This episode of Trinity’s podcast, "podmissum," features Lower School Learning Specialist Monique Duncan who has been at Trinity since 2017. Monique is dedicated to influencing youth positively through education and advocacy. She writes and illustrates multicultural children's stories that inspire, amuse, and foster a love of reading, while reflecting images and experiences with which children of diverse cultures can identify. She aims to help cultivate their understanding of themselves, their communities, and the world around them. Monique is passionate about representation in children’s literature and wants Black children to feel affirmed when reading her stories. Her most recent book is When Mama Braids My Hair, which describes a young girl's experience of having her hair braided and the bond it creates with her mother. In 2019, When Mama Braids My Hair was nominated for an Ezra Jack Keats Award. It was also selected for the Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices 2019 best-of-the-year list, and it was featured on the PBS series, Let's Learn.

Listen on Trinity's Web site: http://podcasts.trinityschoolnyc.org/faculty-author-monique-duncan

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/cy/podcast/faculty-author-monique-duncan/id721830443?i=1000558272294

Monique Duncan, Lower School Learning Specialist, is an author and illustrator and the founder of Sweet Pea Books, Inc., through which she publishes multicultural children’s books. Her newest book, When Mama Braids My Hair, had its official launch on 23 June 2018 at the I, Too Arts Collective at The Langston Hughes House. The Sweet Pea Books Web site describes When Mama Braids My Hair as “[capturing] a young girl’s experience of having her hair braided and the bond it creates with her mother. The tradition of African hair braiding transcends time and location, as it transforms little Nikki into an Egyptian queen, a Nigerian goddess, a Zulu warrior and a Maasai woman. While young girls throughout the African Diaspora can relate to getting their hair braided, they will enjoy going on an adventure with the main character, and learn how this ancient ritual is a large part of their present experience.”

Monique Duncan is the author of eight multicultural children’s books and the recipient of a 2012 Honorable Mention from the New York Book Festival for D is for Dragon Fruit.