On the last day of Black History Month 2014, Dr. Ayesha Randall, interim vice president of LACCD BFSA and education instructor at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, premiered her first Chocolate Storytime at La Pintoresca Library in Pasadena, California.
Chocolate Storytime is set in a positive and affirming environment that includes fun with books and stories, songs, and movement activities. Chocolate Storytime builds language acquisition, literacy development, and cooperative team building skills and is a way to expose all children to more images of African American images.
She said, “As a mother of a 6-year old, it is important to bring my daughter around images of herself in a positive and supportive environment. Recently, she has been noticing differences in her hair and skin color, so I wanted to make sure that I celebrated those characteristics in a public setting. But although it is a deliberate choice of authors, illustrators, characters, and content, it is still just storytime for the kids, and they had a great time.”
Chocolate Storytime will occur on the last Fridays of March, April, and May of 2014. For more information, visit www.chocolatestorytime.com.
