Clem Richardson of the New York Daily News shares the story of a program in Harlem that teaches kids to make their own multicultural dolls. About toymaker Kara Lesondak, Richardson writes,
[S]he taught the mostly African-American and Hispanic students to make and market dolls that looked like them.”Kara created a very unique doll-making program for us,” said East Harlem Tutorial executive director Alex Betancourt. “These weren’t your Madison Ave. portrait of what dolls look like. Most of the dolls were African-American and Latino. And not only did the kids make them, they sold them, too.”
The students put some of the dolls up for auction during East Harlem’s annual fund-raiser – but not all of them.
Bravo! Lesondak has her own line of multicultural dolls, Lindie & Friends. You can purchase the dolls directly from her. Here’s a sample; isn’t he cute?
His name is Samson, and he’s available for $28 at the Lindie & Friends Gallery Store.