MLK Day
This Martin Luther King Jr. Day found PCM working with two different school communities to channel MLK’s activist legacy. In Mt Airy, students, families and educators at C.W. Henry Elementary School learned about MLK’s campaign to war on poverty and wrote letters to Philadelphias new mayor, Cherelle Parker. Children as young as kindergarten used what they knew and learned about King to demand things like preserving Chinatown, feeding the hungry, addressing the opioid crisis, funding schools, fighting book bans, stopping gun violence and keeping music, arts, nurses, and libraries in all schools.
Meanwhile just outside the city at Glenside Elementary School, PCM shared about our Radical Little Library project, connecting the freedom of speech with King’s love of reading, speaking, and learning. Glenside Elementary used MLK Day as an opportunity to build (literally) and launch their own Radical Little Library as a spot to share banned, challenged, or underrepresented titles with Black and Brown authors and stories. PCM core member Sam Gerlach, shared about how PCM has grown our own Radical Little Library over the last two years as a way to broaden the stories we read and hear and combat book bans. Children and families painted and build their school’s radical little library, collected books with Black and Brown authors and stories, made book marks, played the banned book game, and posed in the Banned Books Photobooth. We can’t wait to visit the RLL at Glenside Elementary!
Philadelphia Free Library Teen Social Justice Fair
We spent the day inviting teens to think about representation in books, how to speak out when bans are happening, playing a mini version of the banned book game, and giving away copies of young adult books with BIPOC authors and stories like Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower (graphic novel edition), Trevor Noah’s autobiography, and Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X. Meeting so many teens committed to social justice was a highlight of our fall!
Philadelphia Family Pride: Family Matters Conference
At the Philadelphia Family Pride “Family Matters” Conference on Saturday October 14th, PCM invited children and their grown-ups to think about what their family stands for and create “Family Manifestos”. We shared some antiracist family manifestos that PCM families have made over the years, read Julián is a Mermaid, and encouraged toddlers through teens to consider how we build a world with intersectional justice. It was powerful to see how sure the children were that “kids will change the world”.
Philadelphia Literacy Day with Treehouse Books
PCM had a blast on Saturday September 9 as the streets were filled with books, stories, music, and dancing in the streets! We brought our “banned book” game and asked people of all ages to guess which books had been challenged or banned in public schools. Kids and teens especially loved our selfie station with the banned book poster as backdrop and the Polaroids they got to take home and keep. Quite a few people stayed to create bookmarks for themselves or the Radical Little Library, and many wrote postcards to state representatives about the need for legislation to curb book bans. Literacy + Activism + Play = JOY!
Teach Truth Day of Action
PCM joined the national #teachtruth Day of Action and had an empowering day playing the banned book guessing game, decorating bookmarks, exchanging banned books, and educating folks on the dangers of Moms for Liberty and their bigoted agenda.
Stop MFL Protest at the Marriott
We were proud to participate in the second of many large-scale protests at the Downtown Marriott, who’s hosting the Moms for Liberty “Joyful Warriors” conference this summer. Thanks to ACT-UP Philadelphia for taking the lead. So many great signs and so much amazing energy went toward this protest to show the Marriott what our city stands for.
Talking With Kids About Identity & Justice — workshops 1 & 2
Our Talking With Kids about Identity & Justice series is off with a bang! We hosted our first two workshops this spring, equipping parents, caregivers, and educators with strategies and resources for talking about identity and justice with young kids and building a justice-oriented home and community.
PCM’s Radical Little Library’s New Home
Our Radical Little Library has a new home, and it’s more important than ever! Visit us on the campus of the C.W. Henry School at 601 Carpenter Lane in Mt. Airy to explore a rotating selection of books featuring BIPOC and/or LGBTQ and/or disabled and/or other underrepresented stories. If you’re looking for a way to fight rising book bans, please consider donating some banned books to the RLL.
Radical Devotion
We had the privilege of listening to Jeanine Cook – PCM co-founder and owner of Harriet’s Bookshop — in conversation with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and Loveis Wise about their beautiful children’s book, Magnolia Flower. PCM’s table featured a banned book guessing game and banned book resistance bookmarks.
Germantown Fridge Birthday Party
We loved meeting new families who stopped by our table at the Germantown Community Fridge’s 2nd birthday! We created communities of care webs and had fun dancing and learning about mutual aid with the Germantown Fridge and NW Mutual Aid Collective.
Spiral Q Workshop
We had so much fun painting and playing with Spiral Q, preparing for the Peoplehood Parade. PCM families created awesome puppets and banners, leaning into joy as resistance.
RLL Needs You!
PCM’s Radical Little Library (now located at the C.W. Henry School in Mt. Airy) is off to a great start, but we need your help to make it truly thrive. We’re seeking partners (groups, neighborhoods, schools, etc) to volunteer to take a week- or month-long shift stocking the library with books featuring BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+ stories and/or authors — bonus points if they’re banned books 🙂
We Still Here
The Philly Children’s Movement’s Radical Little Library is officially in action! The amazing Ursula Rucker performed spoken word, pushing us to grapple with history, justice, and humanity — to a beat — while admiring her mural “We Still Here” by Mural Arts. Thanks to the Germantown Fridge for partnering with us on this powerful celebration of mutual aid.
Announcing PCM’s Radical Little Library!
Donate to our Radical Little Library, now located at 601 Carpenter Lane in Mt. Airy, by the C.W. Henry School. We’re especially looking for books that center BIPOC and LGBTQ+ characters, authors, and joy!
MLK Day of Activism 2022
PCM celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a powerful and inspiring Zoom program with children and families. We were fortunate enough to have Ursula Rucker perform spoken word for us, and we are in awe of the artwork that kids created based on her mural “We Still Here” by Mural Arts.
Reading Promise Festival
We had a great time partnering with Jenks Academy to join Ready by 4th’s Reading Promise Week and share tons of free diverse children’s books! We celebrated literacy with music, games, snacks, and so many books.
Bringin’ the Joy – Summer 2021
The PCM community is big and growing! It was so much fun to join our community in their own neighborhoods this summer to celebrate activism through art. Chalking, bubbles, and capes galore!
Juneteenth 2021
We celebrated and commemorated Juneteenth by supporting the Germantown Cricket Club’s Celebration of Black Life and the Johnson House’s 15th Annual Juneteenth Celebration. Thank you to these groups for hosing these joyous sand impactful events.
MLK Day 2021
We had an amazing turn-out of young people and families to celebrate MLK Day through storytelling, arts, and activism. No pandemic can stop us from joining together in community to celebrate amazing changemakers.
To Minneapolis, With Love
As part of #FamilySummer4BlackLives, PCM families collaborated with Wee the People, Revolutionary Humans, Books for Littles, MassArt, and Parenting Decolonized to write love letters to Black communities in Minneapolis, the city where George Floyd was murdered by police violence.
Family Day of Action 2020
What a powerful day with so many of our favorite forms of child-centric activism: toy protests, sign- and cape-making, chalking the walk, 8-word poems, and more! While we couldn’t join together in person, we saw so much amazing work.
Joy & Justice Kits
There are so many different ways to be an activist and think about change-making. PCM’s joy & justice kits allowed kids and families to think about their own communities and how they can make a difference while stuck at home. Featuring Rulers, PlayDough, toy signs, globes, chalk, and more, these kids led to some amazing thinking, discussion, and action from PCM families.