stay up

KHODI DILL is a Bahamian-Canadian writer of everything from rap songs to spoken word poetry to children’s books, including Welcome to the Cypher and Little Black Lives Matter. He is a practicing anti-racist educator and a sought-after public speaker on issues of social justice, identity, and education. Khodi lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.STYLO STARR is a Jamaican-Canadian collage artist whose work centres nature, fantasy, and notions of the Afrofuture. She is an emerging curator and arts educator with interests in exploring hand-cut collage as a grounding and healing creative modality. stylo lives and works in her hometown of Hamilton, Ontario.

• the landauthor’s noteepigraphIntroductionsection I: the know-upchapter 1: the gut knows whussupIntuition (gut feeling) as a way of knowing, Childhood and early experiences of racism, police and policingchapter 2: black ain’t a colour; it’s a conceptSocial construction of race, Biracial identity, Bahamian and Canadian identity, Wealth inequalitysection II: personal liberationchapter 3: don’t be hatin’ (yourself)Self-worth and self-confidence, How white supremacy breaks down Black confidence and self-worth; Claiming that confidence as resisting white supremacist structureschapter 4: how to show love, and rage, tooHow Black emotions (especially joy and rage) are suppressed in a white supremacist society, Art as a means of expressing these emotions and as an act of resistancechapter 5: black like you.Blackness contains multitudes, The joy and possibility inherent in expressing one’s own Blackness and not what Blackness is assumed to besection III: social transformationchapter 6: make the old school newThe many ways schools and western education upholds white supremacist standards through, clothing, language and other meanschapter 7: pick your battles and your teamstrategies for confronting racism and resisting oppression, Finding community to share in this fight, The importance of connecting with one’s ancestors/spiritualityconclusionepiloguefurther readingsources

“Eloquent and inspiring . . . Teens will appreciate this straightforward, honest, and respectful offering.” —Booklist, *starred review, 09/15/23