Celebrate Activism

Companion Activities for The Undefeated

1) Research the lives of the individuals in The Undefeated

2) Create an original tribute

3) Read about and research about an event in Black history

4) Explore illustration with Kadir Nelson’s NPR interview

Invite students to select any of the noteworthy African Americans saluted in the words and pictures of The Undefeated and who are further profiled in brief end matter biographical sketches. Using such diverse Internet media as music, words, and photographs, research the life of a single individual and prepare a salute to be shared with age or classmates and family members. 

Encourage creative youths to model The Undefeated to create an original tribute to great individuals who represent the historic triumphs and tragedies of Native American, Hispanic, Jewish, Muslim, Asian, Disabled, GLBT and other often oppressed populations. Students can use prose or poetry to celebrate greatness and explore creative ways to illustrate the text (e.g., collage, graphic novel-style, watercolors). For example, students can fashion their own word-and-image celebrations of great American Jewish men and women such as Emma Lazarus, Bob Dylan, Albert Einstein, Gertrude Stein, Maurice Sendak, Elie Wiesel, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Paul Newman, Bernie Sanders, Lauren Bacall, Niels Bohr, Steven Spielberg, and Saul Bellow. 

The Undefeated is a kaleidoscope of black history that spans more than four centuries. At the opposite end of historical perspectives is another recently celebrated picture book, A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation (Holiday House, 2019) written by Barry Wittenstein and gloriously illustrated by the legendary Jerry Pinkney. A Place to Land focuses upon a single event in the history of African Americans, the 1963 March on Washington and particularly the oration by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that became known as “I Have a Dream.” In design, both pictures books are similar. Dramatic words and images recreate history for today’s youths. Utilizing A Place to Land as a model, challenge students to focus on a single event in the vast history of African Americans. One example might be to research and then create an ode or prose narrative, complete with arresting illustrations, of a single historical moment such as Marian Anderson’s 1939 Easter Sunday concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that was witnessed live by more than 75,000 people of all races, creeds, and backgrounds as well as broadcast by radio across the entire nation. With the iconic marble statue of Abraham Lincoln in the background, Anderson’s first sung words were “My country ‘tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty...Let freedom ring!”

The inside back panel of the dust jacket for The Undefeated lists the personal web site addresses of both the author and illustrator. Invite student to make great use of the Internet to visit these content-rich pages and learn much more about how creative adults work. One example is the NPR interview with Kadir Nelson explaining why he chose to create the award-winning illustrations in the manner that he did. The illustrator reveals why he could not bring himself to create a visually pleasing work of art in order to depict the transatlantic slave trade. The subject matter was simply too difficult. He felt compelled to paint an unsettling and dark visual spread. Each spread in the book is similarly explained, even including an eloquent testimony as to why he left one page blank to represent those people who didn’t survive. “It is a moment of silence. It’s a moment of pause to provoke thought about all of those who didn’t make it...and all of those voices who have been silenced.”