www.sarajaneboyersbooks.com
(coming soon!)

Monday, July 23, 2018

Discussion & Book-Signing at Artbook@HauserWirth/LA on 21 July!!!!!

What a great day this was!  So honored that Shana Nys Dambrot took time from her incredibly busy schedule as an art critic, writer and curator to explore with me the LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME, 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION.  Loved the discussion over this first book that I ever created where I married the so expressive artwork of Jean-Michel Basquiat to Dr. Maya Angelou's powerful words about empowerment and overcoming fear.

It's been 25 years since LIFE was first published and in the ensuing time, I became the artist that I always wanted to be and this perspective on this new, updated edition of mine (Abrams Books) was so fascinating to chat about.

Artbook@Hauser&Wirth/LA did a great job and loved the two ways in which they shelved LIFE25, especially where it was living with Karl Lagerfield and Basquiat and Albers.... good conversations there.



Thanks to Carolyn Campbell for the pics below:


on to the next signings!

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Monday, July 9, 2018

For LA friends and followers: Mark your calendar for Saturday, 21 July, 3-5 pm for a discussion, book-signing with Shana Nys Dambrot on the 25th Anniversary Edition of LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME (Abrams) where I paired the so expressive artwork of Jean-Michel Basquiat with the great empowering 1978 poem of Dr. Maya Angelou.  To be held at artbook@Hauser&Wirth/LA!



See you there!  

https://mailchi.mp/b3a4c49080d8/july-21artbookhauserwirthla-life-doesnt-frighten-me-25th-anni-edition-discussionsigning
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Monday, April 30, 2018

Since last post, there have been more lovely reviews of the 25th Anniversary Edition of LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME, some soon to post.  Today I caught this one from the Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch, under the headline

YOUNG READERS: PICTURE BOOKS OF PEACE AND COURAGE

"Young readers are invited to ponder the attributes of peacemakers and peacemaking — courage, defiance, compassion, conviction and imagination — in new picture books.
These titles wield poetry and prose, image and song in the name of peace and personal connection. ...
The 25th anniversary edition of “Life Doesn’t Frighten Me” (ages 4 and older, 40 pages, Abrams Books for Young Readers, $19.95) pairs Maya Angelou’s poem about courage and fear with strong and daring paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat.  Editor Sara Jane Boyers curated a conversation between Angelou and Basquiat, two black artists intimately familiar with overcoming obstacles and racial marginalization. This volume is a vibrant reminder, as relevant or more today, of the power of naming our fears and claiming triumph over them."
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Saturday, March 10, 2018

Life In The Canyon _ Post Mortem

I live in a canyon that was the 19th Century site of the first forestry research station established in the US where various trees were brought to California, among them the magnificent eucalyptus. Two days ago one of them, probably 100+ years old and around which I built my home is now scheduled  to disappear, too large and too old to live and be safe. I walk the yard before the sun appears. I look up through skylights to try to imagine the void, clear sky it will leave behind when I used to feel so protected by its covering.. In three days it will be no more...even the trunk will be ground into the earth.  

 Here is its story: 

 A house support column was in danger, A pencil line crack was running a slow jagged line around its circumference.  Concrete but obviously not impermeable and the rebar in danger of moisture, resultant rust and weakening.

The ground was riddled with wrinkle lines of surface tree roots from this ancient tree, shallow rooted and worrisome in and of itself for the Eucalypts were brought to the US as savior trees - windbreaks, wood - yet abandoned due to their brittle nature, their tendency to fall, many far younger that ours.  Yet they are beautiful, scented and majestic.

Ours had to come down.

















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Thursday, February 8, 2018

OMGosh LIFE25 is OUT!!!!

Reviews rolling in, both in the States and abroad and  now, on the eve of ALA Midwinter (on of the biggest and most important of book fairs, American Library Association - I've given seminars there before!), LIFE25 is up at the Abrams Booth when ALA starts tomorrow!


and of course it is NOW Black History Month, a special time when we have the opportunity to understand, even more clearly, how so many artists and writers who have become American legends such as Dr. Angelou and Jean-Michel Basquiat had to struggle to make themselves seen and heard because of race.  We are in a better time now although ironically, a difficult time when tensions have again arisen.  Let's all work to ensure that we are all heard and not through the filter of something that defines us, yes, but NOT something that stops us.  That is the message not only of LIFE25 but should be for us all.

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Friday, January 12, 2018

Life Doesn't Frighten Me: 25th Anni Edition

LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME 
(TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION)

**More Reviews/Mentions Rolling In ...



Great mention in this weekend's Wall Street Journal! 
(this is behind a subscriber pay wall so I am posting it here just in text form.)

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s fierce, tumultuous paintings (see above) exude terrific power—and a measure of unexpected humor—when paired with Maya Angelou’s verse in the picture book “Life Doesn’t Frighten Me” (Abrams, 40 pages, $19.95). First published in 1993, this arresting volume, edited by Sara Jane Boyers, uses a high-impact typeface to convey its message of defiance. “Shadows on the wall / Noises down the hall / Life / Doesn’t / Frighten / Me / at all,” writes Angelou (1928-2014). A skeletal man and dog splashed with red and orange paint, a monstrous bear-man, and other images by Basquiat (1960-88) express wild feelings and even terrors. We see two inchoate figures battle with boxing gloves, their teeth bared, and read: “Tough guys in a fight / All alone at night / Life doesn’t / Frighten me / At all.” It’s a refrain that children ages 6-10 may want to chant to themselves long after they’ve put down the book.




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Life Doesn't Frighten Me: 25th Anni Edition

LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME 
(TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION)

**More Reviews/Mentions Rolling In ...

ShelfAwareness
Smithsonian Book Dragon (ShelfAwareness review)

a few more from the UK so far where AbramsChronicle has  book out a bit before major North American release





On the shelf - Mystery to Me Booksellers, Madison WI (thanx for great pic above!)
On the shelf - Caravanserail, UK

** For updates - check out 
Twitter - @sarajaneboyers
Instagram - SaraJaneBoyersPhoto

Bookstores, museums, readers!  If you have LIFE25 on your shelf, in your hands, wrapped as a gift! send me your pics and I'll post them here or on the above sites!  sjboyers@sarajaneboyersbooks.com

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Life Doesn't Frighten Me: 25th Anni Edition




Reviews and mentions coming in!

It's Nice That

https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/maya-angelou-jean-michel-basquiat-life-doesnt-frighten-me-publication-110118?utm_source=dailyemail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=intemail
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Sunday, January 7, 2018

LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME (25th Anni Edition)!

LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME 
(TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION)
9 January 2018!














Check or ask for the 25th Anniversary Edition at your **local indie bookstores or online at Amazon (pre-order now).  Out in just two days!!!!

LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME, published to acclaim 25 YEARS AGO and always in print, is being released 9 January 2018 in a new, updated 25th Anniversary Edition (LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME (TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION)!!!!!  
LIFE is the first book I created and edited, pairing the expressive art of Jean-Michel Basquiat and the empowering l978 poem by Dr. Maya Angelou. In LIFE25, I am delighted to have been able to update these amazing artists' biographies and add an afterword and Abrams has honored LIFE by creating a new trim size and wrapped it in a very beautiful clothbound edition that honors its success while also appealing to not only youth but the many adults, graduating students and others to whom LIFE has meant so much.  Dr. Maya Angelou's so beautifully crafted and powerful words and Jean-Michel Basquiat's expressive art continue to inspire and give us strength and resolve.

Read more about LIFE25 on the Abrams Books site and on my LIFE25 FB page LIFE DOESNT FRIGHTEN ME - THE BOOK.  I'll be updating the FB page continually, including indie bookstores carrying LIFE25 and events being planned.  On the FB page, read the "About" to understand why I created this wonderful book and what it has meant already to so many.


NOW, delighted to share here the first review, published on Shelf Awareness by reviewer Terry Hong, resident blogger, among many other activities, for the Smithsonian. Asian Pacific American Center's BOOK DRAGON.  http://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=3156#m38936


AND ... a lovely honor: the first author invited to share a bit about writing process on Anastasia Suen's popular blog site for her new Sunday Guest Post Series, published today!

Oh and BTW, here are just some of the awards and reviews of the original LIFE, published in 1993.  With LIFE25, the impact, basic design and wonder remains!


Below, just two pages from LIFE25 ...  Let me know what you think and pass it on!





Thank you to all my readers and others who have always made me aware of what LIFE meant to them.  It has inspired me to continue writing (and photographing) so that I can share with all of you the individuals, the places, the ideas of where we live, work, and create.
**If you have a special 
Indie bookstore (always my favorite!) that is carrying LIFE25, let me know and I'll list it here!  I already know that in Detroit, my favorite second city (the one of my birth), Source Booksellers and Eric's I've Been Framed had always carried the original LIFE and will NOW have LIFE25!
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