Keene State Children’s Literature Festival
October 22, 2011
E. B. Lewis
Dr. White showed a Barbara Streisand video, singing the song her son wrote for her s a birthday present when she was in Europe making Yentl. Children love you. They watch you and imitate you. “You’ve got to be carefully taught.”
History of the CLF. In 1978, Dr. White my idea for the festival was accepted. I had to write a grant by 9am the next day (it was late on a Friday afternoon). They sold books to raise money for the festival, but was told the money had to be turned in and couldn’t be saved for the festival. At the time, Edward McKay worked at Keene State and told Dr. White, he would open an account for the festival. It is because of him, the festival was able to raise enough money to continue. He is how the chancellor of the New Hampshire system. According to him, KSC stands for
Knowledge, Service and Community. Dr. White’s philosophy is “If you’re going to do something, do it well.”
Up to today, there have been 141 speakers at Keene CLF, including 22 Caldecott award winners and 19 Newbery award winners. The festival gallery, started in 1990, has examples from over 200 illustrators.
Introduction-E.B. Lewis uses Earl Bradley Lewis as his name for his fine arts career. He has a strong connection to the words in the Barbara Streisand video. Lewis has a project called Lotto
Icons-children’s pictures on lottery tickets. Children need the money from all the lottery tickets people buy and don’t win with, but throw away, for food. “Children are our most precious commodity.”-EB Lewis. If we scratch children enough, they will be winners. Lewis doesn’t scratch the Lotto Icons first. He doesn’t want to see if the children are winners or losers.
I am honored to follow some of my heroes in this industry as a speaker at this festival. I apologize to those who thought they were coming to see E.B. White. I’m the black one. I am an educator, having been involved in education for 22 years. I was just in Michigan to speak to principals and superintendents and tried to ge them to think about children. Children don’t care what you know until they know that you care. I am here today because of my uncle Bradley. I was the first born and was alive five years before my sister was born. It was an incredible five years. He shared a photo of his grandmother and another of his uncle Bradley, who was a painter.
His house was an amazing place to be. By the time he got to school he was a mess. He tried to get attention and didn’t know how to do it. He failed third grade, which resonates with a lot of kids. He remembers third grade math class, there was an old fireplace in the room. He sneaked and climbed up inside the fireplace. He got hauled to the principal’s office for doing that. The principal had a huge paddle which he spanked the kids with. E.B. ran away from home to see if his parents really loved him. He actually was hiding behind the couch. That was the worst whipping he got in his life. He hid from morning till mid-afternoon. He actually was hiding the problem. His real problem was the inability to read. He was dyslexic. That was his way out. If he was asked to read in class, he would lash out and get sent to the principal’s office. In sixth grade, they had a career day. He had to sit up front in the auditorium next the teacher. All of the people who were there to talk about their careers were on the stage. One gentleman asked the children in the audience what they wanted to be when they grew up. Charlie said he wanted to be a doctor. I raised my hand and the teacher kept putting it down, so I raised my other hand. I said I wanted to

be a lawyer. Everyone in the auditorium laughed. I wanted to run out. The lawyer on stage, never responded. I realized at that point I was the laughing stock of the school. My Uncle Bradley stepped in. He died last year. He knew I was drowning. He got me on a Saturday morning and said “come with me.” He took me to a Saturday morning art class. He did that for six years. He left his wife and three daughters every Saturday during the summer, when he should have been spending time with them and took me to art class. It changed my life. I have dedicated my life to him. Just the fact that you draw does not make you an artist. You need to read. My uncle brought me books artists. I kept going to the library to get books about artists. I went to Temple
University and graduated with a 3.94 average. I know teach teachers. Kids can tell the minute you walk in the door. If they detect that you don’t care, you’ll never have them.
My icons have taken over my life. What happens when inspiration dies? That happened to me for two and a half years. I thought my work was not important or good enough. I spent that time going to museums. I saw a piece of art about the Tuskegee Airmen in South Caroline (a gold statue with planes crashing into it). I decided to talk about what was going on in society in my fine art. One evening at 10:30, this pearl dropped in my lap. I ran to a convenience store that is open all night and bought Doublemint gum and a lottery ticket. The wrappers now don’t separate the way they used to. But I wanted to paint on the silver gum wrapper. It was almost like being in an archaeological dig and finding what was underneath. Once you sweep the dirt away, you find the precious things. The streets are littered with lottery tickets that aren’t winners. In visiting around the country, I realized that the images I created looked like religious icons. I now make frames that look like 12 th
century Byzantine frames for them. I am trying to bring awareness. The
Creator has given me this task and artistic ability.
My fine art is what I did before children’s book illustrations. I go to places where children are to paint them. I like to paint them from behind to show you outside looking in. I have an affinity for water, so many of my paintings are close to water. I like to paint light. I was once invited to paint a thoroughbred at the horse stables. I fell in love with a wheelbarrow and painted that. I probably won’t be invited back there.
I love cheese steaks and went to Philadelphia to get the real thing. The buildings they are housed in are quite beautiful. In Charlestown, one section is called Crosstown, where people are being displaced. I painted some of the people there, especially the children. I am documenting the safe houses (where slaves stayed trying to gain freedom) across the US.
When I was first asked to do children’s illustrations, I said no. I thought there was a great difference between fine art and illustrations. I was told to look it up and what shown what worked and didn’t work in children’s illustrations. I called back and said I’d do it. I now have 54 books and love my work.
I work like N.C. Wyeth, using live models. I take photographs and go from there. I go to the library to do my research. I now go to schools to get my models. I want them to be authentic. I once went to an Ethiopian restaurant and asked for a seven year old child. I was told, “we don’t serve them here.” My illustrations are an amalgamation of several parts. I spent five weeks in
Ethiopia. The kids were like sponges. All they wanted to do was go to university. Ethiopia has the lowest life expectancy, at age 45.
I love the badges that go on books (for Caldecott, Coretta Scott King award, etc.) I love trying to get the kids to do what I want in the illustrations. Sometimes the kids come up with the ideas. I put a hugging scene in all my books. I don’t think kids get enough hugs. I love The Other Side. I cried when I read it. As a kid in school, we all had to read outloud. Because of my dyslexia, I would memorize the books instead of reading. (He showed the photo of the two girls-the main

characters in the book). Both girls were told they not to go over the fence, but weren’t told they couldn’t sit on it. They ended up friends. Woodson outdid this book with Each Kindness, a book about a girl dressed poorly. All the other children said they wouldn’t be friends with her. This goes on all year. The teacher brings a bowl of water and drops in pebbles of kindness. Each child is supposed to talk about what they have done to show kindness. Sometimes you don’t get a second chance to show kindness.
Circle Unbroken is about the sweetgrass baskets from Charleston. I fell in love with
Charleston. I was asked to do the illustrations for I, Too, Am America, and was thrilled to have my name attached to the same book as Langston Hughes.
Doing a book is like doing a small movie. It is wonderful seeing the transformation of the people becoming the characters in the book. Night Running is a slave narrative, a true story, about a boy who crossed the Ohio River with his dog. The boy tells the dog not to bark so they won’t get caught. The dog I had as a model for the illustrations, did not like water. He absolutely refused to go in, so we had to carry him in and he started swimming out right away. I tried getting a shot from above and climbed into a tree to get the shot and fell out. That dog would not go to sleep so I could get a shot of that either.
My studio is a warehouse for my work. It also has a pool table, which I love. It is my favorite place. My oldest son is getting ready to be a lawyer, going to Temple University.