Ellington Was Not a Street

Featuring luminous art by Coretta Scott King Award-winning illustrator Kadir Nelson, this reflective picture book by poet Ntozake Shange looks back at the great Black thinkers and innovators who visited her father's house.

A close-knit group of Black innovators formed their own community in the early to mid-twentieth century. These men of vision lived at a time when the color of their skin dictated where they could live, what schools they could attend, and even where they could sit on a bus or in a movie theater.

Yet in the face of this tremendous adversity, these dedicated souls and others like them not only demonstrated the importance of Black culture in America, but also helped issue in a movement that changed the world. Their lives and their works inspire us to this day and serve as a guide to how we approach the challenges of tomorrow.

Author: Ntozake Shange
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 01/01/2004
Pages: 40
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.13lbs
Size: 12.22h x 9.30w x 0.39d
ISBN: 9780689828843
Audience: Ages 9-12


Award: Coretta Scott King Award - Winner
Award: Parents Choice Award (Spring) (1998-2007) - Winner


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Review - Children 11/15/2003 pg. 1364
Black Issues Book Review 01/01/2004 pg. 66
Publishers Weekly 12/22/2003 pg. 59
School Library Journal 01/01/2004 pg. 122
Booklist 02/15/2004 pg. 1070
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 03/01/2004 pg. 295
Christian Home & School 05/01/2004 pg. 28
Booksense '76 Childrens Sum 04 06/01/2004 pg. 1
School Library Journal 10/01/2004 pg. 52
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2004 pg. 460 - Below Average, With Minor Flaw
Multicultural Review 12/01/2004 pg. 91
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2004 pg. 460 - Below Average, With Minor Flaw
ALA Notable Children's Books 02/15/2005 pg. 1020
School Library Journal 04/01/2005 pg. 56
Black Issues Book Review 07/01/2005 pg. 65

About the Author
Ntozake Shange (1948-2018) was a renowned playwright, poet, theater director, and novelist. Her body of work includes Obie Award-winning for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, Some Sing Some Cry with Ifa Bayeza, and the posthumous Dance We Do: A Poet Explores Black Dance and I Am an Old Woman. Among her numerous accolades are the Langston Hughes Medal for Literature, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, the Pushcart Prize, the Poetry Society of America's 2018 Shelley Memorial Award and three AUDELCO awards. Ms. Shange's work has been nominated for a Grammy, a Tony, and an Emmy.

Kadir Nelson is an award-winning American artist whose works have been exhibited in major national and international publications, institutions, art galleries, and museums. Nelson's work has won the Coretta Scott King Award, the Robert F. Sibert Award, two Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Awards, and the 2005 Society of Illustrators Gold Medal. His beloved, award-winning, and bestselling picture books include We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball; Thunder Rose, written by Jerdine Nolen; Ellington Was Not a Street, written by Ntozake Shange; Salt in His Shoes, written by Deloris Jordan and Roslyn M. Jordan; and many more. Kadir lives in Los Angeles.