'Dia de Los Ninos, Libros': a celebration of literacy
Literacy was celebrated May 14 at ASU's Memorial Union, where the second annual Dia De Los Ninos/Dia De Los Libros event took place. James Blasingame, an associate professor in the Department of English, greets some of the 350-plus students who attended.
Carolivia Herron, a scholar and children’s book author, signs books for attendees. Herron is the Distinguished Project Humanities Visiting Scholar at ASU.
The Baile Floklorico Group from Agua Fria High School performed as students arrived for the event, which was sponsored by the Central Arizona Writing Project in the Department of English.
Neal Lester, an associate vice president and professor of English (background), and Carolivia Herron led the participants in an enthusiastic call-and-response reading of Herron’s children’s book “Nappy Hair.”
Janette Rallison (left), along with other young adult authors Angela Morrison, Aprilynne Pike and Tom Leveen, talked about writing and answered questions from the attentive audience.
Scholar Dawn Lambson helps participants make a writer's notebook during her workshop. The notebooks were to be used to capture everyday important events in the students’ lives.
Conrad Storad talked about turning facts into fun fiction with his book “Rattlesnake Rules” as an example.
Scholars Alleen Nilsen and Don Nilsen led a fun session about “laugh out loud" books.
Debra LaPlant helps students get started in a poetry writing exercise using magnetic words as a starting point to help write poems.
ASU alumni and Myrlin Hepworth, a Young Writers Program teaching artist, talks about writing and performing poetry.
Wendy Williams, a doctoral student in English education (left), and songwriter and rapper “Pace” helped a group of students during a session on songwriting.
As the session came to an end, author Rene Colato Lainez signed books for fans. Lainez had spoken to the group about his three rules for success: never give up, study hard and believe in yourself.
Young adult author Ray Villareal signs books following his keynote address.