Lincoln students hope diverse books feed minds, fuel Black Lives Matter movement

For many young people, quarantine has felt like a rupture from normal life. For a group of students at Tacoma’s Lincoln High School, the quarantine has been a chance to make real and meaningful change.

Students from two community youth groups — Seeds of Peace, a space for young people to talk about issues in the community, and Project Lit Abes Book Club, a Lincoln High book club which is part of a national book club called Project Lit Community, which celebrates reading and diverse books — have come together to bring books with diverse characters to Tacoma students of all ages.

“The idea was to get books that were not only high quality, starred review books, but also books that showed BIPOC (black, indigenous or people of color) in these books and support Black Lives Matter principles, ” Lincoln High School teacher librarian and Project Lit Abes organizer Kristin Sierra explained. “The students felt the loss of their school libraries and wanted to counter that with social justice work of their own.”

The students are distributing books in two ways. They organized book clubs throughout the summer for middle and high school students where they read some of the diverse books. To reach even more people, they distribute books to Little Free Libraries located in neighborhoods on Tacoma’s Eastside.

The students chose Eastside, where many of them live, because they wanted to benefit the kids most in need. Sierra added that the brand new books, fresh from local King’s Bookstore, make a difference because the little free libraries are usually full of discarded books or books meant for adults. She added the distribution was especially important when the public libraries were closed.

“We wanted to give them an opportunity to read and do some work during the summer, since a lot of kids haven’t been able to do a lot,” Lincoln High School senior Bryan Jandres added.

The work is completely student driven. Sierra and Fahren Johnson, who runs Seeds of Peace, have supported the students, especially logistically.

But they emphasized that the book clubs and distribution are some of several initiatives these students have thought of and organized themselves since the pandemic started, especially when the nationwide movement about Black Lives Matter began.

“The young people were on fire,” Johnson recalled. “They just wanted to do something and have action right now.”

The first time the students organized something was the student Juneteenth march. Jewelianna Granberry is a senior at Lincoln High School, who was junior vice president of the Associated Student Body, runs track, plays softball and wants to be either a lawyer or a nurse.

She said it was “really amazing” to organize her first protest.

“This pandemic has been a blessing in disguise,” she said. “It has brought everyone together and made us focus on what our real issues are in America. I hope as a nation that everyone starts to realize that there are serious problems in America, and they shouldn’t be put off like they usually put their main issues off.”

Jandres also is a senior at Lincoln High School, an editor at a new literary magazine run by Write253 and is interested in the health field, psychology and history. Jandres helped organize a city-wide virtual youth summit with Seeds with Peace, where he led a workshop about racial equity and the education system. He also helped organize and gave a speech at the Juneteenth protest, and he co-organized the elementary and middle school book clubs at the Boys and Girls Club’s day camps this summer.

“I think educating people is the best thing to do,” he said. “Knowledge is the best thing you can have.”

He’s found that staying busy and working on these initiatives has helped him stay connected with others and find purpose throughout this pandemic period.

While Jandres ran the socially distanced, in-person book clubs, Lincoln High School senior Tina Tran ran the online high school book clubs. Tran is involved with the Key Club and Associated Student Body, interested in the medical field and is proud to help out her parents and grandparents with different tasks, since she and her siblings are the only English speakers in the family. Seeds of Peace has brought people into her life, like Johnson, whom she feels she can always turn to, and she thinks that getting involved with the Tacoma community has helped her grow.

“I always feel like a bundle of joy after I finish an event,” she said. “I hope in the future there’s a greater connection between the community and the police and other organizations that help out in Tacoma.”

She’s passionate about bringing opportunities to the Eastside, where she lives. she can think of many people she knows who would be great leaders but don’t have the opportunity to do so. She wants to give back to Tacoma and help students from her school in the future.

Noelle Hill, a senior at Lincoln High School who likes to paint and read and wants to be a scientist, specifically in forensics, distributed books and was a part of the book club. Hill said she was heartened by distributing books to the little free libraries in her neighborhood.

“It’s really cool to see diverse books in little children’s hands,” she said. “I hope that diversity is the new norm and that things are changing and will stay changed for the better.”

Lydia Ferguson, a sophomore at Lincoln High School who plays the flute and bass guitar, has always loved attending Project Lit Abes on Wednesday mornings before school started because she’s always loved books and reading, and she loved how welcoming everyone in the group was. At Project Lit Abes in person, and now over video chat, she has loved talking about current events and being introduced to ways to take action, like the book distribution program.

“I’ve been a part of other groups at school who always said they’re going to do stuff, but being in a group where we always really are doing stuff is just cool,” she said. “Every time Ms. Sierra sends out emails, I know kids will get excited and want to volunteer because we’re a very involved community.”

She has been inspired to give back, both to the summer camps she usually attends in the summer for kids whose siblings have had cancer, and to the cause for racial equality.

“It’s not my place to talk about things people of color go through, but it has to be talked about. I think I can help amplify the voices of people talking about that,” she said. “That’s just what I try to do with all the stuff we do with the book club.”

Sierra said she is so proud of the kids, who are not only spreading literacy around Tacoma, but whose efforts are also economically supporting black and POC authors, along with local bookstores. She said that anyone who is looking for a specific way to help the students and the movement can directly purchase books for students throughout Tacoma from their wish list.

They also hope people will follow their Instagram page and the Seeds of Peace Facebook page to be aware of more related conversations, initiatives and events in the future.

This story was originally published September 1, 2020 at 5:00 AM.