Becoming the Bridge — On Legacy, Language, and Miss Edmonia’s Class of Wildfire’s

There’s a photo of me—taken by my father, Victor Scott, in the Memphis Botanical Gardens. I’m holding flowers, quiet in the frame. But what he captured that day wasn’t just a daughter in bloom. He captured a bridge being built.

What I didn’t know then is that I was offering those flowers to my future self. A girl who would one day grow into a woman carrying stories and creating them.

Over time, I became many things: a mother. A bookstore owner. A cultural and historic preservationist. A museum educational program architect. In every role, I’ve come to understand that my work is not just about books, or art, or education—it’s about archiving the journey. About creating spaces where Black children don’t just imagine themselves in the future but see themselves reflected in history, art, and power.

That calling led me to write Miss Edmonia’s Class of Wildfires—a children’s book inspired by the groundbreaking legacy of Black sculptor Edmonia Lewis. She was the first woman of African American and Native American descent to gain international recognition in the fine arts during the 19th century.

But this book is more than biography. It is a blaze lit for our children. It imagines Edmonia not just as a figure of the past, but as a guiding force in a modern classroom—a class of “wildfires” she lovingly teaches. Children who carry power, memory, and creativity in their very being. Children who are reminded that they belong in cultural institutions—not as visitors, but as the reason those walls stand.

At Liberation Station Bookstore, this is what we live by: the deep belief that books are portals, mirrors, and blueprints. Stories are not just told—they are remembered.

So I ask you, not just as a writer or entrepreneur, but as a daughter, mother, and cultural worker: What flowers are you offering your future self today? What bridges are you building?

Explore the book and more at Liberation Station Bookstore.

Let’s keep archiving the beauty, together.

-Vic