Author Charles R. Smith Jr. and illustrator Edel Rodriguez team up for “Song for Jimi,” an unique children book on the legendary guitarist, Jimi Hendrix.
Video Content: Charles R. Smith Jr. and Edel Rodriguez (2021)
In the full interview, SIDEWALKS host Veronica Castro interviews poet / author Charles R. Smith Jr. and illustrator Edel Rodriguez about their collaboration on the children book, “Song for Jimi: The Story of Guitar Legend Jimi Hendrix.”
Mini-Biographies:
Lives in Poughkeepsie, New York, Charles R. Smith Jr. is an award-winning children’s book author, photographer, and poet with over thirty books to his credit, including titles “12 Rounds To Glory,” “My People,” “Rimshots,” Black Jack: The Ballad of Jack Johnson,” “28 Days: Moments in Black History That Changed the World,” “I Am America,” “Hoop King,” and “Brown Sugar Babies.” Some of his awards are a Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration for his photographs accompanying the Langston Hughes poem “My People” and a Coretta Scott King Author Honor for his biography on Muhammad Ali, “Twelve Rounds to Glory.”
Born in Havana, Cuba, Edel Rodriguez is an artist, illustrator, and children’s book author. He worked as an art director for Time magazine for many years and received the Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators. Some of the children books Rodriguez has illustrated include “Mama Does the Mambo” by Katherine Leiner and “Float Like a Butterfly” by Ntozake Shange and “Oye, Celia!” by Katie Sciurba. As a children’s book author and illustrator, he did “Sergio Makes a Splash” and “Sergio Saves The Game.” He has illustrated theatrical posters including “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare with Kelsey Grammer at the Music Box Theatre, “The Odd Couple” by Neil Simon at the SoulPepper Theatre, “As You Like It” by William Shakespeare at the SoulPepper Theatre, and “Nixon in China” by John Adams at the Canadian Opera Company. Book covers with Rodriguez’s artwork are “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe (50th Anniversary Edition), “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros (25th Anniversary Edition), “In The Sea There are Crocodiles” by Fabio Geda and “Illustrators 51” published by the Society of Illustrators.
Interview Credits:
Recorded: November 17, 2021
Host / Producer: Veronica Castro
Editor: Richard R. Lee
Special Thanks To: Holiday House, Paula Eager