Press Release
Black Disabled Art History 101- Children’s Book
September/2017
Leroy F. Moore Jr./Xóchitl Justice Press
http://www.xochitljustice.org, blackkrip@gmail.com
“Leroy Moore is an uncle and teacher to me. I am blessed to have him teach me and my friends at Deecolonize Academy, a school for low-income and disabled youth who suffered at public schools. This book was inspiring because it showed that people with disabilities have their own history, art and activism. It taught me even through oppression people with disabilities have add to the world including arts and so much more.” Tiburcio Garcia- Youth Skola from Deecolonize Academy/POOR Magazine
Black disabled and Deaf artists have always existed. They were on the street corners down South siging the Blues, spray painting on New Your subways, and bringing sign language to the big screen. Today, young Black disabled artists are finding their own way to the stage and studio, some with a paintbrush in hands and on the big screen like Kei’Arie “Cookie” Tatum, and some with a drumstick in their hands, like Vita E. Cleveland. As a Black disabled youth in the 1970’s and 1980’s, I wished that there was a book like the one you are holdig now. No more wishing -the book is here!
Black Disabled Art History 101- Children’s Book covers Black painters, dancers, musicians, actors/actress with all types of disabilities from early 1900’s to today. Black Disabled Art History 101 has picures of the artists and illistration drawings from Asian Robles and original poem-stories of Black disabled artists and a poem that started the whole concept of the book, Black Disabled Art History 101 all by Leroy F. Moore Jr.
Xóchitl Justice Press creates diverse and educationally sound, non-fiction children’s books to support the intellectual, affective, aesthetic, and social development of the whole child. The press promotes a just and equitable society through publishing, community partnerships, education, and research.
Leroy F. Moore Jr. is a Black writer, poet, hip-hop\music lover, community activist and feminist with a physical disability. He has been sharing his perspective on identity, race & disability for the last thirteen years or so. He is also the creator of Krip-Hop Nation (Hip-Hop artists with disabilities and other disabled musicians from around the world) and produced Krip-Hop Mixtape Series. He is one of the founders of The National Black Disability Coalition (NBDC). He is also a longtime columnist, one of the first columns on race & disability that started in the early 90’s at Poor Magazine in San Francisco www.poormagazine.org, Illin-N-Chillin. In 2014, San Francisco Bayview Newspaper named Leroy, Champion of Disabled People in the Media on Black Media Appreciation Night.
Leroy has won many awards for his advocacy from the San Francisco Mayor’s Disability Council under Willie L. Brown to the Local Hero Award in 2002 from Public Television Station, KQED in San Francisco.