, you know, no way to compare myself
to the hard-- the sorts
of challenges any child might face coming
out to their parents.
But this wasn't a way for me-- a way to say like, "Hey dad,
you know, this is something I believe in."
And, I think by putting my whole heart into this book
and not treating it like just a freelance job,
I think I was able to kind of give that message to my dad.
And I think he is very proud of me for doing it.
OK. So, I'm going to wrap up here.
Speaking of a bodily contact, the hardest moment to illustrate
in a book was actually the two kisses--
or the kiss between the-- or you may kiss the bride.
In this case the text is you may kiss the brides.
And, because the book was so much about Donavan,
we wanted to get him in their kind of kissing both moms
and we didn't know how to do that and it was a very--
it was kind of tricky, you know,
does he kiss the biological mom first as he kiss the other mom?
Does he kiss both somehow at the same time?
And you could see in the top right just looks a little bit
kind of detached.
And, what we ended up going with is this where it looks
like he is just rushed in and kissed his non-biological mother
and the other mother, looks like she may have been leaning in,
and that's why we have this sort of contact with--
both of their cheeks are kind of touching and there's just sort
of warm embrace between all three.
And I feel this is still a very intimate moment.
Even if we've kind of dodge the, you know,
the kissing between the two brides because, I mean,
that's part of my daily ritual.
My two year old son and my wife and I,
we actually have this family hug and he's actually just starting
to talk and he says "fa-mi-ly hug" like that.
And so-- and it's a very--
I mean, it gets my day off to a good start and so I know
that there's something to this [phonetic] effort is sort of--
this sort of a moment.
And I'm actually all done.
Yeah, I'm going to skip ahead.
Yeah.
[ Applause ]
[ Pause ]
[ Inaudible Remark ]
[ Pause ]
>> OK. Hi everyone, my name is Loreta Torres.
And I'm a 5th grade elementary school teacher
at the San Francisco Unified.
And, I'm a Spanish Bilingual teacher.
So I'm here today to talk about a book that I worked
on called "Antonio's Card".
But before we get there, I want to really appreciate an author
and illustrator going before me.
It was just so wonderful to see you break down the book and talk
about it from that perspective.
That's a real treat we forget.
In the business, we're like reading books
and we forget all the work and the thinking
and the feeling [inaudible] so I really appreciate that.
I thought we'd start it off with a little video.
And I've been sitting a long time
and I promise won't hopefully we're [inaudible].
So this is a video, what went around is a little pocket
that is something that's San Francisco Unified has
enormous binder.
I just brought a small sampling of a few ideas and some
of you are in the teaching--
singing and teaching profession or-- and/or considering it.
So it's something to give you an idea of teachable moments,
things that come for us and especially in my school
in an urban setting of predominant Latino students
who are predominantly Christian
and heterogeneous or heterosexuals.
So they're very-- you know, when I'm talking about these things
and so how it kind of bring it in.
So let me get this up and running and I'll be quiet now.
And so, that'll keep on time [phonetic].
Is there a volume?
>> OK, I think it was on the mute.
>> I haven't muted it.
>> Yeah, no you--
>> I muted this?
>> Yeah.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> OK. Let's start over.
OK, ready, go.
You should touch that.
OK.
[ Music ]
[Background Music] Can you hear?
No, there's no speakers, sorry.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> [Video Playing] My two moms are Marilyn
and Adriane [assumed spelling].
My two are dads are Michael and Barry.
[ Music ]
>> That's pretty much it.
Thank you.
>> There's all different kinds of families.
>> Oh, sorry.
>> [Video Playing] My dad is Chinese-American
and my mom is German-American.
My parents aren't the same race but they can stand
to [phonetic] be married.
Doesn't mean you have to be a rat to know that.
You can be rat and marry a mouse.
>> When you just have one parent,
if you get in trouble only one person gets mad at you.
And only one persons nags at you,
so I think I'm pretty lucky.
>> Now go get your plates.
>> My grandma is my guardian.
That means the person who is not my real parent
but is taking care of me.
>> When you're adopted, your parents keep you
to your whole entire life.
They don't hurt you.
They keep you and they love and they take care of you
until you're really big and very old.
>> My dads are gay.
And gay means where two men or two women love each other.
It's sort of just like having a mom and dad who love each other.
It's just-- that it's a man and a man or a woman and a woman.
>> Sometimes 'cause we use mean words for gays and lesbians,
and that hurts my feelings.
I wish people would live [phonetic]
that it was OK to be different.
>> Divorce is when your parents aren't married anymore.
Some kids say it's their fault but don't think
that because it's not.
>> My family is special because we love each other.
>> They're always here for me when I need them.
They always care for me.
>> My dads a real champ.
But, it doesn't really matter because he still loves me
and my family still loves me,
and that's what a family is all about.
>> There's so many different ways to be a family.
It doesn't matter who's in the family, what matter is
that you love each other, that's a family.
[ Music ]
>> Thank you.
Thank you for that.
All right.
[ Noise ]
Thank you, all right that would be all.
>> All right, thanks very much.
Can you hear me without the mic or should I talk on the mic?
OK, back there without a mic?
All right, good.
>> You know, it helps us with the camera if you use the mic.
>> OK, I can follow directions.
All right, so family and love is really what this is about for me
and with our students.
This book "Antonio's Card" is a bilingual book
and I really had the pleasure of meeting both the author
and the illustrator in the classroom.
They came and they give all of our students, one copy each
because we worked on the lesson.
So, if you go to Children's Press, there's a book,
there's the title of the book and the lessons that you can do.
And we've actually tried this.
The packet that I gave you--
the packet that I passed out gives you the website
where you can find the binder, but it also starts with where we
like to start with our students,
it's just what does it mean to be gay.
A lot of our students in our schools use "You're gay.
That's gay", you know, and they use it as an insult.
They use it as a way to hurt someone's feelings
or the way to say a swear word.
So they've replace it with what--
I traditionally grew up with swear words
and now they use gay.
And so it's a very hard one to deal with straight out
and just say, well, what if-- you know, my question is,
was that mean to you, why are you using that word?
And they generally don't really know.
They don't really understand.
They've just heard it and people make fun of it at home.
And so, the way they introduced it is through, first,
the discussion and then reading literature.
And I brought several books that I am happy to pass around,
that really help you explain something without so many words.
I didn't want to read the book but I'm sort
of leaning toward reading the book.
Just because it's so beautiful and I
like that it's a bilingual book.
I like that it's a Latino family or Latino woman with, you know,
there's that bilingualism.
And so that really goes right to our kid's heart
about "Oh, it's a family".
So bear with me and I'll try not to kill the book.
Honestly what drew me to this book is
that it's about mother's day.
And that's such a big issue because we are so typical--
so many teachers start with a family tree or they did
in the past, or they do in other areas outside of San Francisco.
And the traditional family of a mother and a father
and the children and the grandparents, you know,
and this is just very traditional tree and
yet it excludes an enormous amount of people, adopted,
foster, gay families, different families.
And so, I was drawn to this book because of that--
of those issues that is for Mother's day.
So, Antonio likes how letters make works.
While he eats his alphabet cereal in the morning,
he spells out mommy in the bowl of milk
and his mother gives him a kiss.
He writes "Te Quiero", I love you on a napkin
and draws a heart around the words.
He puts the napkins
in his mother's purse while she looks for the house keys.
"How do you spell keys?"
he asks, so as they walk out the door, K-E-Y-S, Antonio answers E
in Espanol, she asks as they walk to the car,
Antonio being "L-L-A-V-E-S" he says, llave.
"Goodbye Antonio", sleepy [phonetic] boys calls
out as Antonio leaves for school.
It is Leslie his mother's partner.
She waves to the bedroom window and she does every morning.
Antonio runs up to the window and presses his hand
against the glass, his small hands
against his-- her bigger hands.
All the way to school, she feels the press
of the window on his palm.
"Adios Antonio, see you later,"
his mother waves when they get there.
"Mommy loves you.
Keep an eye out for Leslie this afternoon."
Afternoon, the school empties
out like a spilled bag of marbles.
Parents of all shapes and sizes come to greet their children.
The tallest person coming down the street is Leslie,
looking like a splattered clown--
splattered canvas in her workshop overalls [phonetic].
Behind Antonio, a few kids giggled,
saying "That woman looks like a guy".
He starts to feel-- well, turn to your partner
and what do you think Antonio's feeling, just turn and talk
for a minute so you have to listen.
Go ahead and turn and talk.
What are you thinking Antonio's feeling,
what's going on his [phonetic].
[ Inaudible Discussion ]
Still blushing, Antonio runs
down the sidewalk to meet Leslie.
"Hey there big guy", Leslie says, "Should we read beneath
that tree before mommy comes to pick us up?"
"May be" Antonio says.
"What's the matter", Leslie asks, "Is something wrong?",
"No, nothing" says Antonio.
Looking over his shoulder, "Can we just leave, Leslie please?",
"Absolutely" Leslie says.
"That sounds like a good word to spell" she adds, "I can't spell
that word yet", Antonio protests
as he pulls Leslie across the street.
He makes her sit right away and opens the corner of his book.
Essentially they sit and read by the tree and they--
they're sitting near the school to wait for their mom--
the other mom to pick them up.
But he's nervous, and he's nervous because what's coming
up the next day is Mother's day.
How was he going to explain,
'cause he already heard Leslie being insulted,
she looks like a clown, she looks like, you know just odd.
She looks like a guy.
Since it's nearly Mother's day, Antonio
and his classmates make cards
for the special women in their lives.
The classroom burst with colors from crayon, markers,
construction paper and bottles and bottles of glitter.
"That really looks cool," Antonio best friend,
Carlos says over Antonio's shoulder.
The other kids nod.
"Very nice Antonio," Ms. Mendoza says,
"And who is your card for?", "For mommy and Leslie."
You know that play on Bailey, that's [inaudible] Leslie's
so he doesn't really have to explain.
Ms. Mendoza puts her hand on Antonio shoulder,
and she says "That's very nice of you".
I love this illustration especially that I know it's hard
to see but there's a tree with family and familia in it.
So I really draw my students into family.
So to get them to start thinking, "Oh, there's two moms,
but there are family, that's kind of weird",
in fact some people go "eew",
you know because they're starting to think
about the *** connotations in their head or what that means.
And then, you know, it's like, "Oh why did you say eew?
Let's talk about that," you know,
so this is really drawing them.
But it's talking about family,
do you have a family, do you have a family.
How does your family interact, do they love each other?
So you really start bringing that into the students.
Antonio hunches over the piece of paper on his desk,
protecting from anybody else's sight.
He presses the green crayon into the page.
He draws his mother and Leslie sitting next to him
as they read a book together.
He writes in letters like three birds among the leaves, family.
And then the teacher announces, "Tomorrow, we'll put the cards
up in the cafeteria for a Mother's Day display".
Antonio's hand freezes on his card.
The taunting of the kids echoes in his head,
"Look there's that rodeo clown".
And so, as-- I'll let you pick up the book or get it tomorrow.
And so, as the story unfolds, he's really wrestling
with the shame, the embarrassment of being different
of how to explain to his friends, mean kids are going
to be mean and cruel to him.
What's he going to say?
How's he going to display this family card in his mind
to these children who don't understand?
Presenting this very, very, very deep issue to our students
through literature is just amazing.
And it just really gets to their heart,
gets to something that's familiar.
Their family, their love,
different families have different ways of being.
And so, I really, really appreciate, you know the authors
and the illustrators because for my students,
we've tried different activities around literature using
"Antonio's Card", using One Dad, Two Dads,
Brown Dad, Molly's Family.
Where we have even Harvey Milk's story bring things an end
for this students to see all these different books
and literature.
It talks about bullying, it talks about meanness,
it talks about diversity, and the end it takes you right
to the core of the children with one they can understand.
Family, love and how acceptance
of others is what the key purpose is.
I don't really have anything more, I think you can read--
do you want me to finish this last little bit,
or it [phonetic] turns it
around I think I have another couple minutes.
All right, OK.
I love this book.
So he's very sad, he walks to school
and he's really worried and very sad.
And how many of my students carry these secrets, you know,
in their pockets, you know, as they walk in.
And we might think that they're depressed.
We might think that they're-- they hate school.
But really and truly, some of this things that we
as teachers put on them and write a Mother's Day card,
you know, I've moved away a lot from Mother's Day card
and I'll say it's family card, you know, and who's taking care
of yours-- of the children,
is it a grandparent, an uncle, an aunt?
So many different families that we have now,
we can't stereotype at your mom and dad.
And, you know, the hecklers in the classroom
and I've had many hecklers who-- well, that's weird.
You know, kids have piped up and said,
"I have an uncle that's gay" or "I have a niece
and also my nephew is,"
and there's suddenly it's a real conversation that we're having
with some, "Really, you have someone?"
And it's just being very open
and transparent with the children.
One way we informed the parents is we send out curriculum
or a letter saying we're going to be introducing a conversation
around diversity, around I think different families.
And, you know, our Latino parents who kind
of have a knee jerk reaction and they don't like it.
But eventually the kids go home and talk about what we've talked
about and couching it with a book is just the way.
So, in the end the mom, Leslie, is a painter
and she's made a portrait of the mom-- of the biological mom.
And that just gets to Antonio's heart.
And so, he decides the next day that rather
than feeling ashamed, and there's all these words
in the cover, there's a more, absolute family,
absolutely familia that he is going to be brave and go
and present the Mother's Day card to both of his mothers
at the cafeteria in school.
A courageous move for a little boy but, you know,
he does it and he feels great.
They love it, and that's all the time I have.
>> Thank you.
[ Applause ]
[ Pause ]
>> I had to be the difficult one in bring my own computer.
[ Pause ]
My name is Amy Kilgard and I'm a professor
in the Communication Studies Department.
I teach classes particularly in performance studies.
I remember when I was 12 years old,
sitting in the family room wearing my pajamas,
which at the time was a costume that my mother had made for me
out of a sheet when I was obsessed
with the goddess Iris in fifth grade.
And, I was sad because my first big production
that I've been in, the Valdosta State College
which is now Valdosta State University's production
of the music man had ended.
And I was crying because I missed it so much.
My parents comforted me telling me
that there would more performances and there were.
But, I think I was mourning that day more
than the chance to be on stage.
I was mourning the community of performers
and tuckies [phonetic] and musicians
that have become my temporary family in that production.
I knew that that family would never be together
in that way again and we weren't.
At 12, I learned something important about ensembles,
that when they are great there is some morality
and their bounded temporality are part of what make them great
and part of what make them so hard to say good bye to you.
I've spent the last 25 years making
and ending ensembles always with a hope
of using those communities to do some kind
of important social work and always with a hope
of learning how to live in these generative
and temporary moments of hope.
So, at SFSU I was excited to be able to teach Com696,
the ensemble performance workshop class.
Each time I've taught this class I have been fortunate
to have ambitious, generous, exciting student sign up.
In spring of 2011 the stars collided
and they brought an especially amazing group of people together
to work on this project, Dragons
and Dresses and Ducklings, oh my.
Susan and I had worked for several semesters
to prepare Com696 that semester to create a performance adapted
from some of the books we've been talking
about today specifically book--
children's picture books that investigated gay
and lesbian GLBTQ characters and themes.
Students partially signed up I think because of the topic
and enthusiastically embraced the chance to work together
to create this performance.
We have the perfect storm of graduate
and undergraduate students who had an astonishing array
of personal connections to the topic.
Some folks had worked on campaigns and response
to teen bullying around sexuality.
Some had been bullied themselves.
Some were parents to small children, some were interested
in youth counseling, some were gay-lesbian
and *** folks, some were allies.
These allowed us to create a powerful ensemble
that could effectively embark in advocacy.
We hoped to practice advocacy at four levels with this project,
with students in the class, with the university community,
with the local bay area community
and with the larger community of scholars and artists.
And to do so-- to do this we made some choices about venues,
aesthetics and strategic alliances.
We used the books themselves, both the text
and the illustrations as springboards
for making aesthetic choices
that complicated hetero normative representations
of children and families.
And so I'm going to spend most of my time today talking
about those choices that we made specifically.
First, a couple of things about logistics, we did this project
with a couple of different coalitions.
One coalition we made was with the San Francisco public library
and that's one of the things I was resonating
as you were talking earlier about the coalitions
that we need to do artistic projects of this time.
We had made this coalition with the San Francisco public library
in hopes of influencing not just our students
but the broader San Francisco in Bay Area communities
and opening it up to audiences.
So, that meant that we performed the show not just here
on campuses, which is our typical practice
for the ensemble performance workshop but also
at the downtown branch of the San Francisco public library
where they have a great auditorium
that if you don't know is available for community use.
If you have an appropriate and exciting opportunity,
any community member can actually make use
of that auditorium for free and we were able to do
that if you offer the program for free to the public.
This also allowed for us to have an audience with folks
who may not have come out to San Francisco State
of children and adults.
We also made a coalition with our colleagues
in the journalism department.
One photojournalism class did a fabulous project
where they took family photos of our class members,
families inspired by Gigi Kaeser's
and Peggy Gillespie's photographic exhibit
and book "Love Makes a Family" and this reminds me
about what Loreta was showing that documentary,
that's what makes family.
This is a similar project taking pictures
of diverse variety of families.
And so, our photojournalism program-- this our company,
our photojournalism class took these amazing photographs
of our students.
Family is the way our students defined them.
And you can see a whole range of different kinds of families
that were represented there.
I also wanted to note that one of the practices
in this class is that-- it's kind of a bottom-up approach
in terms of adaptation of literature.
And so the students themselves worked
on adaptations of these books first.
And then a number of their original ideas came
into the final productions.
For example-- Well, I'll come back to that in a moment.
So, as people who work with the performance medium we have the
access to people's bodies often in real time and space shared
with audience members.
And as such, we have a responsibility to think about
and make conscious choices about who performs and what kinds
of parts, what kinds of actions are represented on stage
and who will and will not feel cold
or implicated by our performances.
And to account for these issues--
I'm talking about some of the aesthetic choices we made.
One of the aesthetic choices specifically was the
representation of couples and parents in the performance.
So the books we've chosen I should mention a number
of them we've noted today were "The Different Dragon,"
written by Jennifer Bryan and illustrated by Danamarie Hosler.
"10,000 Dresses" which Marcus told us about.
"The Sissy Duckling" written by Harvey Fierstein
and illustrated by Henry Cole.
"Jesse's Dream Skirt" written by Bruce Mack
and illustrated by Marian Buchanan.
"In our Mother's House" that Susan talked
about a little while ago, written
and illustrated by Patricia Polacco.
"And Tango Makes Three" as several folks have discussed.
"The Duke Who Outlawed Jelly Beans and Other Stories" written
by Johnny Valentine and illustrated by Lynette Schmidt.
And "El Amor de Todos los Colores,"
The Many-Colored Love" written by Lucia Moreno Velo,
illustrated by Javier Termenon.
And I have a few of these beautiful bookmarks
that were from the performance.
They have the books on the back.
So if you're really interested please have one.
So, one of the things we thought about was the representation
of couples and parents.
And it was a parent in the books that we choose represented.
There were mothers than fathers represented.
And we wanted to make sure that we were representing a more
of a range of parents.
And so this was the illustration of the books "And
to Tango Makes Three."
And even though there aren't human parents involved
in that story we choose to have two fathers represented telling
that story in the performance.
You can see this connects to some of the
"And Tango Makes Three."
We also had the "The Different Dragon"
which has two mothers represented
and we had two mothers in the beginning
of that representation.
And then one of the mothers actually tells that story
to her son and so we see them there.
We also had-- this is "The Sissy Duckling"
in that case there are no humans in that book either.
We chose to have a single parent,
a mother telling the story to her son there.
We also wanted to attend to a diversity of inner sections
of identity and casting.
And that's a luxury because I had a diverse cast,
a physically appearing diverse cast which is not something
that want to school always has.
But we had a cast that was diverse in terms of race,
ethnicity, social class, gender performance and sexuality.
And all of those things informed and were able
to be present in our performances.
Thus we wanted to offer a complex
but understandable representation of gender
in both human and nonhuman characters.
So for example, "The Sissy Duckling" is a book about ducks.
In performances we didn't use ducks we had people performing
those characters.
But we had performers play both their--
the gender they identified with and characters
that were not the gender they identified with.
And in this case, you can see there's a little bit
of ambiguity about gender in this performance
of "The Sissy Duckling",
though the performer wearing the yellow is the character
of the "The Sissy Duckling".
And the one with the baseball but is an adult duck.
In the performance we had all the ducklings,
the young ducks wearing yellow
and all the adult ducks wearing brown to create this sense.
I like this photo because you can see three levels of kind
of story here happening.
The story of the book itself is kind of playing
out on your-- wait right?
The story being told is kind of in the middle
and our narrator was on the far side of the side.
So, funny playing baseball.
We also had in the book "10,000 Dresses",
we had a cisgendered male performer playing Bailey.
And I loved his performance of Bailey
because he was really open to performing gender
of more fluid gender identity as the performer.
And so audience members had the opportunity
to see this male performer performing a more fluid
gender performance.
Which I think is something that Marcus talked about in terms
of the illustrations of the writing
of that book having a kind
of more fluid gender identity performance present
and complicating kind of understanding.
And we used the pronouns as they are in the book.
Always referring to Bailey as "she" except
for the parents who-- and the siblings
who say, "No, you're a boy."
One of my favorite moments in performance of this is
when young child in the audience gets something yells, "No,
you can wear whatever you want."
And so the way that children responded
to this was really, really beautiful.
So the "10,000 Dresses" is a--
as Marcus point out is kind of not realistic portrayal.
One of the great things we can in performance is play
with those notions but we cant--
we still have to deal with our real bodies.
And so I love these moments of the dresses in performance.
They came in a variety of formats.
Unfortunately not quite as luminous as the illustrations
but I think the dancing was one of the ways we--
marks the magical kind of experiences in that performance.
Also like in this case, we have a cisgender female performer
performing the older bigger brother.
And she's actually smaller than Bailey
but her-- she's like tough.
We also had the penguins,
here we two characters portraying the penguins.
You know, this is really, really stuff that should be banned,
their singing together and teaching their baby
to an appropriate penguin.
[ Pause ]
I also wanted to point to some of the places
where our students came up with these fabulous ideas.
So one of the things in the "10,000 Dresses" story
that the students came with was a great dance, company dance
that they did ad a way of bringing
in the magic of the dresses.
All of the company members are wearing versions of dresses.
We also had a fabulous slumber party for the "The Duke
Who Outlawed Jelly Beans," I love the idea
of having a slumber party
that didn't really matter the gender performance
of the participants in the slumber party.
They were going to tell the story
and have a good time doing it.
So silly. This is also leads me talk about a couple
of the structures of the show.
One of the things that we did was incorporate windows,
these windows as a way of seeing in to different families lives.
And our narrator here in the center is trying to figure
out what is it that is making the family.
And eventually comes to the understanding that she can see
into all these families.
And that love is the in fact what makes that family work.
And that love is a many color of many love.
So I wanted to show the performers
who did the windows were dancers
and they created these little interstitial moments
in between the stories themselves.
You can also see the kind of rainbow theme which connects
to the topic of our panel.
And we ended with-- we ended and began with the different dragon
which is a story about a dragon who's different.
And the dragons are supposed to be mean and scary
but this dragon liked to play badminton.
And eat ice cream and didn't want to scare people.
And the little boy tells the dragon that it's OK.
It's OK to be different, we should all celebrate
that kind of difference.
We also used this rainbow ribbons as the many color love
that moves between and among all of these different stories
and all of these different families.
[ Pause ]
Going forward, what these books and this production teach me is
that we must be attentive to our aesthetic choices in all
of our representational forms.
These books paved the way for greater exclusivity
in our art whatever the medium.
[ Applause ]