Colin Kaepernick and Nessa Diab Release Exclusive Children’s Book | Entertainment

In Colin Kaepernick and Nessa Diab’s family, studying is a giant deal — and now the couple has poured that zeal into their first joint image e-book!

The activist and former athlete, 36, and radio host, 40, are releasing kids's e-book We Are Free, You & Me, and it facilities on a trigger near them — their Know Your Rights Camp (KYRC) and its 10 points, which vary from “you have the right to be safe” to “you have the right to be courageous.”

The couple, who share a 2-year-old daughter, are donating all the e-book’s proceeds to the group, whose mission is to “advance the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities through education, self-empowerment, mass-mobilization and the creation of new systems that elevate the next generation of change leaders.”

In an e-mail interview, the We Are Free, You & Me co-authors mentioned that “as parents, this project has been especially meaningful to us,” as a result of the messages it conveys are “what we aspire to affirm in our own child.”

“The book celebrates a fictional family enjoying a day together in their loving community,” the co-authors say. “We hope this book inspires young people to live in the light of their own strength, truth and self-worth as they embark on their journey through life. Artist Gladys Jose has beautifully rendered the vibrancy that shines in the universal joy and promise that’s illuminated in the experiences of community.”

For extra on Kaepernick and Diab and their kids's e-book journey, decide up subsequent week's situation of PEOPLE, or subscribe right here.

Before We Are Free, You & Me hits bookshelves, Kaepernick (who revealed his first youngsters’ e-book in 2022) and Diab chatted with PEOPLE through e-mail to interrupt down a number of the e-book’s most impactful moments — to not point out their daughter’s favourite pages!

I really like the authors’ word on the finish that talks about Know Your Rights camp and the way you didn’t need your loved ones to be the main target of the e-book. Can you speak slightly bit about why that’s so essential to you and your loved ones? 

We wished to maintain the main target of the e-book on a household partaking one another and their neighborhood round their rights and their aspirations. The world doesn’t revolve round us, and we need to make tales that everybody can relate to and be impressed by.

Similarly, the tenets of KYRC are so highly effective. I used to be particularly struck by the proper to be good, which stood out to me. How did you land on these rights? 

The KYRC 10 factors are targeted on our human rights and impressed by the Black Panther Party’s 10 Point Program. These rights are sometimes stripped from us, particularly at a younger age. Once somebody has satisfied you that you just don’t have rights, you lose all aspiration and potential to turn into one of the best model of your self. 

Are there any new or growing updates with KYRC that you just’re capable of share? 

KYRC has a number of thrilling initiatives. We simply wrapped up our thirteenth youth camp in Philadelphia, persevering with our mission to teach and empower younger individuals.

In simply over two years, our Autopsy Initiative has already helped 96 households by offering free second autopsies for family members misplaced to police-related deaths, giving them entry to essential info they could not have had in any other case in pursuit of closure and accountability.

We additionally launched the Know Your Rights Camp app, a novel useful resource that gives state-by-state info in your rights when interacting with police, whether or not throughout protests or visitors stops. It additionally presents nice info on KYRC.

You can catch our KYRC podcast the place we dive into essential conversations round well being, schooling and activism by artwork.

That hopeful line on the finish that echoes the Arundhati Roy quote firstly, “Another world is possible … and she is on her way” is so lovely. Can you clarify why you wished to unfold that message?

Hope is extraordinarily highly effective! Now, mix that with momentum and individuals will take motion. When we're always confronted with the stress of simply accepting issues as they're, we wished to current an alternate choice of relentlessly pursuing a greater future for all of us. 

I like the road about “forming your team,” too. What does that imply to you? 

It’s centered on discovering your neighborhood! That could also be by sports activities, music, science, artwork — no matter it's, there's a staff on the market for everybody to be part of. Being round individuals who love and uplift you throughout the hardest occasions is highly effective. We expertise this each time we see our KYRC volunteers — who we solely get to see a couple of occasions out of the yr. We all come collectively from completely different elements of the nation and the world for the aim of giving again. KYRC is our staff.

Similarly, the “freedom to breathe” line — and that circle of children who appear to be they’re meditating — actually struck me. How do you interpret that line for yourselves? 

In a fast-moving world that’s solely getting quicker, generally we have to pause. Moments of silence, reflection and meditation can recenter us and make us extra balanced and regulated. This is one thing I've seen Colin accomplish that extremely properly through the years. He now teaches our daughter the identical aware/meditation practices as the kids in our e-book. I get to study with them alongside the way in which, it’s by no means too late!

I’m all the time interested by why individuals write kids’s books, normally. Do you learn collectively as a household? Any favourite books or authors in your own home? 

Yes, we learn collectively as a household a number of occasions a day. It’s extraordinarily essential to determine that behavior with our daughter at a younger age. Some of our daughter’s favorites proper now are: I Color Myself Different, Rocket Says Look Up, Elephants Can’t Fly, Giraffes Can’t Dance and So Much.

I'll say although, she loves seeing Colin’s face and saying “DaDa.” Those are her favourite pages.

Finally, as a Mets fan, I couldn’t assist however discover the little “NY” on the baseball cap on that final unfold! Is that an Easter egg?

It is an Easter egg! There are many really! The two carrying the “SF” and “NY” hats are two of our closest lifelong pals, Katrina and Tony, who helped construct KYRC. Nessa met them in The Bay Area over 15 years in the past and all of us in the end all moved to New York collectively. Also, our household and Eric Reid and his household are within the background. You will even see different pals who're additionally a part of KYRC like Kerem and his household on the final unfold.

We Are Free, You & Me is out Oct. 1, 2024 and obtainable for preorder now, wherever books are bought.