Across a Wide Ocean

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).

Image:  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.