Burst Into Books Encourages Children To Read And Engage With Books

Bust Into Books was founded by Jurema Gorham as a way to bring awareness to Black authors and encourage young children to read. PHOTO PROVIDED BY JUREMA GORHAM.
Bust Into Books was founded by Jurema Gorham as a way to bring awareness to Black authors and encourage young children to read. PHOTO PROVIDED BY JUREMA GORHAM.

Burst Into Books Encourages Children To Read And Engage With Books

By Tia Carol Jones

Jurema Gorham was motivated to launch Burst Into Books because of her career in education and her journey into motherhood. Gorham, who has been in education for more than 15 years, started Burst Into Books in 2018.

The idea for Burst Into Books came from a group of mothers who noticed there was a lack of programming that was representative of their sons. To find programs for their sons to participate in, they had to go outside of their neighborhood. Gorham decided to start a book club that became Burst Into Books, a non-profit that aims to highlight books written by Black authors. The goal is for Black children to see themselves represented in literature and to encourage reading among Black children.

Burst Into Books creates culturally relevant opportunities for families on the South side of Chicago, through events, programs and services to connect with the community and with one another. The mission also includes creating the next generation of Black authors.

The Burst Into Books Community Art Space opened on July 6th in the Roseland neighborhood. Gorham started her book club as a teacher in Pullman, so having the art space in Roseland feels like a full circle moment for her.

“This is an opportunity for us to really have a home base for our work. A lot of times our work is done in partnership with schools, or libraries or other community spaces, but now we have our own space, where we do programming and we can sell and also give out the books that are from Black authors,” Gorham said.

Gorham said with the Burst Into Books Community Art Space, she is looking to partner with other community organizations throughout Chicago. It has been exciting for her to have a space where families can come for programming and Burst Into Books now has  headquarters for its work. Gorham also believes having the space in the storefront in Roseland creates awareness for a community and can serve as something that makes a positive impact on the community and its residents.

“There are so many beautiful families and organizations doing great work in Roseland, so we’re excited about what is going to come from that space,” she said.

Gorham believes that it is important to engage children in reading at an early age. As a teacher, she understands how a person is introduced to a concept, like reading or science or math, can dictate how they engage with it later in life. When children are introduced to books at an early age, books become a part of their lives.

What I’ve noticed is that kids enjoy reading, from birth, if all they’ve seen is books and they’re in a book rich home and they’re going to the library as part of an activity, their relationship with books is a lot different, she said.

Gorham has seen children who are in middle school and high school become lovers of reading because they were exposed to different kinds of books and have access to a world they did not know existed. She believes that the earlier children are introduced to books, reading becomes less of a struggle.

Burst Into Books has guest authors at the books clubs so the children can meet the people who wrote the books they are reading. They have been able to Zoom in authors who live outside the city or state, just so the children can see the authors and interact with them. Burst Into Books recently hosted its festival in Pullman. Families in attendance had the opportunity to meet authors, poets, playwrights and other kinds of writers. The headlining author for the festival is always a Black author.

“I think it’s important that kids are able to see a name and see the person that goes with that name and they’re able to one day aspire to be that name, as well,” Gorham said.

With the festival, book clubs and other programs, Gorham wants the children to see the process of becoming an author isn’t as difficult as it seems, as long as there are accessible resources. Burst Into Books also works with self-published and traditionally published authors.

Gorham believes that reading is the pathway to the community understanding who they are and the thing that will rebuild the community.

“I believe we don’t even understand how powerful we are in our community because we haven’t been exposed to knowledge,” she said.

For more information about Burst Into Books, visit burstintobooks.org.

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