Effie Lee Morris Lecture Series

Jewell Parker Rhodes Speaks June 7: "Words as Witness, Words as Healing"

Join award-winning writer Jewell Parker Rhodes on Wednesday, June 7, at 5 p.m. for the 27th annual Effie Lee Morris Lecture.

This is a hybrid event; attendees may opt to attend in-person or online on Zoom.

• ONLINE: Registration is required for Zoom attendance. Register now on Zoom.
• IN-PERSON: Registration is encouraged for in-person attendees to help estimate crowd size. Register now to attend in-person.

This year, the Effie Lee Morris Lecture returns as an in-person event to the Koret Auditorium for the first time since 2019. Masking is strongly recommended. This event is for all ages.

Dr. Rhodes's topic is "Words as Witness, Words as Healing." Her books for youth include Ghost Boys, where the long shadows of violence against Black kids and teens reach from the past into the present. Louisiana Girls Trilogy: Bayou Magic is about a young girl who learns to carry forward her family’s magical legacy. Paradise on Fire tells the story of a group of Black city kids who learn wilderness skills and how to survive in a perilous world. And Black Brother, Black Brother is about a Black kid who joins the fencing team, faces off against injustice and a bully, and makes a place for himself in a world that prefers his light-skinned brother. 

Dr. Rhodes is the recipient of a Coretta Scott King Award for Louisiana Girls Trilogy: Ninth Ward; a Walter Dean Myers Award for Ghost Boys; an American Book Award for her adult historical novel Douglass’ Women and numerous other honors. She lives in Seattle and serves as the founding artistic director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing and Narrative Studies Professor and Virginia G. Piper Endowed Chair at Arizona State University. She is also the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Carnegie-Mellon University. 

For more information, call (415) 557-4554, or email ChildrensCenter@sfpl.org.

27th Annual Effie Lee Morris Lecture with Jewell Parker Rhodes – June 7, 5 p.m.

About the Effie Lee Morris Lecture Series:

Since 1997, the annual Effie Lee Morris Lecture has brought distinguished authors and illustrators of books for young people to speak about their lives, works and creative inspirations to San Francisco Public Library audiences.

Since 2021, this lecture series has been produced as a partnership between the SFPL Main Children’s Center and the SFPL Racial Equity Committee. This focus elevates authors and illustrators of color who create works that reflect the experiences, hopes and dreams of communities of color. The strong equity focus of the lecture series reflects the priorities of Effie Lee Morris herself. It also enhances the relationship between the library and the youth of San Francisco through the Effie Lee Morris OWL Book Club, offered in partnering San Francisco public schools.

About Effie Lee Morris – A Woman Ahead of Her Time

The Effie Lee Morris Lecture series at SFPL honors the values embodied by Effie Lee Morris (1921 – 2009), the first SFPL coordinator of children’s services, the first Black president of the Public Library Association, and founder of the San Francisco chapter of the Women’s National Book Association.

Ms. Morris was a tireless champion of diversity, inclusivity, and the rights of all young people to read, learn and create. She initiated the first annual celebration of Black history for youth at the Cleveland Public Library, and at the New York Public Library was the first librarian whose work focused on the needs of children who were blind or visually impaired. At SFPL, she was especially noted for her commitment to personally visit underserved communities to get books into the hands of all our youth.