Hi, I'm Lisa.
I partner with action-oriented early childhood educators, families of young children and Early Childhood Education systems leaders to positively impact the adults central in the lives of young children. Some of my strengths lie in developing training for ECE professionals and families to support a movement towards social justice by addressing: the influence of and effects of bias and racism in early childhood; the impact of trauma on young children their families the ECE workforce and early literacy. I have an MEd. in Educational Leadership from Arcadia University and a BA in Early Childhood Education from Chestnut Hill College.
Originally from Johannesburg, South Africa, I live with my husband and adorable sons in Philadelphia. I am a huge fan of parks, trails and pools. In my spare time I am writing a children’s book, reading a radical book by a dope Black author and dreaming of ways to impact young children and change the world.
Abiyoyo with Lisa Browne of Colorful Stories
Growing up in South Africa she remembers telling stories with friends and family outside and around the campfire and shares her version of Abiyoyo to encourage young people to do the same.
This video is 12’47” and was created to capture and inspire the youngest writers, but also the young at heart. The recording includes a full story followed by a prompt for young people to write and share their own.
To learn more about my partnership with The National Writing Page, please visit, "2020 Gather Around:
About Colorful Stories
Colorful Stories mission is to support the families and educators in young children’s lives by providing them with the knowledge and skills in using children’s books as tools to have conversations around race, racism and social justice topics. Colorful Stories hopes to support families, educators and librarians starting or expanding their racially diverse home, classroom and organizational libraries for young children (birth-8 years old).
“All children deserve books in which they can see themselves and the world in which they live reflected. Multicultural literature belongs in every classroom and library--on the shelves and in the hands of children, librarians, and teachers. The challenge for librarians, teachers and others is identifying authentic, reliable books by and about people of color and First/ Native Nations.” -Cooperative Children’s Book Center.
Colorful Stories uses the following strategies to accomplish our mission:
1.) Professional Development for early childhood educators. (Birth-4th grade)
2.) Family Workshops
3.) Community partnerships and events
4.) Book Reviews
5.) Resources
COME READ WITH COLORFUL STORIES
Upcoming Events
Write it!
Add your story to the shelf
This fun family event is guaranteed to inspire children (3-8years old) to build their home book collections by authoring their own stories. There will be a bookmaking station where children can illustrate (alongside an artist), physically assemble their paper sheets and covers in the bookmaking process (alongside librarians), develop and write their own stories (alongside a local Philly author), among more interactive stations! We promise to create a space that will awaken the writer within your children! Karen Smith will have us singing and dancing to the beat of her drum and Diane Leslie will captivate us in a very engaging story time. It will be dinner time so please come hungry, as our generous sponsors, Evo Brick Oven Pizza, will have pizza for us and Weavers away, Mt. Airy will have scrumptious treats for us. We have additional activities and surprises for you and your family. We hope to see you there!
Past Events
Black Lives Matter Story Walk
Black children deserve community spaces that will nourish them with an intentional love and a community that will put on for them! I am thankful for my partners in this event: Lovett Memorial Library, Read By 4th, John Butler from Chasebooks, Weavers Way Mt. Airy, and the Free Library of Philadelphia for dreaming with me and making my Black Lives Matter Story Walk celebration possible! To the other dreamers of Black Futures in Philly, I am looking forward to partnering with you for young children. These early years are critical and are when we start these essential conversations.
Black Lives Matter Story Walk
Black children deserve community spaces that will nourish them with an intentional love and a community that will put on for them! I am thankful for my partners in this event: Lovett Memorial Library, Read By 4th, John Butler from Chasebooks, Weavers Way Mt. Airy, and the Free Library of Philadelphia for dreaming with me and making my Black Lives Matter Story Walk celebration possible! To the other dreamers of Black Futures in Philly, I am looking forward to partnering with you for young children. These early years are critical and are when we start these essential conversations.
The STEMLab
The STEMLab was a program that I developed. We used children’s playtime explorations and literacy as opportunities to introduce STEM concepts to preschoolers (2-5 years old). Supporting Mighty Toddlers early literacy skills through fun, meaningful and engaging ways. This program was made possible through William Penn Foundation, Mighty Writers and WHYY sponsorship.
THEMES:
Cultural Diversity, Literacy, Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Comparing, Classifying, Measuring, Similarities and Differences, Fiction, Nonfiction, Occupations, Imagination, Games, Childhood Experiences, Memories, Beginning Concepts and Art.
Colorism is when a person is treated differently because of how dark or light their skin tone is-within and between racial groups. There is an imbalanced promotion of light skin in the media and our children’s books are not exempt in this promotion! It is necessary for us to re-examine and question how diverse our bookshelves are when they fail to move beyond colorblindness to also include colorism blindness. We are still living in a World where dark things are devalued and light things are valued. When children’s books are equating dark with bad words, images, narratives, outcomes and more. When those stereotypes are repeated about people with certain skin tones across children’s literature. Something must change!
To bring multi generational healing, learning, prevention and love into your homes, classrooms and community spaces please add this book to your bookshelves! This story takes us on a journey with beautiful Sulwe as she discovers the beauty and the value of the dark night and learns to embrace her beautiful dark skin.
Book topics: Identity, Colorism, Affirmation, Healing, Multigenerational, Mythology, Inclusivity, Self-esteem, Black pride, Culture, Family.
Shared value: Thematic elements in this book that many of us can relate to are: supporting and nurturing healthy self-esteem, affirmations, individuality and embracing difference. With this in mind, this is a vehicle by which we can begin to have conversations with young children about colorism in a developmentally appropriate way and the appreciation for the full range of beautiful skin tones within Black and Brown communities as well as hair textures and facial features.
Book Reviews
colorfulstoriesinfo@gmail.com
www.colorfulstories.org
@Colorful_stories
@Colorful Stories
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