This Website Is
Your Festival Home Base

Check out the menu at the top to see and learn about the books and creators we are featuring. 

Indigo Arts Alliance celebrates Black illustrators and children’s books authors with you and your family. We hope that you and your children will enjoy listening to and reading these beautiful books featuring Black characters. We are excited to invite you all to join us virtually this August as we celebrate Black children’s books created by Black writers and illustrators. 

We believe that Black children should have the opportunity to build their home libraries and fill them with books that represent their lives and experiences. This is why we are proud to be GIVING AWAY over 2,600 copies of the books featured in the Beautiful Blackbird Children’s Book Festival to children served by Portland Public Housing, Portland Parks and Recreation, and Lewiston Public Schools. We want these children to have these books in their homes so that they can return to them again and again to be inspired and to feel proud of who they are.

The Case For A
Children’s Book Festival

Research shows that children in communities where English is not the primary language are at risk of missing early literacy skills and entering school at a deficit. These early deficits can have psychological, social, and economic consequences. Additionally, Black and African American children are less likely to encounter books that depict their own life experiences. This is a critical gap since children are better able to retain and recall plot and character information after reading books featuring characters that mirror themselves. The Beautiful Blackbird Children’s Book Festival addresses this gap.