If you didn’t read the email Chancellor Syverud wrote about her accomplishments over the summer, then here’s your chance to learn more about Syracuse student and published author of “I Too Am A Dancer,” Kanisha Ffriend.
Major/Minor: Selected Studies in Education with a Concentration in Disability Studies
Year: Senior
Since leaving high school, you’ve had this idea for a children’s book, but what actually inspired this idea?
When I was watching Celebrity Apprentice… there was a lady named Marlee Matlin and she’s a deaf actress… she was raising money for a charity called Starkey Hearing Foundation and she had this segment when she went to Africa and she was giving out hearing aids… it was about 30 children where they were hearing for the first time… and I saw this and was like, “this is amazing.”…It was out of embarrassment on some ends because I never payed attention to this community… I never knew about deaf culture or disability culture… And I’m here in high school, this was I wanna say my Junior year, and this is the first time I’m seeing what happens. It never dawned on me that people in other countries don’t have the same technologies that we do to even be able to get a hearing aid or things like that… My senior year there was scholarship where you were able to write children’s books on an unrepresented community. I was like obviously this would be a perfect community to talk about. And so I wrote the book… I’m like, “I’m about to be published author in high school? That’s amazing.” But I read the fine print and the fine print said, “if you win or if you don’t win, we still get rights to the entire book.” And at that point I was like, “oh no this book is good, I like it, I’m keeping it.”
The main character of your book is a black girl named Anika. Most children’s books typically are not about people of color. What inspired you to have this character with a disability?
There’s two reasons, because of my education in disability studies… Other people don’t understand it (my major)… they say, “oh that’s so interesting.”… It’s sort of that whole pity factor and it was sorta like what do you mean, this is your community too. In everything that you do… there are people with disabilities and the fact that you’re not paying attention to them and you’re not trying to understand them, you’re doing a disservice to your own community at the same time… I was really trying to break that down and bring more awareness to it from an early age… you should know that growing up. The other thing was… I don’t identify as a person with a disability so for me to write this book and to write about a character who was just disabled and she was light skinned just to keep with the status quo of books, I wouldn’t feel right. Just because I can write it doesn’t mean I should write it, is what I always say. If you’re going to write something, make sure you have a purpose with doing it and so my purpose was to diversify the conversation, to diversify the readers within the conversation.
Why did you choose to say Anika is “hard of hearing” and not “deaf”?
For her to be a dark skin black girl… and to identify strongly as disabled and to be hard of hearing rather than deaf… those are all very specific reasons why I chose it. I chose her as being hard of hearing because when you think of disability… some people automatically think people in wheelchairs. So there’s this hierarchy between the disability community and one thing we’re all working on is trying to dismantle it to let people know there’s a spectrum… You think people who are autistic and say, “oh math geniuses.”… That’s not true. There’s a spectrum and it’s the same for people who are deaf and hard of hearing… So I wanted to raise awareness about that spectrum which is why I made her hard of hearing and not just deaf.
Do you plan to write more books focused on disabilities?
My career goal is to work in children’s media so this has been amazing giving me that platform to meet people and get acquainted and know the business a little bit more. Even though I am self published, there’s still two sides… I would like to work for an organization or a corporation that would be my goal. But it’s stepping stones. So I would love to work for children’s television and creative development for TV shows and… having people learn these things from a young age. I think that’s really important. I do plan on writing a second book. I’m actually working on it now and this one’s going to focus on emotions; so this is geared towards people who are autistic and can have trouble expressing themselves and being vocal… it lines with the whole intersectionality piece of being a black young boy or girl in America where there’s so many things happening right now regarding police brutality and things like that. And you say those words and you’re like, “those are adult conversations.” They’re alive, they see things, they understand things and to not have that conversation… is doing a disservice. They’re going to grow up and you hiding these things, they’re going to learn them from different outlets… In urban schools… you are taught to leave your baggage at the door… and it’s like they’re people, they’re not just these empty heads… they’re not just sitting in a classroom like, “okay let me do my math homework.” They have feelings, they have emotions, and you have to make sure that you address those, because those balled up emotions will come out in another way… So this book will focus on sensory communication, tactile function.
Want to know more about Kanisha? Read below to see what her favorite things are!
Favorite Color: Yellow
If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? Baked macaroni and cheese, easy.
Favorite Season: Fall
What is your favorite place in the world? I really always wanted to go to Maine because they have beach houses. You wake up, you go to the picnic table in the back by the beach and you eat crabs, lobster, shrimp… I would love to wake up and do that.
If you had to give up your phone, laptop, or source of money for a week, which would it be? That laptop’s gonna have to go.
If you could have any kind of exotic pet, what would it be? Something quiet aha! No I’m kidding. But I think a monkey would be really cool and they don’t have to quiet.
Favorite Quotes: “Fortune favors the bold.” “Beautiful girl, you can do hard things.”