Author Derrick Barnes gave Asheville children a taste of the holiday season with his new book, Santa’s Gotta Go, during the Read 2 Succeed Community Holiday Extravaganza on Sunday. He also visited two local schools Monday.
Read 2 Succeed is a nonprofit focused on closing the race-based opportunity gap through community-powered literacy.
Barnes is now a renowned and award-winning children’s book author, but he started in the late 1990s in the card creation business at Hallmark. Barnes was the first Black copywriter at the Kansas-City based greeting card giant.
BPR’s Jose Sandoval talked with Barnes over the phone to talk about his journey as an author and his visit to Asheville.
Jose Sandoval: So let's talk about your latest book, Santa's Gotta Go. There's a lot of Christmas books out there. But what makes this one different?
Derrick Barnes: You know, I always wanted to make a book with a Black Santa, and there have been a couple of books made of Black Santas, but most of them, in my opinion, just look like chocolate white Santas. You know, it's the same old Santa. Jolly old dude, you know with a red suit on, very noble. I wanted to show a different type of Santa and you know, just a really cool dude, man, that has a job and he works his tail off just to make the world happy and you know, I put tattoos and tattoo sleeves on him. He's been working out. Just want to present a new angle, a new voice.
Jose Sandoval: Where does the inspiration come from when you're going through the process of writing these books?
Derrick Barnes: I kept going back to my own children. We have four sons. I'm crafting these stories for Black children who historically, in this country and literature, haven't seen themselves outside of being runaway slaves or slaves or living in the hood or playing basketball — just putting all these tropes and stereotypes. And so I made it a point that if I'm gonna continue to write children's books, I'm gonna write books with strong realistic African American characters that are beautiful, that are intelligent, that have confidence and just tell stories of them just being people there. That's so important that our babies have the opportunity to read bedtime stories that don't center around trauma.
I used to think that I'm making these books primarily for Black children, which I do. But I write these stories for all children, especially white children. I think it's so important because the industry and the history of children's literature, and we talk about television shows and films too, white children have always been centered around everything. I think it's so important to white children and white parents and white educators, make sure the white children have books to tell the story of all people. Don’t matter if they’re Muslim, Latino, African American, just real truthful stories. And not only so they can learn about other cultures and other, you know, ethnicities but so they can see the similarities that we all have.
Jose Sandoval: What are you hoping that these books will do for young black and brown children also here in Western North Carolina?
Derrick Barnes: I kind of want them to see themselves in these characters and know it is possible for you as well. You know, one of my most popular titles is a book called, I Am Every Good Thing, where it’s just affirmations I wrote about my sons and all the good things I think about when I think about them, which I think most adults do when you think about your children or your godchildren or your nieces and nephews. And so I always think about when a child opens up one of my books, when they're done reading it, hey can't wait to read it again because it makes them feel good about themselves.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
