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Shadra Strickland
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On summer nights my family and I would sit around my grandmother’s kitchen table and tell stories. You wouldn’t believe the tombstone tossin’, out the window flyin’, coke-bottle throwin’, packin’ a sack and leavin’ kinds of stories that swirled around for hours leaving us children wide-eyed with envy. Over the years, my cousins and I competed; adding to the table gut-busting, big bone breakin’, down the stairs fallin’, gettin’ on a bus and goin’ stories of our own. When we were big enough, we ran out into the world to collect more. I packed my pencils, paper, and brushes, and drove to Orange Country. After about four years, the orange men told about a big apple that I should see. So I went. It was full of exotic people with strange tales. Surely, I would have the best stories when I went home. Well, just when I thought I’d get a good one going, an aunt, uncle, or mother would grab his or her belly in a laugh, slap his or her knee, and say, “Yeah, that’s a good one, but let me tell you about the time when…” So I packed my pencils, paper, and brushes and... Shadra studied design, illustration, and writing at Syracuse University. She earned her M.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts. She now collects stories in Brooklyn, NY. |
Watch the trailer for Shadra's award-winning book Bird.
Awards
On April 30, 2009, Shadra received an Ezra Jack Keats Award for Excellence in Childrens Literature at The New York Public Library for her watercolor, gouache, charcoal, and pen illustrations in Bird, which captures the world of a young boy who escapes into art.
The 2009 Coretta Scott King, John Steptoe Award for New Talent, for her illustration of Bird, written by Zetta Elliott (Lee & Low Books)
Kirkus 2008 Best Children's Books for Bird
NAACP Award for Our Children Can Soar
Reviews
Praise for Bird, illustrated by Shadra Strickland: "[Author Zetta] Elliott's sensitivity for her subjects resonates with Strickland's distinctive mixed-media art. Shifting perspectives and colors reflect Marcus's deepening addiction; his signature cap alters accordingly. Off-kilter lines exude the random energy and volatility of an addict. In two powerful double-page spreads, a doorway separates the brothers; Bird, flooded in light, reaches for Marcus, but his brother remans in the darkness..." Kirkus Reviews "The illustrations, rendered with a delicate touch in watercolor, gouache, charcoal, and pen, emphasize the textual theme of resilience in adversity, even while Marcus's appearances are often shrouded in a palette of grays. Bird's own pencil drawings of city life and the repetition of Marcus's symbolic bright cap add interest and meaning to the visual narrative." School Library Journal Bird was featured in the December 09/January '10 issue of Ebony magazine. |
A Place Where Hurricanes Happen (Random House) Our Children Can Soar (with 12 other artists - Bloomsbury) Bird (Lee and Low Books) The Dancing Shoeshine Boy (Tantani Media) |
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Shadra Strickland
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