Across a Wide Ocean
Remarkable Stories about the Origins of Identity
on view January 27, 2024 - January 5, 2025
Nikkolas Smith, Legacy, 2021. Digital illustration. The 1619 Project: Born on the Water (Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson, authors), Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
Barbara and Stephen Slaggie Family Gallery Literary Arts Gallery
Water shapes our very existence. Combining personal, familial, and historical stories across cultures and time, Across a Wide Ocean: Remarkable Stories about the Origins of Identity, reminds us of the many ways this comes about. Through two award-winning illustrated books visitors can explore individual accounts of people born on, or transported over, the water, revealing universal wisdom about the origins of identity. “Across a wide ocean” describes how Kao Kalia Yang’s grandmother arrived to the United States from her Hmong homeland, while ancestors of Nikole Hannah-Jones’s African protagonist were “born on the water,” only to plunge “into the teal eternity,” or reach these shores to become, as she says, the true first Americans.
Across a Wide Ocean: Remarkable Stories about the Origins of Identity delves into the books The 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson and illustrated by Nikkolas Smith (Penguin Random House, 2021); and The Most Beautiful Thing by Kao Kalia Yang, illustrated by Khoa Le (Lerner Publishing, Carolrhoda Books, 2020).
Most Beautiful Thing: Kao Kalia Yang (2020). The Most Beautiful Thing. Khoa Le (illus.) Millbrook Press.
Photos by Bailey Bolton.
Thank you to Zackaria and Anniessa Antar of Sirocco Labs for developing the software to bring A Quilt of Beauty to life! www.siroccolabs.com
Upcoming Programming
Past Programing
About the Illustrators
About Nikkolas Smith
After designing theme parks at Walt Disney Imagineering for 11 years, Nikkolas Smith (b. 1985) is now an artivist, concept artist, children’s book author, film Illustrator, and movie poster designer. In addition to illustrating numerous works by other authors, he is the author/illustrator of the picture books The Golden Girls of Rio (Sky Pony, 2016), which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award); My Hair is Poofy & That’s Okay (VJS Productions, 2017), and World Cup Women (Sky Pony, 2019). Smith describes himself as an artivist, marrying art with social activism. As an illustrator of color, he creates art that can spark important conversations around social justice in today’s world and inspire meaningful change. His 2023 picture book The Artivist (Kokila) shows how children can combine art and activism in their daily lives.
About Khoa Le
Khoa Le (b. 1982) is an illustrator, author, and painter based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She is the author and illustrator of numerous picture books, including Sugar in Milk (Running Press Kids, 2020) by Thrity Umrigar, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year; and Miriam at the River (Kar-Ben Publishing, 2020) by Jane Yolen, an Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Honor Book.Though her artwork is digital— employing Photoshop alongside a Wacom tablet—Khoa Le crafts all textures using traditional methods such as watercolor or oil paint. For each project, she embarks on a creative experiment, blending personal touches to ensure the result aligns with the narrative she aims to convey.
About the Authors
About NiKole Hannah-Jones
Nikole Hannah-Jones (b. 1978) is an award-winning investigative reporter who covers civil rights and racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine. A native Iowan, she was a child produced by the hopes of both the Great Migration and those who migrated from foreign shores. She became hooked on journalism in high school, when she began writing about students like her, who were bused across town as part of a voluntary school desegregation program, winning her very first journalism award. She is the Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at Howard University, where she is the founding director of the Center for Journalism & Democracy. Her reporting has earned her the Pulitzer Prize, the MacArthur “Genius” Grant, the Knight Award for Public Service, the Peabody Award, two George Polk awards, and the National Magazine Award three times.
About Renée Watson
Renée Watson (b. 1978) is a #1 New York Times Bestselling author of books for young readers. Her young adult novel, Piecing Me Together (Bloomberry, 2017), received a Coretta Scott King Award and Newbery Honor. Her children's picture books and novels for teens have received several awards and international recognition. Watson's first picture book, A Place Where Hurricanes Happen (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2010), was inspired by her work with students who lived through Hurricane Katrina. Many of her books are inspired by her experiences growing up as a Black girl in the Pacific Northwest. Her poetry and fiction center around the experiences of Black girls and explore themes of home, identity, body image, and the intersections of race, class, and gender. Watson founded the I, Too, Arts Collective, a nonprofit that provides creative arts programs to the Harlem community.
About Kao Kalia Yang
Kao Kalia Yang (b. 1980) is an award-winning Hmong-American writer. She was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and immigrated to Minnesota in 1987. Yang is the author of the memoirs The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir (Coffee House Press, 2008) and The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father (Metropolitan Books, 2016). The Latehomecomer is the first Asian American–authored and –centered book to be added to the roster of the Literature to Life Program and a National Endowment for the Arts Big Read title. The Song Poet was commissioned as a youth opera by the Minnesota Opera, which premiered in 2021. Yang is also the author of six children’s books, including The Most Beautiful Thing (Carolrhoda Books, 2020). She received the A.P. Anderson Award for her significant contributions to the cultural and artistic life of Minnesota, and is a Soros, McKnight, and Guggenheim fellow.
Support Comes From
This project is presented by the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, with support in part from our Board of Directors, the Winona Foundation, the Elizabeth Calendar King Foundation, and other generous sustaining contributions from foundations, corporations, individuals, members and volunteers.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund.
Presenting Partners
Special thanks to our Presenting Partners, Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Random House, Lerner Publishing Group, and Wisconsin Public Radio.
