On June 19, there will be a #KidLit4BlackLivesCanada rally sponsored by the Toronto bookstore A Different Booklist and kidlit publisher Groundwood Books. The event will take place on A Different Booklist’s Facebook Live channel and Zoom.

Author and educator Nadia L. Hohn will host the three-part event – kids at 7 p.m.; teens at 7:45 p.m.; and parents, educators, and librarians at 8:15 p.m. – which, according to the press release, “is designed to educate, empower, and heal, in response to incidents of police brutality, anti-Black racism, and other forms of racial oppression” through stories, songs, reflections, poetry, and discussions with Black-Canadian kidlit authors and allies.

The panelists joining Hohn are: Catherine Hernandez, Rahma Rodaah, Ishta Mercurio, S.K. Ali, Nigel Barriffe, Leroi Newbold and the Freedom School, Subliminal Kareative Internlude, Angelot Ndongmo, Sahle Robinson, Sarah Raughley, Janice Lynn Mather, Rabia Khokhar, Karen Li, Zetta Elliott, Robin Stevenson, Jael Richardson, Njacko Backo, Melanie Florence, Kelvin Nyeusi Mawazo, Itah Sadu, and Sean Liburd.

This event, which falls on Juneteenth – celebrated as a Day of Freedom for the African-American community in the U.S. – is modelled after #KidLit4BlackLives, which took place earlier this month and featured American authors Kwame Alexander, Jacqueline Woodson, and Jason Reynolds.

---

Correction, June 18: This story has been updated. The session for parents, educators, and librarians begins at 8:15 p.m. The original stated the session began at 8 p.m. due to an error in the event’s press release.