Students from LAHS’s AP Literature classes at Mesa Public Library last week participating in the African American Read-In. Courtesy/LAPS

Students from LAHS’s AP Literature classes participating in the African American Read-In. Courtesy/LAPS

LAPS News:

This past week students from Los Alamos High School’s AP Literature classes took a field trip to Mesa Public Library to participate in the African American Read-In, a nationwide movement begun in 1990 by the National Council of Teachers of English. The read-ins foster community celebration and engagement in works written and illustrated by black authors.

During the trip, students read fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and prose written by black authors and curated from the library’s youth collection. Among libraries of similar size, the Los Alamos Libraries rank in the top four nationwide in diversity of children’s picture books.

“I was surprised by how many African American history lessons were included in the children’s books,”  LAHS senior Praveen Swaminarayan said. “A lot of those were ones that I had never learned in school.”

Another student reflected that “these books opened my eyes to the pieces of African American history often skipped over in traditional history courses.”

Los Alamos High School and the library have collaborated for nearly a decade to include teenagers in this annual Black History Month event. Prior to the trip, students analyzed data from the publishing industry in order to understand demographic trends over the past decade regarding representation of different voices in children’s literature. The material in the library books resonates with the students’ study of novels by African American authors Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison and the poetry, music and artwork of the Harlem Renaissance.

Students from LAHS’s AP Literature classes participating in the African American Read-In. Courtesy/LAPS