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young entrepreneur kaya thomas created an app to find books by black authors

February 17, 2017
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By T. McLendon, AFROPUNK Contributor

 

Black literacy was one of the rallying cries for civil rights and integration in the 50s and 60s and now, the Black community is fighting for resources in schools and school to prison pipeline abolition. One of the ways that Black people have kept on keeping on is through the arts, and our authors and poets are the best and brightest this universe has to offer. To support literacy and embolden young people and adults alike to read, Kaya Thomas has created a free mobile application to encourage people to read Black authors’ work. We Read Too is a cultural literacy application that showcases a directory of over 600 Children’s and Young Adult fiction books written by authors of color for people of color, meaning that by downloading this, you’re not only are you supporting Black authors by reading their material but you’d also be empowering a young, Black entrepreneur in the process.

The app allows you to browse different genres, search by author or title, view the details of every book, share the book, suggest any books to be added, as well as view the book on the web through Safari for your ease. When asked about how ‘We Read Too’ came about and why she felt compelled to make it, the Dartmouth senior said, “This app is very important to me because I’ve always loved reading from the moment I learned how to, but I constantly found that I couldn’t relate to the characters in popular books. I created this application so books with Black, Latino, Asian and Native characters can be showcased in one central place where parents, students, educators, and anyone else can find books for youth with diverse characters they can relate to or whose culture they want to learn more about.” Currently, the app has over 5,000 users and it’s available for free in the iTunes App Store. Go download it now and let’s get to turning some pages!

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