Cultural Curriculum Chat with Jebeh Edmunds

Season 6 Episode #10 Gyo Fujikawa's Influence on Art and Justice

• Jebeh Edmunds

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Unlock the remarkable story of Gyo Fujikawa, a pioneering illustrator who transformed children's literature with her enchanting art and groundbreaking depictions of diverse children. You'll discover how Gyo, a first-generation Japanese American, overcame societal norms and racial barriers to leave a lasting impact on the art world. Her life journey, beautifully captured in a biographical picture book by Kiel MacLear and Julie Morstad, takes us from her family's internment during World War II to her flourishing career at Walt Disney Studios. Gyo's resilience and dedication, despite the challenges of racial biases in the 1960s, highlight her as an unsung heroine whose legacy continues to inspire.

Join the conversation as we explore how Gyo's story can be a gateway to understanding Asian American heritage and inspire discussions on social justice, identity, and courage. This episode provides educators with insightful tips to engage students with Gyo's journey, fostering both creativity and empathy. By tuning in, you also gain access to resources on culturally responsive practices and more stories of unsung heroines in future episodes. Don't miss the chance to share this inspiring narrative with friends passionate about history, art, and social justice.

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Speaker 1:

On today's episode, we are going to learn more about the artistic life of this biographical book. It began with a page how Gil Fujikawa Drew the Way, by Kiel MacLear and Julie Morstead. This book is talking about the enchanting tale of a pioneering illustrator who defied societal norms and broke barriers through her distinctive drawings, and this beautifully crafted picture book is going to show you the enduring legacy of this unsung hero in the world of children's literature. Hello, my name is Jeba Edmonds and I am the host of the Cultural Curriculum Chat podcast and Mrs Edmonds' Cultural Corner, where you can find, on both channels, the world of diverse books that I love to share, to promote literacy and to create positive change. And in today's review, we're going to delve deep into this enchanting story about a woman that I just learned about by getting this book Giyo Fukijawa. I'm sorry, let me try that again Giyo Fujikawa, I understand when people mispronounce my name. I want to get it right as well.

Speaker 1:

This book is beautiful. It talks about young Gio, first-generation American, and it talked about how her mother was a writer and her father worked in the fields. He actually worked in a fruit farm. Worked in the fields, he actually worked in a fruit farm. And in 1913, when she was five years old, she was a busy one and I love it, ohio, sleepyhead. Her mother would say, and I quote, it's going to be a busy day and it was. And the illustrations of talking about how she would help carry her little brother around, and she would listen to the women in her area and how her mom and her friends would talk about how disappointed they were in the discrimination that they faced, and she would sit underneath the table with her rice bowl and listened. But it talked about how they were disappointed that they didn't get the right to vote yet and they needed their rights. And they came all the way to this country and she thought about, you know, what she wanted to be, but she wasn't quite there yet. She talked about how she loved to draw and how, you know, her mind would be filled with ideas and things that she saw and heard, and so it always started with an empty white page. And here's a real fun tip I'd like you educators to do have on each desk a plain white piece of paper and, while you're reading this story, have them in your classroom. The students draw something that resonated with them, that stuck with them. That's just a little pro tip for you.

Speaker 1:

I love how she talked about she was surrounded by books, and how she felt, othered by being one of the only Japanese Americans in her classroom. How no one noticed her box of colored pencils it quotes, or box of paints. No one even noticed when she moved away. So her family had to move. They moved to an area called San Pedro, california, a haven for Japanese Americans. A new life only with friends that you know are from the same culture as her. A new life only with friends that you know are from the same culture as her. She felt free at the time and it goes on by saying she still got ignored at her new school but her two teachers were really impressed and saw her gift of her artwork and it was her teacher that paid for her to go to art school because her family couldn't afford it.

Speaker 1:

I want you to talk about and read alongside her life in the timeline how she went to art school and she drew statues and all kinds of things in her sketchbook and flowers, and how she traveled back to Japan to learn the traditional ways of creating art you know from wood carvings and blocks and painting with, you know, soot ink and how she got her inspiration there. And, of course, the beautiful sea of the people in their traditional dress, the kimono. It talks about how she went back and she got a job designing books at Walt Disney Studio in New York. I didn't know she was a Disney illustrator. I was learning so many new things about her work and how she still found a way to create her art in the way that she saw in her imagination and bringing it. And I wonder how it must have felt, you know, in the early 1940s, being the only woman at the Walt Disney Corporation. I bet that was an illustrator and the only person of color as well, working of Asian descent.

Speaker 1:

And it also talks about the internment camps and how Japanese Americans living in the West Coast were forced to leave their homes and everything they knew. Her mother was so upset and how she burned everything that they had. People were scrambling, those families wouldn't were trying to sell their property and people would buy it for pennies on the dollar of what it wasn't worth. And just to understand the hardships that these Japanese Americans faced living in these internment camps, I want you to talk about that with your students and the hardship and how they were discriminated against and harassed and persecuted and how she wanted to go home. But her family said no, stay over there. Her own nephew was born in the camps and she kept on drawing, no matter how hard her life was.

Speaker 1:

She kept on drawing and she noticed, 15 years past, how the world and her society kept on changing. You're seeing more civil rights movements, you're seeing segregation happening, and it was happening for even 50 years prior, but that's neither here nor there 50 plus years prior. But she even took to illustrating children and babies and how she would bring it to publishers and publishers said no. The publishers said we're discriminating against, we don't want mixing, and I quote, of white babies and black babies. It wasn't done in the early 1960s America with the country who was so separated by people, by skin color. But she knew I'm going to keep at it, I'm going to keep drawing these babies as they always are. They can't wait. Babies can't either. She didn't budge. She kept on drawing. She kept on pushing the illustrators not illustrators. She kept on pushing publishers to publish her book that book is still in circulation Babies. And it finally happened when the publisher finally said yes and she kept on going. I read that she illustrated over 50 books. There was a classic book I remember called Little Red Hen. I had that copy in my home growing up and I didn't know that she was the illustrator of that book.

Speaker 1:

It has a beautiful timeline of her life story and I really hope that you take the time, educators, to read the timeline more in depth of her life. When your students are done drawing on that white blank piece of paper that she gave them, have it on display in your classroom. I don't want you to grade it. I don't want you to grade, for you know, composition or whatever. I just want you to just take that in because it always begins with a page. I want you to continue to join our diverse book community.

Speaker 1:

I share all things books and multicultural educational practices and strategies that you can use in your classroom.

Speaker 1:

But you need to subscribe to my newsletter on jevaedmondscom so you get new, fresh ideas and resources to your inbox every single week, and I really would love for you to use this book as a launching pad for learning about Asian American heritage in history.

Speaker 1:

You can use this as a launching pad of social justice in art. You can use this book as a launching pad for talking about feeling othered and what happens when you stick to it and use your courage, and how courage is seen in different ways. That could help as well. I want you to share this episode with a friend who is looking for a person that is an unsung heroine they've never heard of before, and have them learn about the life of Giyo Fujikawa and her contributions to our world of literature. Thank you so very much for listening and tuning in and watching on our YouTube channel as well, on the Cultural Curriculum Chat podcast and Mrs Edmond's Cultural Corner on YouTube. I look forward to sharing with you a new book review and new cultural responsive practice on our next episode. I will see you next time, bye-bye.