Jason Reynolds — Imagination and Fortitude

<p>Jason Reynolds is the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature of the Library of Congress — and a magnificent source of wisdom for human society as a whole. He’s driven by compassion and the clear-eyed honesty that the young both possess and demand of the rest of us. Ibram X. Kendi chose him to write the YA companion to <i>Stamped from the Beginning</i>. In his person, Jason Reynolds both embodies and inspires innate human powers of fortitude and imagination. Hear him on “breathlaughter”; the libraries in all of our heads; and a stunning working definition of anti-racism: “simply the muscle that says humans are human… I love you, because you remind me more of myself than not.”</p><p>Jason Reynolds was appointed National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress in January, 2020. His body of writing about what it is to be a Black young person growing up in the U.S. has been received as a godsend by teachers and librarians — including the award-winning <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/ghost-volume-1-reprint/9781481450164"><i>Ghost</i></a>, <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/long-way-down-9781481438254/9781481438261"><i>Long Way Down</i></a>, and <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/look-both-ways-a-tale-told-in-ten-blocks/9781481438285"><i>Look Both Way</i>s</a>. His most recent work of nonfiction, together with Ibram X. Kendi, is <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/stamped-racism-antiracism-and-you-a-remix-of-the-national-book-award-winning-stamped-from-the-beginning/9780316453691"><i>Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You</i></a>.</p><p>Find the transcript for this show at <a href="https://onbeing.org/programs/jason-reynolds-imagination-and-fortitude/#transcript">onbeing.org</a>.</p><p>This show originally aired on June 25, 2020.</p>