Trinidadian author and illustrator Jeunanne Alkins will headline a free Universal Children’s Day conversation hosted by the Caribbean Culture Fund (CCF) on Friday 20 November. She will be joined by two CCF grantees who make books, stories and digital spaces for Caribbean children and teens. “Caribbean Children, Caribbean Stories: From Representation to Ownership” runs on Zoom from 10:00 a.m. ET
Alkins trained as a journalist at the Caribbean School of Media and Communication (CARIMAC) in Kingston and has spent two decades making books and designs for Caribbean children. This year she returned to CARIMAC as the featured artist in its CCF-funded media artist residency.
Her talk will draw on that residency and on Bright Eyed, her storyworld project, exploring how original Caribbean stories can travel across books, animation, games, interactive exhibitions and immersive technologies, creating new ways to play, discover and learn. She will also share the development of Bim & Bam, a new children’s media property that explores travel through the region from a distinctly Caribbean perspective.
Each grantee panelist works with a different youth age group. Sonia Dumas joins from Zum Zum Museum in Trinidad and Tobago, whose Once Upon a Caribbean Time produces picture books for children aged four to eight, built around folktale characters and made almost entirely from recycled materials. Efua Akoma’s Island Life: Where Family, Culture and Farms Thrive brings children’s book authors and farming families in Grenada, Dominica and St. Lucia together in an illustrated anthology of farm stories and food folklore.
“These artists are writing the books, lessons and stages our children will grow up with. On Universal Children’s Day, we want them to hear from each other, and we want the people who fund children’s futures to hear from them,” said Kellie Magnus, Executive Director of the Caribbean Culture Fund.
The speakers represent a wider share of CCF’s work. Of its first 100 grantees, 14 projects in 12 Caribbean countries and territories are made for or with children and teens: nine are built around young audiences, and five include a dedicated school or children’s programme. They include animation for children in Dominica, and film and comics made with young Dominicans of Haitian descent affected by denationalisation.
Registration is open at https://bit.ly/4dZ1ab4
