Artist Talk: Rooted in Family

Join us online for a lively discussion moderated by Shadra Strickland, co-curator of Rooted: Family and Nature in Contemporary Children’s Book Illustration, with award-winning illustrators Cozbi Cabrera, Joe Cepeda, and Devon Holzwarth about the choices artists make in portraying families and how they envision their characters engaging with the world around them. 

• Shadra Strickland is an award-winning author, illustrator, and educator whose most recent book, Jump In, celebrates an intergenerational community coming together for Double Dutch. Shadra is currently the Chair of Illustration at the Maryland Institute College of Art.  
• Cozbi A. Cabrera is an author, illustrator, doll maker, and clothes designer. Me & Mama (2020) was written and illustrated by Cabrera and was a winner of a 2021 Caldecott Honor and a Coretta Scott King Award Honor for Illustration. The story and images vividly celebrate a mother and young daughter as they spend a rainy day together enjoying simple but meaningful activities both in their home and outside. 
• Joe Cepeda is an award-winning illustrator of more than 30 books for children and serves as the president of the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles. He is the author and illustrator for Rafa Counts on Papá (2022), a story of a father and son who share a love for numbers and measuring everything from how high their dog can jump to how far they can run. Cepeda’s vibrant, bold, and colorful illustrations capture the joyful, dynamic relationship between father and son. 
• Devon Holzwarth is an illustrator, author, and painter whose past awards include a Society of Illustrators gold medal and the Schneider Family Book Award. Her expressive illustrations for Papa, Daddy, & Riley (2020, written by Seamus Kirst) convey the love and closeness of Riley and her two dads and help to explain that families can have many forms. 

This program will be held online via Zoom and the link to access the event will be sent to the email address used during the pay-what-you-wish registration. Please double-check your spam/junk folder if you do not receive the confirmation email. If you encounter any difficulties in registering or accessing the Zoom link after registering, please email [email protected]. The event will be recorded and shared if you’re unable to attend live.