Whether it’s the celebration of Black culture and African spiritualism, the centering of vulnerability and intergenerational connection, or empowerment of underrepresented voices in age, race and gender – the book takes up its rightful space on any virtual or physical shelf. Official book cover.įrom cover to close, Princess Nylah and the Journey to the Magic Window is designed and infused with intentional imagery, messaging and reflections. She achieved that and more, empowering other creative women of color in the process. It’s not good enough to just put the work out there with our faces on it…there needs to be a level of excellence attached to the work that we do that competes in, you know, these different arenas.” “And it’s important that in diversity, we see that level of quality in our work. When we talk about diversity, you know, it’s not just about seeing our faces in books, but it’s also about creating products that are of quality,” she explained. “I wanted to make sure that I presented my book with a certain level of excellence and quality that sometimes is not represented. The book released in 2020 through her publishing company, Small House Publishing, which, after initially working with a traditional publisher, was created out of necessity. Not long after her production wrapped, the pandemic unfolded. The shift from stageplay to book proved to be divine timing.
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“The moment I saw the full character design, I’m like, ‘Oh, this is about to be good!’” exclaimed Small. Small found and worked with talented illustrator, Adua Hernandez. It was Small’s foresight of the stageplay eventually becoming a book that enabled her to lay the groundwork for the book’s illustration process. That’s also symbolic, because that’s what we use books to do, right? To travel from world to world and place to place,” explained Small. That’s the magic – that’s her way of traveling from world to world. “The ‘Magic Window’ in the book is the actual book.
The success of the stageplay inspired her to write it. The stageplay became her most successful one to date with sold out shows every run.įrom its conception, Small envisioned the story being a book.
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“It really helped me to gauge what kids are able to handle in terms of dealing with those type of topics and how to present it to them in a way that it doesn’t feel sad, or heavy or even grotesque in a way,” she said. Much like the story, the moment mirrored the heartfelt, thought-provoking and empowering journey experienced by both the audience and creatives. And that was really, really cool.” Photograph of the stage play, Princess Nylah and the Journey to the Magic Window. “We did the show again – we did a dedication, you know, to her with her family in the audience. And then the following year, you know, she passed,” Small said, her voice dropping an octave as deep as her reflection on the moment. “She had a cousin who had leukemia at the time, which is what the character in the book also has. True to any art form, Small’s stageplay quickly encountered an age-old question: Is art imitating life or life imitating art? In the first production, the main character was played by Deysha Nelson, a young actress whose brilliance Small celebrates. The production took on a life of its own, engaging the talents and voices of kids. I was like, ‘Jesus, I ain’t even know!’” said Small through laughter. I am still to this day, wowed at her ability to write like she did. Small, Hailey Jade & Kayla Olivia (Front Center) An added special touch was her eldest daughter, then a freshman majoring in music at The Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts, writing a majority of the music for the production. True to her creative roots, Small turned the body of work into a stageplay that launched in 2016. What unfolded was Princess Nylah and the Journey to the Magic Window, a tender and enchanting story that takes readers on a magical journey shaped by the physical, spiritual and emotional experience of serious illness. Small opened her notebook and immediately started writing. “I never even considered writing a project like a children’s production or a fairy tale in that sense.” “They were like, well, mommy, we think you could write something,” said Small. Her daughters, who were between the ages 8 and 11 at the time, noticed a lack of representation and immediately identified a solution.
It was during their time together that the nudge came to expand her creative lane. A mom to four (a son and three daughters), Small’s gifts were often nurtured by quality time spent enjoying Disney movies with her daughters. As a playwright, poet, producer, and recording artist, Small discovered and owned her creative gifts.
– Princess Nylah and the Journey to the Magic Window Small, CEO & Founder of Small House Publishing.
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