{"id":4917,"date":"2019-07-21T00:01:05","date_gmt":"2019-07-21T06:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4917"},"modified":"2019-07-21T08:14:42","modified_gmt":"2019-07-21T14:14:42","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-647-featuring-daniel-minter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4917","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #647: Featuring Daniel Minter"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“They caught the babies, \/ and catch them still, \/
welcome them into the world, \/ for loving.”<\/em>
(Click image to see spread in its entirety)<\/center>
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\n“Midwives have been in the world probably as long as there have been human babies on earth.” Thus opens The Women Who Caught the Babies<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, a picture book by the legendary Eloise Greenfield<\/a><\/strong>, coming to shelves in September (Alazar Press) and illustrated by Daniel Minter<\/a><\/strong>. A five-page introduction kicks things off and is followed by a series of poems that follows African American midwives from slavery to the early 2000s. The book closes with a poem about the midwife who caught Greenfield herself, as well as some family photos. <\/p>\n


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\nA poem called “The Women” (the one under the image at the top of this post) opens and closes this collection. In between, Greenfield’s free verse poetry captures the work of women in Africa (“before the shackles”) who caught babies; the slaves brought to America who continued the work; the women after Emancipation who caught babies “born into freedom”; and midwives of the early 1900s and 2000s. It’s a spare, short collection with unfussy, direct language; the verses capture the powerful, loving, and unwavering work of these women, who guided humans into the world “with gentle, loving hands.” The verses are accompanied by Minter’s dramatic portraits \u2014 dominated by rich shades of blue \u2014 of women and babies, though one features a black man holding his “first child born into freedom,” and they are filled with symbolic patterns and images. <\/p>\n

I’ve a few spreads here today to show you. (If you didn’t see Minter’s illustrations in Kelly Starling Lyons’s<\/a><\/strong> Going Down Home with Daddy<\/em>, be sure to head here<\/a><\/strong>. It’s one of my favorite picture books this year.)
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“Somewhere in the African past, \/ before the guns, before the \/ shackles …”<\/em>
(Click image to read text in its entirety)<\/center>
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” … She would have to leave quickly. \/ The baby would not wait. \/ She had already packed her things, \/ her stethoscope, her scales \/ for weighing the baby, and \/ everything she would need.”<\/em>
(Click image to read text in its entirety)<\/center>
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“Her cell phone rings. ‘Hurry!’ \/ the caller says, when the woman \/ answers. …”<\/em>
(Click image to read text in its entirety)<\/center>
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\nTHE WOMEN WHO CAUGHT THE BABIES: A STORY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MIDWIVES. Text copyright \u00a9 2019 by Eloise Greenfield. Illustrations copyright \u00a9 2019 by Daniel Minter and reproduced by permission of the publisher, Alazar Press, Carrboro, North Carolina.<\/em><\/p>\n

Note for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome.<\/p>\n

* * * Jules’ Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font>
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1)<\/strong><\/font> One of my oldest and best friends is a midwife, and I think I’ll have to get her a copy of this book. Also, I looooove<\/em> hearing about her work. <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> This striking poem<\/a><\/strong> from Ross Gay<\/a><\/strong> that I read this week. <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> I got to talk to a group of librarians this week about my favorite picture books of the year. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> The Horn Book’s<\/em> 2018 retrospective<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> They’ve announced a Steven Universe<\/em><\/a><\/strong> MOVIE!<\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> The newly-announced Fresh Air<\/em> archives<\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> Ideas and suggestions from colleagues and friends. <\/p>\n

What are YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“They caught the babies, \/ and catch them still, \/welcome them into the world, \/ for loving.”(Click image to see spread in its entirety)   “Midwives have been in the world probably as long as there have been human babies on earth.” Thus opens The Women Who Caught the Babies, a picture book by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}