KidLitLab!
In 2019, she co-founded KidLitLab! with Nick Kleese, PhD, a children’s literature incubator at the University of Minnesota. Inspired by afterschool programming, KidLitLab! was originally conceived as an opt-in biweekly participant-led workshop series to support those creating their own works of children’s literature. Participants learned with local artists, writers & educators about artistic processes & how to write critical & socially-conscious stories for young people.
As the workshop grew, KidLitLab! has hosted a number of guest artists, writers & educators for lessons & read-alouds in-person & virtually. Guests have included Carole Lindstrom, author of We Are Water Protectors; Saymoukda Vongsay, author of When Everything is Everything; & Emma Reynolds, author-illustrator of Amara and the Bats & founder of KidLit4Climate.
In December 2021, KidLitLab! published a collection of picture books called Here on Earth: A Children’s Literature Ecology Anthology. The anthology aims to support future educators with understanding picturebooks as curriculum, showcasing picturebooks in progress from the IDEA! stage all the way to the draft & revision of picturebook dummies.
KidLitLab! believes that by presenting educators with examples of works-in-progress, the creative process itself becomes more accessible, generative, and joyful. The anthology collects work from KidLitLab! students alongside an interview with Bao Phi, spoken word poet & children’s literature author of A Different Pond.
Đenise’s teaching practice values critical, reflective & creative project-based education. With an upbringing steeped in ancestral devotion practices, her work is rooted in ancestral poetics & pedagogy.
Ancestral pedagogy values understanding, healing & transformation. In practice, this means that she believes in “meeting students where they are at” in their learning & creating trauma-sensitive opportunities to investigate harmful narratives. Together, we confront issues we have been taught to hide or erase.
Đenise especially values self-directed agency & choice. She encourages students to be true to themselves, true to their work & true to the world, emphasizing that collective good & individual freedom need not be at odds with one another. She is informed by principles of anti-oppressive education (Kumashiro, 2000), loving critique (Paris, 2014) & embodied ways of knowing (Wilcox, 2009). Đenise is especially influenced by the lived experiences of our Việt diaspora as we struggle to transform moral injury & violence into relational care & true peace (Thích Nhất Hạnh, 2003).
Her childhood with the likes of Ms. Frizzle & the Magic School Bus, Louis Sachar’s Sideways Stories from Wayside School & Jim Henson’s many creations linger on to create a commitment to playful learning. Most of all, she holds fond memories of singing Việt lullabies & watching dubbed Hong Kong TVB series with her maternal grandmother. Đenise develops curriculum, teaches & mentors undergraduate students at the University of Minnesota in CI4121: Culture, Power & Education, CI3401W: Diversity in Children’s Literature & CI1124: Global Stories of Education - Literature for Young Adults.