![]() ![]() ![]() James’s artwork brings life to Barnes’s words. We have to understand the history here - that this space existed as one of the few public spaces where Black men could freely express their manhood and where they could stand straight, look a man in the eye, speak clearly, laugh, tell inside jokes and, for just a moment, be free of fear. He’s claiming his story, while inviting us inside to a tale happening in the barbershop, one of the most revered spaces of African American manhood. There he is with his sly, side-eye glance, though really he looks directly at us. That guy on the first page of the book takes away any reason for fear. To see this picture book that celebrates African American men is really quite remarkable. We searched for books and found very few of them. This was made evident to me several years ago by a white co-worker searching for picture books featuring Black men to read to her young niece, who had expressed a fear of Black men. If you take the time to look through picture books from the United States, you’ll find how rare it is to see an image of a Black man. As indicated visually on the cover, this crown belongs to the men. ![]() The title of the book plays on the old adage that a woman’s hair is her crown. It finally brings us a new book (and the first picture book) from Derrick Barnes, an author of both young adult books and early readers. ![]()
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