Welcome to “How to Act.” A limited-run mini-podcast series produced by the New Mexico Black Education Act Bureau in celebration of Black History Month. Here at H2A we treasure and showcase stories of those who have and continue to enrich the Black educational landscape in New Mexico and beyond. Because Black History isn’t my history or your history…Black History is New Mexico History … and no matter who or where you are, if you are under the sound of this Pod, this history is for you. I’m your host, Hakim Bellamy and this is “How to Act.”

American educator and philanthropist Mary McCleod Bethune once said, "The whole world opened to me when I learned to read." And who better to compare notes with when it comes to the love of reading, than award-winning children’s book author and retired librarian, Vaunda Micheaux Nelson. With dozens of titles for young readers to her credit, Nelson has been the recipient of the Coretta Scott King Author Award, the Simon Wiesenthal Once Upon a World Children’s Book Award, an Anne Izard Storyteller’s Choice Award, a Carter G. Woodson Honor, and a Washington Post Best Book of the Year recognition.

In the tradition of mystical storytelling (shout out to all my griots out there), we began with our protagonists’ paradox… her origin story, if you will. The prequel, as the kids call it today. Not simply how a young Black girl becomes a librarian…or becomes an award-winning author of books for young readers, but rather what is the make-up of people who can see the past, present, and future through the books they read … how that turns into a superpower of empathy and compassion, that ultimately allows them to start building worlds of their own. So, basically, I asked Vaunda Nelson how she became a Jedimaster at a library in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

This podcast is a partnership between the New Mexico Black Education Act Advisory Council and the New Mexico Black Education Act Bureau. Find out more about the New Mexico Black Education Act here https://web.ped.nm.gov/bureaus/student-support-services/black-education-act/