Watch Us Rise - Hardcover

Watson, Renée; Hagan, Ellen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 154760008X ISBN 13: 9781547600083

Verlag: BLOOMSBURY, 2019

Inhaltsangabe

"This stunning book is the story I've been waiting for my whole life; where girls rise up to claim their space with joy and power.” --Laurie Halse Anderson, New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of Speak

"An extraordinary story of two indomitable spirits." --Brendan Kiely, New York Times bestselling co-author of All American Boys and Tradition

"Timely, thought-provoking, and powerful." --Julie Murphy, New York Times bestselling author of Dumplin'

Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Renée Watson teams up with poet Ellen Hagan in this YA feminist anthem about raising your voice.

Jasmine and Chelsea are best friends on a mission--they're sick of the way women are treated even at their progressive NYC high school, so they decide to start a Women's Rights Club. They post their work online--poems, essays, videos of Chelsea performing her poetry, and Jasmine's response to the racial microaggressions she experiences--and soon they go viral. But with such positive support, the club is also targeted by trolls. When things escalate in real life, the principal shuts the club down. Not willing to be silenced, Jasmine and Chelsea will risk everything for their voices--and those of other young women--to be heard.
These two dynamic, creative young women stand up and speak out in a novel that features their compelling art and poetry along with powerful personal journeys that will inspire readers and budding poets, feminists, and activists.

Acclaim for Piecing Me Together
2018 Newbery Honor Book
2018 Coretta Scott King Author Award
2017 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Young Adult Finalist
"Timely and timeless." --Jacqueline Woodson, award-winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming
"Watson, with rhythm and style, somehow gets at . . . the life-changing power of voice and opportunity." --Jason Reynolds, NYT-bestselling author of Long Way Down
"Brilliant." --John Green, New York Times bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars
* “Teeming with compassion and insight." --Publishers Weekly, starred review
* "A timely, nuanced, and unforgettable story about the power of art, community, and friendship." --Kirkus , starred review
* "A nuanced meditation on race, privilege, and intersectionality." --SLJ, starred review

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Renée Watson is a New York Times bestselling author. Her novel, Piecing Me Together, received a Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award. Her books include Ways to Make Sunshine, Some Places More Than Others, This Side of Home, What Momma Left Me, Betty Before X, cowritten with Ilyasah Shabazz, and Watch Us Rise, cowritten with Ellen Hagan, as well as two acclaimed picture books: A Place Where Hurricanes Happen and Harlem’s Little Blackbird, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Renée grew up in Portland, Oregon, and splits her time between Portland and New York City.
www.reneewatson.net; @reneewauthor

Ellen Hagan is a writer, performer, and educator. Her poetry collections include Hemisphere and Crowned. Her work can be found in ESPN Magazine, She Walks in Beauty, and Southern Sin. Ellen is the Director of the Poetry & Theatre Departments at the DreamYard Project and directs their International Poetry Exchange Program with Japan, South Korea and the Philippines. She co-leads the Alice Hoffman Young Writer's Retreat at Adelphi University. She lives in New York and Kentucky.
www.ellenhagan.com; @ellenhagan

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Watch Us Rise

By Renée Watson, Ellen Hagan

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Copyright © 2019 Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5476-0008-3

CHAPTER 1

JASMINE

I'm a month away from starting my junior year of high school, and I just found out my father only has four months to live.

I don't really hear all of what Mom and Dad are saying. Just the important words like "cancer" and "out of remission" and "stage four."

Chelsea is the first person I call. We've been friends since elementary school. I know once I tell her, she'll tell Nadine and Isaac, which is good because I only want to say it once.

I don't know what I'd do without Chelsea, Nadine, and Isaac.

They are the kind of friends who make even the ordinary day fun, who scrape every dollar they can to chip in on a birthday gift. The kind of friends who know the magic of making Rice Krispies Treats, the joy of curling up under blankets to watch back-to-back episodes of a favorite show with bowls of popcorn that we eat as fast as we can and make more. They are the kind of friends that show up at my house — even though I told them not to — to make sure I am okay.

Here they are on my stoop. Chelsea saying, "I needed to see your face."

Nadine hugs me. "We won't stay long ... unless you want us to. Whatever you need, we got you."

Isaac doesn't say anything. He just looks at me, and I know he knows this feeling all too well. His mom died when we were in elementary school. I was too young to drop everything and rush over to his house back then, but I remember when he came back to school, his eyes empty of the light they usually carried. I remember when our teacher had us make Mother's Day cards to take home and how he left to go to the bathroom and never came back. After school, when I saw him in the hallway, his eyes were red.

Isaac just sits on the top step of the stoop, right next to me, and really, that's all I want. Just someone to be here. Yeah, he knows.

We don't last long outside because it is too hot. Harlem's sun is blazing down on us, so we go inside and sit in the living room. Dad is on the sofa. I sit next to him. No one knows what to say or do when they see Dad. Dad cuts through the tension, acting like his normal self, like today is just a regular sunny New York day. "The young art-ivists have arrived," he says. He calls us artivists because we're all growing into ourselves as artists and activists. Well, that's what he says.

Chelsea is the poet.

Nadine is the singer (and a pretty good DJ too).

Isaac is the visual artist.

I am the writer and actress.

According to Dad, art is never just art, and since there is so much going on in the world we should be using our art to say something, do something. So when he asks, "What have you all been up to this summer?" and we answer in syncopation with shrugging shoulders, saying I don't know, he says, "you mean to tell me you all haven't created anything this summer?" He gives us all a disappointed look and says to Chelsea, "Not even one poem?" Before she can answer, Dad says, "And, Isaac, I know you know better." He says this to Isaac because Isaac's grandparents were part of the Young Lords Party, a Puerto Rican civil rights group. They helped to start Palante, a newspaper in the South Bronx that told news of the Young Lords. "There is no way you get a pass for not doing anything meaningful this summer," Dad says.

Isaac doesn't even try to talk himself out of it.

Dad keeps fussing. "You all have had so much time to take advantage of the city, and you haven't done anything? That is some kind of tragedy." He is smiling, kind of.

"There hasn't been much to do," Nadine says.

Dad shakes his head. "There's always something to do in New York." He starts coughing — hard — and everyone panics, rushing to get him water, tissues. Chelsea especially. "I'm okay. I'm okay. Just allergies," Dad says. "Dying people have regular ailments too." He laughs, but none of us do. Then he says, "I know Jasmine told you. Thank you for loving her enough to come over."

Chelsea wipes a tear from her face. "My mom and dad told me to ask if there is anything we can do?" Her voice sounds frail, and that is never, ever a word I think of to describe Chelsea.

Isaac says, "Yeah, my dad was asking too. He said he'd call a little later."

Dad looks like he is actually trying to think up something. He says, "I'll reach out to your parents if I need to. But, um, I do have something I'd like the four of you to do."

I lean forward. Nadine and Isaac sit up straighter. Chelsea says, "Anything."

"Well, like I said, I think it's tragic that you all are wasting your summer away. I didn't grow up in New York," Dad says. "I wish I'd had this rich culture at my fingertips."

"Dad, what does this have to do with us supporting you?" I ask.

"Oh, I don't need the kind of support you think I need, sweetheart. I need you all to keep on working on you — your education, your life as artists —"

"Dad —"

"Just indulge me for a moment, okay?"

I sit back, lean against the cushions.

"Listen, I don't want your pity or worry," Dad says. "I want each of you to be out there learning and growing and discovering. You all are such talented artists — and I mean that. Get out, go see the places that present poetry, visual art, and theater made by people of color. Study some of the greats so your work can be influenced by them."

"Are you seriously giving us another summer challenge?" I ask. It's not the first time Dad has sent us on a summer scavenger hunt of the city, but usually it's a little more thought out. Like the time he sent us out with a map of Harlem and challenged us to find historical landmarks and spaces essential to the Harlem Renaissance. We had to take a photo in front of each place as proof. And then there was the time he challenged us to only go to movie theaters that showed independent films. We had to share our findings and write reviews. We're used to him sending us out with maps and a list of instructions. But I didn't expect this today.

"Let's call it the Brown Art Challenge," Dad says.

We all just look at him, blank stares.

"I'm serious. You want to show how much you love and care about me? Keep living," he tells us. "Go out and find some inspiration. Create some art in response to what you see."

Chelsea is the first to agree, saying, "Where should we start?"

And just like that, the four of are sitting with Dad plotting and planning: Bronx Museum, Studio Museum, El Museo del Barrio. "And bonus points to the person who can surprise me with a place that's not on the list," Dad says. "But not the Schomburg Center. That would be cheating." Dad works at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and in some ways, it's my second home. I love it when an exhibit is just about to open and Dad brings me, Jason, and Mom to see it before anyone else.

Mom comes home with my brother, Jason, who is eight. He's been at summer camp all day and doesn't know about Dad yet. Mom gives me a look that tells me my company has to leave. And I wish they could stay because that would delay the moment my brother finds out that our dad is going to die. That would keep in these tears that want to fall so bad. I have been swallowing them since Chelsea, Nadine, and Isaac showed up. No matter how much Dad is trying to keep things normal with his New York City scavenger hunt, no matter how much we all try to laugh at his corny jokes, these tears are here....

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: BLOOMSBURY
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2019
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 154760008X
• ISBN 13: 9781547600083
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 368
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: WordUnited GmbH; distribution@wordunited.com; ; Theodorstrasse 105; DUSSELDORF; 40472; Deutschland