5:30pm: Keynote Address
Javaka Steptoe
Award-winning illustrator, artist and author
Following a short presentation, Steptoe will engage in conversation with Loraine Ballard Morrill, Director of News and Community Affairs in the Philadelphia Region for iHeart Media.
Javaka Steptoe earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. He is very committed to children’s education, making appearances at various schools, libraries, museums, and conferences across the country, including the American Library Association, the International Reading Association, and Reading is Fundamental, Inc.
Steptoe's books include the 2017 Caldecott Medal and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award winner, Radiant Child: The Story of the Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (2016), and his debut work, In Daddy's Arms I Am Tall: African Americans Celebrating Fathers (1997), which earned him the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, a nomination for Outstanding Children’s Literature Work at the 1998 NAACP Image Awards, a finalist ranking for the Bluebonnet Award for Excellence in Children’s Books, and countless other honors. He illustrated Gary Golio's Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow: A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix (2010) and Charlotte Zolotow's Do You Know What I'll Do? (2000), as well as many other books for children and young adults.