Host Davey D opens the conversation by spotlighting the Ninth Annual Social Justice Childrens Book Fair and the larger fight over books, knowledge, and representation. He is joined by organizer and author illustrator Robert Liu Trujillo, along with writers and educators Mona Damluji and Justine Villanueva. Together they walk listeners through how this Bay Area based fair grew from a local need into a powerful cultural hub.
Robert explains that the fair began when he became a young father and could not find childrens books that reflected families of color, queer families, and immigrant communities. Along with organizers like Innosanto Nagara and Laura Atkins, he helped build a space specifically for social justice minded kids books. He also talks about his latest book Fresh Juice, which follows a Black father and son and centers community and healthy food.
The discussion quickly moves to book bans and political attacks on educators. Davey notes that books like his own with Jeff Chang have been banned, and that this censorship is part of a wider push to cultivate ignorance. Robert describes how work that uplifts people of color or queer identities has been especially targeted, turning banned book lists into a strange mix of badge of honor and real harm, since it removes access for young readers.
Mona connects her university teaching to her childrens writing. Her picture book I Want You To Know grew from a poem to her Iraqi and Lebanese children written on the twentieth anniversary of the United States invasion of Iraq. With lush illustrations of contemporary Iraq, she wants young readers and their caregivers to ask critical questions about war, displacement, and media stereotypes, and to see Arab and Muslim people beyond the usual Orientalist images.
Justine shares how becoming a mother exposed the near absence of Filipino stories in kids books. She began hand making simple bilingual books, which eventually evolved into a multilingual press publishing titles like Mama Mama Do You Know What I Like and Party Time in English, Tagalog, Bisaya, and Binukid. She stresses that seeing yourself on the page can unlock a lifelong love of reading for children and also heal the inner child in adults.
The show closes with Robert laying out details about the fair at Emerson Elementary in Oakland, the new award ceremony at Chapter 510, and the wide range of authors, panels, performances, and activities designed to help families, educators, and community members reclaim reading as a joyful, critical, and deeply political act.
Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.