May 30, 2025 • 10 mins
Vanesse Lloyd-Sgambati Presents: A Conversation with E.B. Lewis Guest host Vanesse Lloyd-Sgambati highlights an exciting upcoming event presented by the Library Association in Philadelphia, featuring the renowned illustrator E.B. Lewis. With more than 70 acclaimed children’s books to his name—including Coming On Home Soon, The Other Side, and Preaching to the Chickens—Lewis has received prestigious honors such as the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award and a Caldecott Honor. Known for his captivating watercolor artistry, E.B. Lewis brings history and emotion to life on the page. He is also the featured subject in Vanesse’s monthly segment, What is Philadelphia Reading?
🗓️ Date: [Insert Date]
📍 Location: [Insert venue at the Library Association in Philadelphia]
🕒 Time: [Insert Time] Join us for an inspiring conversation about art, storytelling, and the transformative power of books—perfect for educators, librarians, families, and book lovers of all ages. 🔗 Website: www.eblewis.com
📸 Instagram: @eblewis_watercolors
👍 Facebook: E.B. Lewis Studio
🗓️ Date: [Insert Date]
📍 Location: [Insert venue at the Library Association in Philadelphia]
🕒 Time: [Insert Time] Join us for an inspiring conversation about art, storytelling, and the transformative power of books—perfect for educators, librarians, families, and book lovers of all ages. 🔗 Website: www.eblewis.com
📸 Instagram: @eblewis_watercolors
👍 Facebook: E.B. Lewis Studio
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, and welcome to Insight, a show about empowering
our community. I'm Lorraine Ballad Morrow, and as we do
once a month every month, I am always delighted to
welcome Vaness Lloyd's Combody for a segment that we call
VLS Journeys. Vaness, How are you today?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yes, it's simply called VLS Journeys Vanessa Lloyd's Combody's Journeys.
And do I always have a journey or story to tell?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
You know?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I had an awesome Memorial Day. My son came up
with my granddaughter and his wife. We did all the
touristy stuff and it was fun, but it was exhausting.
And I just want to give a quick shout out
to my family because they pull together a party in
twenty four hours, and shout out to Kim, Karen, Michelle,
Ramona and Kim especially she's an old school disc jockey.
(00:46):
So we were dancing and party. My granddaughter was not
ready for all that party. But I want to talk
a little bit about you and your mother's Day.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
It was straight out of a movie.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I had the best Mother's Day ever. So my husband
was telling me that he thought it would be kind
of a cool idea to visit my mom's grave. She's
buried at Arlington National Cemetery along with my dad, And
I said, okay, it sounds like an interesting idea. So
I finally said sure, fine, So we drove and we
found the grave site and then Gil told me to
turn around and there is my son and his wife,
(01:19):
his new wife, because he had actually conspired with my
husband to make this happen, and so he surprised me
and we met there. We had lunch, We had just
a wonderful day. We looked around, saw the Lincoln Memorial
and it was just my son. His love language is
grand gestures, and he definitely did a grand gesture and
(01:42):
I cried, it was just beautiful.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Well, I want to make a correction, you said his
new wife is sounded like he had been married before.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
First and only Karina shout out to you. But yeah,
so it was thank you for bringing that back up.
It was a very special day.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well, you have a lot of special things going on
with your husband, and fortunately he's off the market because
he's one of those straight from the movie kind of guys.
But you know, May was a busy month for me.
I went to the opening of the Met exhibit about dandyism,
and next month I'm gonna have somebody on who was
a part of that program. And I never saw so
(02:23):
many black people at the met Galan. I mean it
was like they just opened the doors and said come
on in. Okay, so you won't be saying that next
year for sure. And I a Winter took a selfie
with me. She said, of course, what seriously, Yes, my
call Domingo. I kept saying, you know from Philly, chasteak.
(02:44):
He just gave me shade. I was like, giving me.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Shade, and we're from Philly. But that's okay.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
You know you're gonna come for me someday, said, can't
be ls journeys.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
At any rate.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
We're getting in gear for June for the American Library
Association Invention in Philadelphia. If you're thinking about getting published,
want to know more about new titles coming out in
the fall, get some free books. Come down. The convention
is June. Go to the Pennsylvania Convention site and get
details and registration and all that other good stuff. A
(03:18):
lot of adult and children authors will be in town,
and I'm producing a Philly showcase of literary talent. So
if you're an author or illustrator, bring me up two
and five eight seven eight book, and I'll see what
I can do about getting you on the convention floor
to be a participant.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
But speaking of the.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Convention, a homegrown talent is being honored with a Coretta
Scott King Award. The American Library Association issues Coretta Scott
King Awards every year and.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
It's Ebie Lewis.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
He received the Illustrator Award, And so we're going to
celebrate his body of work. He has produced over eighty
books over three decades. Get it correct, because I know
he will correct me a lot of you know his
I Love My Hair by Natasha Tarpley and his latest book,
Everywhere Beauty is Harlem the vision of photographer.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Roy Kravav by Gary Goleo.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
And I'm so excited to have him on the show
because he just brings to life the books by his illustrations.
And I happen to own three, no, four, maybe five
of his originals. He always says I stole them because
I got them so cheap, but it was a great investment.
But Earl, thank you so much for being on the show.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
So tell us you've done eighty.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
He's a Sagittarian brother, So get a little closer to
the mic because we want to hear every syllable, verb,
adjective that comes out of your mouth. Because you're a
global traveler too, so let's get down to business. You're
an illustrator and an artist.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
We having a trapid spirit to see the world and
the cultures, and it becomes part of my work. I
travel because I want to see, I want to I
want an experience, I want to taste. I love the
experience of going and hopping off of a plane and
stepping off into a country, maybe a place where I've
never even been or don't even know how to speak
the language. But then I find myself right at home
(05:14):
because people are people all over the world, and so
it's about the human experience. That's what it's all about.
That's what my work is about.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Well, I want to talk if we could kind of
go briefly through all these little decades of your life.
So you're from Philadelphia. Where'd you grow up and with
high school? That's a Philly question.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Yeah, born and raised in Philadelphia in the Frankfort section
of Philadelphia, went to Frankfort High School. Then I am
a Temple grad and I'd like to say that tu baby,
and that went off back to school for my graduate
work over in Trenton, New Jersey. I have a master's
a special ad A lot of people don't really know that,
but yeah, I went back and got a degree in
(05:53):
special heed. So I worked with the emotionally storve adolescent
for about fifteen years before and then New Yark came
into my world.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
How did you become an illustrator? Because you know you're working.
You go to school for one thing, but you end
up becoming famous for something else. And I should note
also that he is an artist.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Yes, you also assured I did. I went to school
Tempo and went to Tyler School of Art and there
got to degree, got a degree also in education to teach.
But when I got out of school, I was like
really ill prepared for the business side of the industry.
So I kind of fell flat on my face.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I want to know how you became an artist?
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Yeah, I'm in a quick answer to that question of
how I became an illustrator. Basically, an agent discovered me.
Someone saw work on a cover of American Artist magazine,
contacted me very and said, do you want to do
illustration children's book illustration. My first response was no. I
later looked and realized that some research and realized what
(06:54):
I was saying no to that some of the best
artwork in the country's being done into in kids' books.
So I quickly accepted. And now thirty years later, some
thirty years later, with over eighty books, I can say
probably that I'm an illustrator and writer. Now I do
write children's books.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Now, one of your iconic books is I Love My Hair,
And I think that probably most young black girls. I
when a parent wants to buy a child's girl a book,
they buy that book because it celebrates something that we've
seen so many times and taken for granted. But it
just brings out the beauty in a young black girl's hair.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Yeah, that's what the work is about, you know, celebrating people,
spell oblating black books, white folks. My work is multicultural,
but that one particular book is universal because I have there.
You don't have to be a little black girl or
you know, a black child child of color to appreciate that.
Fathers who are raising young girls buy that book because
(07:56):
it relates to them and it helps them understand what
a little girl was going through and trying to understand
and have appreciate the beauty and within the self beauty.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Well, Earl, you know, I'm so happy to present this
event with you at the Antonay of Philadelphia to sixteen
South sixth Street on Saturday, June seventh, from twelve to
two pm. And he will be there talking. I mean
he's going to get an hour to talk.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Okay, snip it.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I'm only joking, but you'll get It's a book signing
presentation he'll be having. He'll bring some of his artwork also.
So I'm happy to have you come to take time
to really get to network with people in Philadelphia who
love what you've done, and celebrating thirty years of an
icon illustrator who has illuminated so many books. So we've
(08:51):
come to my favorite part of this segment. It's called
what is Philadelphia Reading? So are you ready?
Speaker 4 (08:57):
I am ready?
Speaker 3 (08:58):
So what book are you reading? The Big C first
book you read, the Bible, best book you read, Sola Solomon,
worst book you've read.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
The Giving Tree, your go to author? Tony Morrison, buyer
or borrow buyer?
Speaker 3 (09:16):
What books should everyone have in their library?
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Autobiography of Frederick.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Douglas fiction or nonfiction, both non fiction.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
You have a literary dinner named three people from the
literary community.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
You must have to make.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
A Kincaid Jason Reynolds, Jackie Woodson.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
If you wrote a book about your life, what would
be the title?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
The Miseducation of eb Lewis.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
You're always a joy, and thank you for bringing such
great pleasure to my walls in my home. So see
him June seventh, twelve to two pm at de'antonea, Philadelphia.
That's two sixteen South sixth Street. And again it's eb
Lewis a pleasure to have you and an honor to
(10:01):
be in your presence.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
This is Vanessaloid's combody. See you next month.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
This is always continued to read by a book, and
of course have a blessed day.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
We'll have more insight after these messages.
Good morning, and welcome to Insight, a show about empowering
our community. I'm Lorraine Ballad Morrow, and as we do
once a month every month, I am always delighted to
welcome Vaness Lloyd's Combody for a segment that we call
VLS Journeys. Vaness, How are you today?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yes, it's simply called VLS Journeys Vanessa Lloyd's Combody's Journeys.
And do I always have a journey or story to tell?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
You know?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I had an awesome Memorial Day. My son came up
with my granddaughter and his wife. We did all the
touristy stuff and it was fun, but it was exhausting.
And I just want to give a quick shout out
to my family because they pull together a party in
twenty four hours, and shout out to Kim, Karen, Michelle,
Ramona and Kim especially she's an old school disc jockey.
(00:46):
So we were dancing and party. My granddaughter was not
ready for all that party. But I want to talk
a little bit about you and your mother's Day.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
It was straight out of a movie.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I had the best Mother's Day ever. So my husband
was telling me that he thought it would be kind
of a cool idea to visit my mom's grave. She's
buried at Arlington National Cemetery along with my dad, And
I said, okay, it sounds like an interesting idea. So
I finally said sure, fine, So we drove and we
found the grave site and then Gil told me to
turn around and there is my son and his wife,
(01:19):
his new wife, because he had actually conspired with my
husband to make this happen, and so he surprised me
and we met there. We had lunch, We had just
a wonderful day. We looked around, saw the Lincoln Memorial
and it was just my son. His love language is
grand gestures, and he definitely did a grand gesture and
(01:42):
I cried, it was just beautiful.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Well, I want to make a correction, you said his
new wife is sounded like he had been married before.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
First and only Karina shout out to you. But yeah,
so it was thank you for bringing that back up.
It was a very special day.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well, you have a lot of special things going on
with your husband, and fortunately he's off the market because
he's one of those straight from the movie kind of guys.
But you know, May was a busy month for me.
I went to the opening of the Met exhibit about dandyism,
and next month I'm gonna have somebody on who was
a part of that program. And I never saw so
(02:23):
many black people at the met Galan. I mean it
was like they just opened the doors and said come
on in. Okay, so you won't be saying that next
year for sure. And I a Winter took a selfie
with me. She said, of course, what seriously, Yes, my
call Domingo. I kept saying, you know from Philly, chasteak.
(02:44):
He just gave me shade. I was like, giving me.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Shade, and we're from Philly. But that's okay.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
You know you're gonna come for me someday, said, can't
be ls journeys.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
At any rate.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
We're getting in gear for June for the American Library
Association Invention in Philadelphia. If you're thinking about getting published,
want to know more about new titles coming out in
the fall, get some free books. Come down. The convention
is June. Go to the Pennsylvania Convention site and get
details and registration and all that other good stuff. A
(03:18):
lot of adult and children authors will be in town,
and I'm producing a Philly showcase of literary talent. So
if you're an author or illustrator, bring me up two
and five eight seven eight book, and I'll see what
I can do about getting you on the convention floor
to be a participant.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
But speaking of the.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Convention, a homegrown talent is being honored with a Coretta
Scott King Award. The American Library Association issues Coretta Scott
King Awards every year and.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
It's Ebie Lewis.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
He received the Illustrator Award, And so we're going to
celebrate his body of work. He has produced over eighty
books over three decades. Get it correct, because I know
he will correct me a lot of you know his
I Love My Hair by Natasha Tarpley and his latest book,
Everywhere Beauty is Harlem the vision of photographer.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Roy Kravav by Gary Goleo.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
And I'm so excited to have him on the show
because he just brings to life the books by his illustrations.
And I happen to own three, no, four, maybe five
of his originals. He always says I stole them because
I got them so cheap, but it was a great investment.
But Earl, thank you so much for being on the show.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
So tell us you've done eighty.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
He's a Sagittarian brother, So get a little closer to
the mic because we want to hear every syllable, verb,
adjective that comes out of your mouth. Because you're a
global traveler too, so let's get down to business. You're
an illustrator and an artist.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
We having a trapid spirit to see the world and
the cultures, and it becomes part of my work. I
travel because I want to see, I want to I
want an experience, I want to taste. I love the
experience of going and hopping off of a plane and
stepping off into a country, maybe a place where I've
never even been or don't even know how to speak
the language. But then I find myself right at home
(05:14):
because people are people all over the world, and so
it's about the human experience. That's what it's all about.
That's what my work is about.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Well, I want to talk if we could kind of
go briefly through all these little decades of your life.
So you're from Philadelphia. Where'd you grow up and with
high school? That's a Philly question.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Yeah, born and raised in Philadelphia in the Frankfort section
of Philadelphia, went to Frankfort High School. Then I am
a Temple grad and I'd like to say that tu baby,
and that went off back to school for my graduate
work over in Trenton, New Jersey. I have a master's
a special ad A lot of people don't really know that,
but yeah, I went back and got a degree in
(05:53):
special heed. So I worked with the emotionally storve adolescent
for about fifteen years before and then New Yark came
into my world.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
How did you become an illustrator? Because you know you're working.
You go to school for one thing, but you end
up becoming famous for something else. And I should note
also that he is an artist.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Yes, you also assured I did. I went to school
Tempo and went to Tyler School of Art and there
got to degree, got a degree also in education to teach.
But when I got out of school, I was like
really ill prepared for the business side of the industry.
So I kind of fell flat on my face.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I want to know how you became an artist?
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Yeah, I'm in a quick answer to that question of
how I became an illustrator. Basically, an agent discovered me.
Someone saw work on a cover of American Artist magazine,
contacted me very and said, do you want to do
illustration children's book illustration. My first response was no. I
later looked and realized that some research and realized what
(06:54):
I was saying no to that some of the best
artwork in the country's being done into in kids' books.
So I quickly accepted. And now thirty years later, some
thirty years later, with over eighty books, I can say
probably that I'm an illustrator and writer. Now I do
write children's books.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Now, one of your iconic books is I Love My Hair,
And I think that probably most young black girls. I
when a parent wants to buy a child's girl a book,
they buy that book because it celebrates something that we've
seen so many times and taken for granted. But it
just brings out the beauty in a young black girl's hair.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Yeah, that's what the work is about, you know, celebrating people,
spell oblating black books, white folks. My work is multicultural,
but that one particular book is universal because I have there.
You don't have to be a little black girl or
you know, a black child child of color to appreciate that.
Fathers who are raising young girls buy that book because
(07:56):
it relates to them and it helps them understand what
a little girl was going through and trying to understand
and have appreciate the beauty and within the self beauty.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Well, Earl, you know, I'm so happy to present this
event with you at the Antonay of Philadelphia to sixteen
South sixth Street on Saturday, June seventh, from twelve to
two pm. And he will be there talking. I mean
he's going to get an hour to talk.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Okay, snip it.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I'm only joking, but you'll get It's a book signing
presentation he'll be having. He'll bring some of his artwork also.
So I'm happy to have you come to take time
to really get to network with people in Philadelphia who
love what you've done, and celebrating thirty years of an
icon illustrator who has illuminated so many books. So we've
(08:51):
come to my favorite part of this segment. It's called
what is Philadelphia Reading? So are you ready?
Speaker 4 (08:57):
I am ready?
Speaker 3 (08:58):
So what book are you reading? The Big C first
book you read, the Bible, best book you read, Sola Solomon,
worst book you've read.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
The Giving Tree, your go to author? Tony Morrison, buyer
or borrow buyer?
Speaker 3 (09:16):
What books should everyone have in their library?
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Autobiography of Frederick.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Douglas fiction or nonfiction, both non fiction.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
You have a literary dinner named three people from the
literary community.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
You must have to make.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
A Kincaid Jason Reynolds, Jackie Woodson.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
If you wrote a book about your life, what would
be the title?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
The Miseducation of eb Lewis.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
You're always a joy, and thank you for bringing such
great pleasure to my walls in my home. So see
him June seventh, twelve to two pm at de'antonea, Philadelphia.
That's two sixteen South sixth Street. And again it's eb
Lewis a pleasure to have you and an honor to
(10:01):
be in your presence.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
This is Vanessaloid's combody. See you next month.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
This is always continued to read by a book, and
of course have a blessed day.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
We'll have more insight after these messages.
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