Author Event! Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie - Rainbows, Apples & Stars

Join us on Saturday, November 7th at 3:00pm to celebrate a new book by Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie. From the award-winning author of Layla’s Happiness and a dynamic cut-paper artist, this fresh, collage-style bedtime story shares the feelings of working parents everywhere, while grounding mother and daughter in the deepest love. Mommy and Daddy have an adventurous daughter, Rosa, who is a joy to behold. Both parents work but things are still harmonious more often than not. However, the balances tip when Daddy goes on a business trip, Mommy has had a long day, and Rosa has energy to spare. How will Mommy and Rosa get the rest they both need? Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie (MFA Mills College, Ph.D. Brown) is an interdisciplinary artist, poet, and scholar. Tallie is the author of We Go Slow (Atheneum Books for Young Readers) which was chosen as a New York Public Library Best Book of 2025, a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, and an NCTE Charlotte Huck Recommended Book. She is also the author of the Ezra Jack Keats Honor-winning children’s book Layla’s Happiness (Enchanted Lion Books), the poetry collections Strut (Agape Editions), Karma’s Footsteps (Flipped Eye), and the epistolary work Dear Continuum:Letters to a Poet Crafting Liberation (Grand Concourse Press). She and photographer Dominique Sindayiganza were recipients of an IGNITE Selection Award at the 4th International Eco Performance Film Festival for their cinepoem Barefoot Stroll. Tallie’s poetry is the subject of the film “I Leave My Colors Everywhere.” She is also featured in “Tell Me Another Story” a film about the importance of inclusivity in children’s literature. Her first academic publication, The Unwieldy Otherwise: Rethinking the Roots of Performance Studies in and through the Black Freedom Struggle co-authored with Leon Hilton was published in the journal Performance Matters. Tallie is the mother of three galaxies who look like daughters.