Creating Safe Spaces Through Books (with Dr. Linda Holloway)

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Linda Holloway, a children's book author. Dr. Linda shares her journey into writing children’s books, inspired by her own childhood and academic research on Black women in wellness. The discussion covers significant themes in her books, including mental health, anti-bullying, sickle cell disease, sexual assault, diversity, divorce, and death. Dr. Linda emphasizes the importance of creating safe spaces for children to discuss these tough topics. The episode also touches on contemporary issues like book banning and the role of storytelling in social change. 

00:00 Welcome to the Liberation is Lit Podcast

00:11 Meet Dr. Linda Holloway: Children's Book Author

00:26 The Inspiration Behind Dr. Linda's Books

02:58 Topics Covered in Dr. Linda's Books

05:13 The Importance of Safe Spaces for Children

07:05 Challenges and Reflections on Book Banning

12:52 Upcoming Projects and Focus Areas

18:40 Advice for Making a Positive Impact

24:54 Where to Find Dr. Linda's Books

26:22 Closing Remarks and Contact Information

Dr. Linda’s Books

I Love My Happy Hair!

Little Miss Linda Speaks Out About Diversity

Little Miss Linda Goes to Counseling

Little Miss Linda Bad Girls of Montgomery

Little Miss Linda Speaks Out About Sickle Cell Disease

Little Miss Linda Copes with Divorce

Little Miss Linda Speaks Out About Death

Where to Find Dr. Linda

Email: lindahollowayspeak@gmail.com

YouTube: Dr. Linda JM Holloway

Facebook

Thank you for being part of the Liberation is Lit podcast! If you have stories to share, want to suggest topics, or just want to connect, find us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok @liberationislit or visit our website at liberationislit.com. If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review! Remember, your voice matters, and together, through the lens of stories, we're making a difference in the world.

Transcript

0:00

Hey y'all. Welcome to the Liberation is Lit Podcast, where the power of storytelling meet the force of social change. I'm your host, Tayler Simon, and in this podcast we believe in the profound impact of stories. And I am super excited to be joined today with Children's book author Dr. Linda Holloway. Hi, Dr. Linda. How are you today? I am doing outstanding. Thank you for asking. Yes. Dr. Linda, can you tell us a little bit about yourself as a children's book writer and what inspires you to write children's books? I wanna approach that question from the perspective that when I was growing up. My mother made sure that we had something to read every day. So reading for me kind of set the stage I would say. But also being in academia, you know, you having to write about various topics. So all of my books really stem from articles that I have written. And I wanted something as I was doing the research on Black women in wellness. A lot of the women talked about when they were children and the impact and the trauma that various things had on them and played out over their life. So what I said, God, I wish I had something that tangible that I could start working with children from an intervention prevention perspective. And so, reflecting back on how I loved to read when I was a child, and still today. I decided that books would be that product that I can actually give to a child because they enjoyed books. But then the question then become, how do we make that? Because these are some kind of tough topics, make them interactive. So that started my, journey into writing children books and it's been an exciting journey, and thank you so much for that question. Yes. And that's super exciting to hear. I have a social work background and my background is working with survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and. And a lot of the questions people in the field would ask is, how can we intervene before they get to this terrible experience that we then have to support them through, or finding who's throwing the babies down the river? Versus like having to keep saving them. And I think this is a, a great way to, think about primary prevention through talking with children about these things early. Whether it's any kind of issues because we know how, adverse children. Exper adverse childhood experiences impact people all the way into and through adulthood. So I think what you're doing is amazing and I. Know from the last question. You said you have interviewed a lot of Black women and that is your primary focus. So what are some of the topics that you focus on in your children's books when it comes to emotional learning? Thank you for that question. I focus on children hair, so I have a program called the Anti Hair Bully Campaign, and also also known as. Is I love my happy hair. I also focus on, mental health children and their mental health. Like, you know, just getting them comfortable with the idea of going to seeking counseling 'cause that can be very challenging. I also focus on sickle cell disease. That's a disease that is often very prevalent among the Black community that doesn't often get talked about, you know, just knowing when Sickle Cell Awareness Month is. And this particular book also deals with bullying, and then I move into a sexual assault little Ms. Linda speaks about rape so she talks about. That. And then I also have something that deal with diversity. But when I'm talking about diversity, I talk about colorism, that she's a dark skinned girl. And so we talk about that from that perspective. And then I talk about the Bad Girls of Montgomery. And what that really stands for is bold and determined. And so these were women that were not always talked about in the Montgomery bus boycott Movement. And I also share with young children, no matter how young you are, you can make a difference. So they learn about Claudia Colvin, who was only around about, you know, 14. And depending on what you reading, their age may vary. And so it gives them the I sense of empowerment that you can do something. And in terms of social advocacy and then the next deal with a divorce, because as we know, we have a lot of, children. That are products of, of divorce, of family, of, and parents should I say. And then the last one deals with death. And so we talk about death. And so those are topics and like I say, these are, topics that I have, you know written some literature about, and I wanted something that I can actually share with children. Oftentimes we'll say things like, I wanna create a safe space. I wanna create a safe space. I wanna create a and also say, I need to have safe people. That they can talk to. And as you mentioned, you are a social worker, so, social workers, administrative parents, and so it's great to have a safe place, but within this safe place, are these people, do I feel safe enough to talk to? And it's not like these individuals might be harming them or anything, but I may not feel. That I wanna talk to my parent about that. There were certain things I, I wouldn't have talked to my parent about, but I might able to talk to my aunt about it if they brought it up on my neighbor. So being able to have these tools, I think it has. It's been wonderful. That is amazing that you think of books as safe spaces for children, I wholeheartedly agree. I definitely talked to my mom about a lot of different things and she brought up a lot of different topics with me. But definitely I learned a lot from the books I was reading as a kid, and they were definitely safe spaces for me. And again, I really like this notion of safe spaces because right now there are attacks on books as being dangerous and things like that for kids. And just wild to me to have these adults attack books on diversity and Black history, because they think some children may feel, uh, guilty or blamed for different things. But that doesn't answer the question about how our children, Black children, can feel safe and. So my next question for you is, how do you, this climate of books being banned, how, how do you get your, books into the hands of children to create these safe spaces? That's a, really excellent question. I really, really like that question. I like that question from several perspective, but I wanna add. Little context to it.'cause oftentimes people see me as a trauma author. They say, Ooh, these books have to do with trauma. And so I reflected back on, once again on my childhood and I thought, you know what? I read the three little bears. And I was thinking to myself, what happened in that story? And then I thought about Cinderella and I said, you know her sisters were mean to me. That was a very traumatic experience. And then I thought about, Goldilock, I was like, this, this young lady had, she had locks, curls. I mean, she broke into somebody home and she was sleeping in their bed and I was thinking, and she had locks and someone would've come in, what would have happened? So I say all that to say that I grew up in an environment, not really thinking about it that way, but when you think about the big bad wolf coming to blow your house down, that's a very challenging situation to know. And then just trying to think, me as an African American, what would the big bad wolf look like today if I can only afford and has accessibility to straws that I didn't have access to? To bricks, what would that look like? So these stories had that in there, but of course they had meaning their classical stories. But looking back on, that's a very traumatic experience to know that these things could happen to you and that you can lose one of the basic elements of life, and that is where you reside, where you lay your head, or that you can walk into a house and someone with gold hair, someone could be just laying up in your bed and ate your soup All these things. So when you talk about that, those are the same things. So people are having conversation about real things, things that are happening in life, and so being silent and not being able to talk about it. It's not, it's not, it's not good. And it's not saying that we are blaming, but what we are doing is telling the story because we know that if we begin to tell the story, it gives it life and we are hoping that it will change policies and procedures and we would say this, this won't happen again. So we are reflecting back and it's no different. When I, you know, I. I'm a counselor, educated by, trade. I train counselors. So the first thing when a person comes in, we ask them what is going on with you? And what we're really saying is, tell me your story. And that is the same thing that we're finding in these books because sometimes individuals are not in a position or they feel comfortable to tell that story, but if they can relate to it in a book and kind of escape, then that's, oh, this is. This happened to someone else and this is how they made it through. So it is not about blame, it's not about you sheltering it, but it's also a reminder of what we have done and we don't want to repeat it. When you go to get a loan, I always find this very interesting. They want to know about what your credit history, so, so you are telling me, but you don't wanna know about this other history. But it's okay for you to know that I didn't pay my bills or I don't have good credit. So we all are doing that in our profession, believe it or not. The same thing when you go to the doctor, they gonna ask you about your medical history, and that is historical data that they're able to say, you are more prone to have cancer, diabetes, that sort of thing. And so what are you saying to me? It's, it's, it's, it's extremely important and we can go on and on about the significance of why this is important. So banning books is, you know, but you can't ban away what has really happened. And so we will have to find some places once again that we can still do this. Because I'm from a cultural, I'm from a background that are used to policies being out. One of you, guess what? You can't read. I'm not gonna teach you how to read. My parents had a seven or eighth grade education. They were not allowed to do certain things. They were not given privilege to do certain things. And so, but guess what? People still found a way to learn a language that was not their native language. Oh, that was so powerful and. That is the crux of what I do through liberation is lit is the power of storytelling to. Illuminate that history for people, but also, like you said in the counseling, world, we wanna know people's stories so we understand them a little bit better. And that's why I think it's so beautiful that you have these stories because a lot of the arguments I hear in the book Banning world is, oh, these topics are too difficult for our children. it's not too difficult for them to live it 'cause there's a lot of children who are living these experiences. So I'm so glad that you are creating these safe spaces for children to have these difficult conversations. Whether or not it's happening to them or may happen to them. It's a like you said, it's a form of prevention and then you're celebrating diversity book as well. You're learning about, you're celebrating the fact that people are getting to know people who are different than them, and that is a really beautiful thing. And so, I know you have numerous children's books out there, but do you have any upcoming projects that you wanna talk about, with listeners? I would say my upcoming project right now.'cause I see my books, they're like my children. And so I got eight children and I was thinking about writing some other things and I thought, no, no, no, no, no. I need to nurture and take care of these eight children and focus on getting them out and getting them connected to a broader community and some organization. So I would say my next project is really just trying to connect my books and get them out within the schools and people hands and different organizations because of the different titles of the books like I Serve On The Family Sun, on on the Director of the Family, sunshines. Center, and we do a lot against domestic violence, sexual assault, so being able to package this and being able to get this literature in the proper hands of people, I would say I wanna spend some time doing that. It's great to continue to produce and work on something next, but I'm still trying to just deal with what I currently have because I, in all honesty. This was never something that I saw myself doing as being a children author. I don't have children. I don't work with children. And so it has been a learning process, but a very enjoyable process. And because I am in an education and I do think like an act and sleep like an academician, my book show, are kind of like lessons if you would. They're workshops. Seminars, they have like LOLs in there learning out loud questions, is what I call them. They have a scavenger hunt where the students can find things. And so it's being able to get that message out, if you would, and being able to, desensitize people, normalize these topics and say, talk about it. You've mentioned several hooks when you were talking like, oh, people are gonna think, you know, this is bad to talk about. It's bad for someone to go into a school and shoot up the school. That's violence that they're dealing with. It is horrible to know that our children are being sex trafficked and all of the things that comes around that. It is horrible to know that people, and of course they do have the, law about, Black women in their hair, but you know that they could lose their job because of the way they wear their hair. They could be fired. They can't play, you know, an athlete. I wanna share with you this one story. I was out and a young lady, was telling me, I'm so glad you came to talk to about, you know, celebrating, appreciating my hair. She said, 'cause I was wearing a hat because people were teasing me about my hair. And I, and I, that's why I was not coming to school. And so when people say, you know, what kind of impact are you having? I'm saying there's a relationship. If I don't feel good about myself and I feel like I'm gonna be teased about my hair, made fun of, then I may not show up and physically show up. Or if I do show up, I may not be the one that raised my hand, you know, because I feel kind of out of place or someone would tease me, you know? And I've had, people of other nationalities to also say that they don't, they didn't like their hair. And so being able to know that is, is, is significant for me. I love that. So if anybody who works in a school or after school program wants to reach out to Dr. Linda to get some of their books, to get to their students, I'll link all of the books to, the show notes and we'll talk about where you can keep in contact with Dr. Linda at the end. But I definitely wanted to ask you to, what kinda keeps you motivated to do this work and to, keep promoting your books and, keep again, I'm gonna keep saying this, providing these safe spaces for kids. What keeps you motivated to do this work? Because deep down I feel like this is my God ordained assignment. And I wanna know when I get to the, my end of my journey, I hear well done. That's a multipli question for me. Those around me that empower me when I do go out to the schools, churches, or community center and see the joy that's on the children phase and, and the conversations. That I have with them on the sideline, that, that, that continues to motivate me to know that make a difference. Or if I go to the Alabama Counseling Association and a counselor walks up and say, you know, the children really enjoyed getting the book. Our children don't have, a library at home. So being able to have a signed copy, you are the first author to come. So all of these things, tend to motivate me. It's not one single thing. And I will be honest with you. There are times when I feel like, am I truly making a difference? And, so I have a good support system around me that encourages me to keep on going. I also encourage myself, and I also realize that every day ain't gonna be a sunny day and every day I'm not gonna be operating on eight cylinders. But if I just keep on pushing and whatever little difference that I can make, that I can. So those are the multitudes of things. And I just feel like for the people that have come before me, the ancestors and all the things they have done, I owe that, to do, be out, making a difference, being out, doing something. As it relates to that. I love how you brought in the ancestors'cause I just, the phrase that popped in my head when you said this. They didn't come this far just for us to stay that far so we have to keep, they passed the torch to us and we have to keep running with it. So I love that so much. my last question for you is, what advice would you offer listeners who wanna make a positive impact in their communities? Thank you so much for asking that question. I would say, you know, oftentimes we tell people, you know, the go with what, what you're passionate about, but also being mindful, what are the things that, that you can think you can do? Doesn't have to be anything grand, like. I, my next door neighbor where I live is an elderly and I make sure I take his, get his garbage in. So those are kinds of things that you can do. Set the garbage out, put it up, things like that. And so, and also just, connecting with other organizations. One of the things I truly operate on is collaboration and cooperation, because we have a lot of programs that are out there, but are they sustainable? But if you can connect, so say you wanna work with the unhoused. That the homeless, find out what agencies that are right there that are local in your community that are doing that and see what you can do for them. Maybe it's give a dollar a day, maybe you don't have time to go and actually feed or anything of like that. So do doing those kinds of things. I would definitely say get a list of those organizations that are around. And another thing that I, often tell people, make sure you do an assessment.'cause oftentimes we do things that feel good to us. You know, at one point I was, and there's nothing wrong with people giving away backpacks, but where I was giving them, they wasn't really using the backpacks, and I call it Operation Backpack, you know, you know, but that was something I wanted to do. These people were saying, you know, look, can you give us a laptop? You know, so make sure that what you are doing is something that will be beneficial to the, group of people that you are actually doing it with. And people will, definitely looking for. You got your churches, you got your sororities, you got places on campus, that are looking, you have a day of service. So there's so many different ways that you can get involved. But I also wish, share with you as a counselor that make sure you think about, compassion self-care, because you can get burned out on giving, giving, giving. So make sure you're giving from your overflow and make sure you're taking care of yourself and drinking plenty of water because it's a lot of knees out there and it can be very, very draining. And then also realizing that you can't help everybody. And so be prayerful about or be laser focused on the target that you want to and also be comfortable with. It's gonna happen that people are gonna criticize you no matter what you do. I give you an example. There's a place that I pass by and there's a young man there and I said, oh, when I go to Walmart, I'm gonna get him something and pass it out the window. And the person said, well, what you gonna do about him washing his hands? And I thought, okay, the bigger picture is he has a sign up that say, need food, want food? And, but that was a good point. I don't take that away, but just know that criticism, no matter what you do, criticism. So that's, those are things that I would say that people can do in terms of, advocacy is being involved also. Being involved with your, from a political perspective, your board going to board meetings, parents meeting, you might say, oh, I don't have any children. Children grown, but still. You know, doing that, contacting your local schools and see if they need some help, volunteer.'cause you got counselors seeing in some school districts, over 300 students, they're not able to do counseling with that. And so being able to do those kinds of things I think will be very helpful. Finding out from your politician if you can write letters about. Certain things. So there, there are various things and, and be free to, you know, speak out on topics that you, feel comfortable that you can speak out on. Hmm. I love that you talk about the laser focus and can't help everyone because there's so much out here and I appreciate that. But appreciate most is this notion that you were talking about of kind of removing ego from the work you're doing and finding out what the community needs versus, oh, what are you gonna do to make, just make you feel good while you need that passion to keep you going, but also just taking the ego out of, oh, I'm just going to help people in the way that I think they need help, and asking what the community needs. And then, other thing that you said about, collaboration that is huge when it comes to not burning yourself out and not feeling like you to do everything. And that's something I love to do. My liberation is lit. Actually, right before this recording I was at the State House, there at, I'm in South Carolina and there were two very harmful bills, that were having hearings back to back today, and I couldn't stay for both of them, but I went out for a while to. Because I knew a lot of organizations that I frequently work with will be out there and we were giving out water and snacks to people in line for the hearings. So just doing what you can, knowing your capacity and. of my favorite, metaphors I read in a book called The Black Joy Project is that doing this work is like being in a choir, and so you need to Oh, and take a breath. You can trust your other choir members to keep singing and keep going while you have you take care of yourself and take your breath. So I love everything that you said with that advice. that is awesome. I really like that. I'm gonna borrow that and put that in my tool kit. Yes. Yes, definitely. And if you, I don't have it close by, but if you wanna check out the Black Joy Project, it's Mm. book. Mm-hmm. a mix of. Prose and, essays that people submitted, but also lots of beautiful art and photography. It's a such a beautiful book, and that's where I got that from. So yes, please use that one. So before we talk about where people can find you on the internet, do you wanna show us some of the books that you have available? Absolutely I do. This is I love my Happy Hair, which is my first book. This is Little Miss Linda goes to counseling. This is Little Miss Linda speaks out about sickle cell. This is Little Miss Linda speaks out about rape. This is little Miss Linda speaks about diversity and you'll see that kind of in my background. This is one of my favorites 'cause I'm located in the great city of Montgomery. This is Bad Girls of Montgomery. See that this is Little Miss Linda copes with divorce, and this is Little Miss Linda speaks out about death. Thank you so much for that opportunity and I want to thank you so much for having me on today. Yes, and I will link all of those books where you can, purchase them and really use them to talk about, these tough topics with the young and people in your life because some of the best ways to learn about far things is life, is through books like we talked about through this episode. So I also wanna thank you, Linda, for being a part of the podcast and sharing these safe spaces with listeners. Where can people, find you and keep up with your work and connect with you if they want to talk to you and learn your story more? They can actually email me at Linda Holloway speak gmail.com. That's Linda Holloway speak all one word gmail.com. And then they can also follow me on my YouTube page and my Facebook 'cause my Facebook is where I post all of my information. Where I'm gonna be and what I'm gonna be doing. So those are the areas that I'm managing right now. Awesome. Thank you so much. And again, I'll post all of the books as well in the show notes so you can find them get them to a young person in your, in your life to talk about these tough topics. So again, thank you Dr. Linder, Linda, and thank you listeners for being a part of the Liberation is Lit Podcast. If you have stories you wanna share, wanna suggest any topics or just wanna connect with us, you can find us. Instagram, Facebook and TikTok at Liberation is Lit. Or you can visit our website, liberation is lit.com. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review. And remember, your voice matters and together through the lens of stories, we're gonna make a difference in the world. Until next time.