ContentsPlate V
Children’s books, 1930s Harlem
Once Upon a Block
The Brothers Grimm, retold as 1930s Harlem picture books with Black characters. Three books per tale: hers, his and together.
- Role
- Creator, writer, art director
- Status
- In production
- Year
- 2026
- Link
- Not public yet
- Grimm tales broken down
- 211
- tales selected for the series
- 34
- residents of one shared Harlem block
- 28
The problem
Fairy tales are told from one side. Nobody has made a paired his, hers and together set of them in this world, with these characters.
What I built
Every tale lives on one Harlem block, so its 28 residents cross from book to book. All 211 Grimm tales were broken down; 34 made the cut.
A pipeline takes a tale from manuscript to illustrated spreads, narration and a print-ready PDF, with every face held steady across the series.
Where it goes
Printed proofs, then short narrated films, then clothing and plush of the characters kids fall for.
Built with
Claude, n8n, ComfyUI, Qwen-Image, Python, Obsidian.