The Joint Conference of Librarians of Color has been rescheduled to February 8-12, 2023 at TradeWinds Resort in St. Pete Beach, FL. You can visit the conference’s website for more information. REFORMA de FL will be present and we will plan a meet up. More details coming soon! We hope to see you in St. Pete on February!
Hurricane Ian Aftermath
REFORMA de Florida members:
The RdeF Board and leaders would like for you to know that we are here to help with recovery for those of you who have been affected by the Hurricane. We know that some parts of the State are worst than others, so please let us know how we can help. We have a space in our social media accounts for you all to contact each other as well.
In addition, the situation has resulted in the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC) that was going to take place this coming week in St. Pete Beach being canceled. We want to thank all of you who worked hard to host this Conference. Some of our members were in planning committees, many were presenting and attending, and organizing to host our friends and colleagues from other states. We are very thankful for your work, and we hope that we will be able to share the work you did in some other way soon!
Stay well and reach out!
Your REFORMA de Florida Executive Board.
USF Student Receives REFORMA de Florida Stipend for JCLC IV
Thanks to a generous member of our chapter, REFORMA de Florida was able to offer some help to MLIS students wishing to attend the upcoming IV Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC) which will take place in our state on October 5-9, 2022. The JCLC Stipend consisted of a financial contribution to pay for the conference’s registration, plus a student membership for REFORMA.
We received great applications from very deserving MLIS students. Our “JCLC Stipend Team” had a really hard time picking a winner, but we finally selected Maria Feliciano, a student at the University of South Florida-School of Information, who is also an active participant of the School’s SOLIS (student organizations). In addition to writing a very compelling essay, Maria is very committed to diversity and to serve Latinx populations as a librarian. She has been promoting REFORMA to other students at USF, and she will benefit from attending a conference with members of other associations of librarians of color, such as the Black Caucus of ALA (BCALA), the Asian Pacific American Library Association (APALA), the Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA), and the American Indian Libraries Association (AILA).
Maria will share her takeaways from the Conference with all of us. Stay tuned!
Congratulations, Maria Feliciano!
New Leaders & Opportunities to Grow
At the conclusion of the American Library Association (ALA)’s Annual Conference 2022, our parent organization, REFORMA’s new term begins. Our state’s chapter follows the same calendar, therefore, starting on July 1st, we have new officers.
In our July Membership Meeting, 2021-2022 President Alicia K. Long passed the gavel to 2022-2023 President Mari Martinez Serrano and welcomed the new Vice-President/President-Elect Maria Vega.
The Board also thanked the chapter’s Secretary Nicole Gaudier-Alemañy, who served last year and had to resign since she moved to New York.
The position of Secretary is currently vacant, but member Alma Ramos McDermott accepted acting as interim-secretary to take minutes and help with organization, until a permanent secretary is appointed (thank you, Alma!). If any member is interested to become our Secretary, please reach out to the Board.
President Mari Martinez Serrano also issued a call for members to join our Committees. We have openings in Public Relations, Membership, and Finance committees, as well as the Website Task Force. Please think about contributing your talents to help the chapter grow!
We are all REFORMA de Florida, juntos!
REFORMA de Florida Says “Presente” at ALA Annual 2022
The 2022 Annual Conference of the American Library Association (ALA) took place in Washington, DC, June 24-28, 2022. Several of our members and officers attended and/or participated in different capacities. Here are some highlights of our members participation:
Lucia Gonzalez, former Director of North Miami Public Library, concluded her year as President of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC.) As such, she hosted the Newbery/Caldecott Banquet to honor this year’s winners of best literature for children. What a nice coincidence that this year’s Newbery Medal was presented to Donna Barba Higuera for the book The Last Cuentista, which is also the recipient of REFORMA’s Pura Belpré Award! Lucia presided the awards ceremony with grace and we all feel proud of her representing us! Congratulations, Lucia!
In addition, Lucia presented the ALSC Charlemae Rollins President Program with the title: “Boundaries Be Gone!: Using Stories to Connect” which included a panel with speakers: author and scholar David Bowles, illustrator Michaela Goade, and USF SI Professor Emerita and Community Literacy activist Dr. Cora Dunkley. The program was dedicated to the memory of Dr. Henrietta M. Smith, USF School of Information Professor, who was Lucia’s beloved mentor. Dr. Smith was also a member and supporter of REFORMA de Florida in the early 2000s.
Several Florida reformistas, including Alma Ramos McDermott, Alicia Long, Isabel Castro, Jenny Lizarraga, and more, attended several of REFORMA’s events, which included a “Tarde de Cuentos” at the Library of Congress (read this ALSC blog post to know more), a Fundraising Gala at the Martin L. King, Jr. Memorial Library, and membership and committee meetings. Past-President Alicia K. Long received the Dr. Arnulfo Trejo Librarian of the Year (LOTY) Award along with Oralia Garza de Cortés, who received the Elizabeth Martinez Lifetime Achievement Award.
As always, a highlight of the Annual Conference is the presentation of the Pura Belpré Award, also called the “Celebración”. Our members who were able to attend enjoyed the annual display of color, music, art, and literature, as well as the speeches from Belpré honorees, who were very emotional and poignant. You can read more about the event in this ALSC blog post.
Images courtesy of Alicia K. Long, 2022.
“Para Bailar la Bamba…” REFORMA de Florida Member Interviews Los Lobos
Maria Vega, REFORMA de Florida member and Librarian Senior at Northwest Regional Library (Broward Libraries,) had a unique opportunity to interview the members of the iconic musical group Los Lobos. What an honor!
In an upcoming meeting, Maria will share the experience with us, and she will also let us know where the interview will be posted. Well done, Maria!
REFORMA at Florida Library Association (FLA) 2022 Annual Conference
The 2022 Annual Conference of our state’s library association (Florida Library Association, or FLA) took place in a hybrid format this year, for the second time. In addition to a virtual component, the in-person event took place in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL. on May 23-25, 2022.
Members Freda Mosquera, Heidi Colon, and Alicia Long were some faces seen at the in-person version, who made sure to spread the word about the chapter, They attended several events, networking and hosting an informal meet-up for those interested in the chapter. In the virtual version, members Mari Martinez Serrano and Dr. Vanessa Reyes participated and presented programs, and we heard that they were very active in the chat rooms!
Recap of the Conference: https://www.flalib.org/2022-conference-recap
News
Welcome to REFORMA de Florida’s new website!
In this section you will find the latest news from our chapter, as well us downloadable copies of past newsletters.
Book Review: Singing with Elephants
Reviewed by: Alma Ramos McDermott
Category: Children (Recommended for 10-14 years old)
Rating: 5 stars
Oriol misses her grandmother and Cuba. She, her parents and older sister moved to California to get special treatment for her grandmother’s diabetes, but it didn’t work. Due to trouble mastering English, she’s bullied at school and has learned to keep herself closed to others. She can be herself with the animals she helps her veterinarian father to care for, as she remembers Cuba and time spent with her beloved grandmother.
On one of her daily walks she meets a friendly woman named Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, who helps her learn how to turn thoughts into poetry. Oriol is thrilled when she meets a friendly elephant who gives birth to twins, as spending time with them, writing poetry and singing with their elephant voices helps her feel better. Unfortunately their rich owner has other plans for the family. He believes elephants exist for his pleasure, so decides to take one of the twins to train for his own use. Without nourishment and love from its mother, Oriol knows the baby elephant will die. Can an eleven-year-old girl use her newly found voice to convince others they need to help her save its life?
Oriol’s words and thoughts flow through Margarita Engle’s poetic style of writing. As she learns to shape her poetic voice, and sing the song of elephants, young readers will also be excited to do so and learn how to sing too.
Includes “Author’s note,” “Gabriela Mistral’s poetry for children,” and “Further reading.”
Note: This review was originally posted in You Decide: Should I Read it or Not?.
Reproduced here as a courtesy of Alma Ramos McDermott.
REFORMA de Florida 