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| Dare Coulter | |
This week, the American Library Association announced the 2024 Youth Media Award winners. The Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award, recognizing "an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults," was given to Dare Coulter for An American Story (Little, Brown), written by Kwame Alexander.
How are you feeling about winning the CSK Illustrator Award?
I'm SO EXCITED!!!!! I'm incredibly happy, and I'm so grateful. I'm also very sleepy. I've slept most of today--this morning was such a big rush of emotion. I have shirts that I made that say "Blessed by Beautiful Black Books" with the names of Black authors and illustrators up and down the sleeves. Some of those authors and illustrators are messaging and posting to tell me congratulations, so I feel surrounded by love. I feel fortunate in being a part of a legacy of Black excellence and greatness.
The illustrations in this book are beyond impressive--you put the phrase "mixed media" to shame. Have you illustrated in this style before?
I remember the first time I heard the term mixed media; I was applying for the Women's Club's art competition in high school. And when the category was explained, this little lightbulb went off because I realized I could use anything I wanted--it didn't have to be just one media. And then I proceeded to fall in love with everything. I sincerely feel like artwork is a love letter, and I've got to put everything in it that I can to make sure that it gets to be its best self. I've not illustrated in this style before but it's not going to be the last time you see this style! It just has to make sense for the manuscript/project.
What made you want to illustrate this book in this way?
I hope it doesn't sound silly, but I needed to find a way to make sure that the art I loved the most could make it into the most important work I feel I am doing. Also, I've very repeatedly said that Kwame [Alexander] is the Beyoncé of children's books and if Beyoncé calls you for your first feature, you don't not give Beyoncé your most innovative work! Right?
On a more reflective note, it was important to me that the humans in this story--who we knew would ultimately have their humanity discarded by the institution of slavery--felt as close to human as they could. Water-based clay (specifically the red kind) is weird because it starts to smell like skin while you're working with it. There comes a moment where I get weirded out because it feels like the sculpture could open its eyes, and it's very bizarre. You start to feel bad for cutting into the clay. I didn't think a 2-D drawing or painting would provide that same nuance. Sculptures were necessary to create the gravity of humanity in the context of this story. Kwame is brilliant and wrote a beautiful manuscript, and I wanted to make sure that my art could meet the magnificence of his words. (Can I add in how proud of Kwame I am, and how grateful I am to be able to watch him supernova through the world right now?)
Was it your idea to use different mediums to illustrate different timelines in the story (clay for the past, charcoal for the present)?
I don't think the world will understand how many conversations I had with Rubin [Pfeffer, her agent] while developing this work... he was "in the trenches" with me. (Sincerely, he helped me keep it together and stay on track and I will love him forever for many reasons but especially for that!) One of us would present a "what if" and the other would respond and it would evolve from there. Between the two of us there were several ideas about portraying time, enslaved vs. free, classroom vs. not, etc.
...How? Like seriously how did you do this? Were you also your own photographer?
Giiiiirl, NO! I was absolutely NOT my own photographer because I tried, and it was horrible. I need to thoroughly explain how terrible the pictures I took were. They were so bad!
I packed my car up with artwork and drove to Brooklyn to the studio of Howard Huang who is a magician at work. We were in his studio, and it was me, Saho Fuji, Dave Caplan, and Rubin, and [Huang] would shoot an image, air drop it to Saho, she'd put it in the layout, I'd check it out, and she would say something she needed. So, Howard would re-shoot, and we would go back and forth like that until it was perfect. But it was only perfect because Howard has the skillset to make it look good. He's sincerely the reason the mixed media works so well; I was outside of my skill range on this one. I use this as an example when I do school visits to tell kids that it's okay to ask for help. I really needed help!
You say in your illustrator's note that your work usually focuses on joy. What was it like to illustrate a heavy book that carries such a painful history?
I know I started this interview with talking about sleep, but to bring it back in, I think there's a point where you've got to figure out how to shut it all off. Sometimes that was just throwing in the towel and going to bed. It's weird feeling like you know a lot about a subject and then still experiencing new emotions about it. Once you start digging into the artifacts of slavery and oppression, you realize that you're seeing physical experiences of brutality. I don't think I did well separating from that.
But it's worth sorting through the complexities that I experienced on my own to be able to tell this story. Joy is my jam, but I've had to reason with the notion that in the Black experience there is a simultaneous presence of joy and pain. And telling the stories of pain just helps underscore why the stories of joy are important and valid.
Is there anything you'd like to add or to tell Shelf readers?
Man, do I have something to add! Do you and do it well.
I saw this post about a person making art of a peacock. They were in critique and someone who wasn't a fan of the aesthetic said, "Make me hate it." They basically said they thought it was tacky because it was glittery and bejeweled. Something like that. So, since they would never be providing a positive review of it, they were saying that they would love to see it be as glittery and embellished as possible.
At a certain point you can't be concerned about whether people who aren't into the thing that you do are going to appreciate it--your job is to breathe life into your work and to let it be its best self. The quarrelsome man has no good neighbors; don't be your own quarrelsome man to your art. And don't let other people who don't hold value for the type of work that you produce be your quarrelsome man. Glitter that peacock! --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness