Lion Forge Animation Teams with Nine PBS for New Initiative

David Steward II’s Lion Forge Animation (Hair Love) has partnered with St. Louis-based Nine PBS for the new multimedia initiative Drawn In, designed to positively represent children of color and help close the literacy gap.

As part of the partnership, a series of animated video shorts seek to address educational objectives for 6- to 8-year-olds. The shorts see the real world collide with the comic world when characters escape from the pages, and the children must use their problem-solving and literacy skills to catch and put them back.

Every story from the Drawn In shorts features diverse ethnicities, various socio-economic circumstances and different life experiences, ensuring that children will see themselves positively represented. Starting locally in St. Louis, the initiative was created with input from the communities it is designed to serve. The creative team listened to a panel of community advisers before any content was written, drawn or produced.

Another key element of Lion Forge and Nine PBS’s initiative are Family Community Learning (FCL) events. The events help to build a connected community and create a rich, engaging story for kids to strengthen their literacy skills and reading comprehension. The initiative provides supporting resources to help families build literacy activities into their everyday lives. Nine PBS has also created a framework for engaging families around Drawn In that could be replicated by PBS stations across the U.S.

Major funding for Drawn In comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with additional support from the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis. Major support for the associated community engagement work comes from the Steward Family Foundation. Additional community engagement support comes from Joseph and Sandra Lehrer, in memory of Ted Koplar.

Educational games, digital comics and animated shorts will be available for children and families at drawnin.org.

“Our partnership with Nine PBS illustrates our commitment to driving change through public media and furthering the diversity of content in the public media landscape on a national level,” said Steward II, who is currently lay vice chair of America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) and former board chair of Nine PBS. “Drawn In is among the first animated kids’ initiatives with African Americans as lead characters in public media. We’re motivated to ensure it will be a catalyst for many more. Helping others understand the unique role that public television serves in the area of education is something I personally embrace and makes our Drawn In initiative even more gratifying. While advancing diversity and inclusion initiatives, we need to start seeing heightened diversity in programming that is reflective of a diverse society. Drawn In does just that and will be a lot of fun in the process.”

“Nine PBS wrote the book on how public media engages local communities around issues that matter to them,” added Amy Shaw, president and CEO of Nine PBS. “For us to execute on the vision that our local community advisers had for the Drawn In stories and characters, it was intentional and imperative that we work with a partner like LFA, who are Black and Brown in ownership and leadership. Their team is representative of our target audience, both behind the camera and in front of the camera. It’s a more genuine approach to educate, serve and transform our community.”