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| Kwame Alexander at LSU YAL Conference |
As we kicked off the first day of workshops and breakout sessions, I was also honored to introduce Kwame Alexander to the Louisiana crowd of passionate educators, writers, librarians, and academics. I asked myself, "Should I talk from the heart or from the mind? Should I write what I want to say or wing it?"
I opted to fly by the seat of my pants and rift on a series of photographs I had compiled to tell the Frog meets Rooster in CNY story and how the rest of the professional collaboration (and friendship) has expanded. Then, feeling guilty that I wasn't writing anything down professionally for his official shout-out at the conference, I drafted a poem on my cell phone (the first cell-phone sketch in my life). The end product was a fast set of personal stories and a reading of the poem. Kwame did the rest, as I knew he would. Every time I hear his wisdom I'm inspired to be a better writer, thinker, doer, reader, and human being.
An Introduction to Kwame Alexander (with thanks to his 'As In' poems)
Let me introduce you to Kwame,
the author. the personality. the jazz enthusiast. the
champion of teachers,
as in,
time to get acoustic,
he’s written 18 books,
and you?
as in, he can strut his stuff, too,
because he has a bag of magic,
and if The Crossover
didn’t win this year’s Newbery,
that would be tragic,
as in, Oedipus loses an eye,
tragic…
as in, those star-crossed lovers
runneth too fast, tragic,
as in, what if Kerry Washington
didn’t exist tragic?
or what will
Cookie finally do to Lucious Lyon tragic…
you know what I
mean?
Alexander,
the great. I mean the really great.
I mean the really, really, really great.
The Rooster Man himself. The book-in-a-day dude.
the Nikki Giovanni-mentored poet whose about to be tattoo’d
on all of us today.
the size 15-shoe wearing, always smiling, optimism-bearing giant.
The ‘Okay-Crandall, I always say yes, so what do you want me
to say?’ writer.
(Not much, really…I’m just glad you’re here at LSU to play,
youth advocate & fighter...
as in, do your thang.
as in make these beautiful people
love you as much as they love your books
as in, be you and only you. It’s
time for you to do what’s best….
Just Cockledoodledoo
and make us think about your work).
It is a proud honor to introduce my friend, a great writer,
a collaborator, and a man who has become part of my professional community over
the last few years, Mr. Kwame Alexander.
And then he did what he always does and I captured the following lines:
"Black life is universal. Words make us human. Let all kids write their life" @kwamealexander @LSUCHSE #lsuyal2015
"The arts are a way for human beings to cope...for all human beings to cope." @kwamealexander @LSUCHSE #LSUYAL2015
Nothing wrong w/ a man bawling in Panera. He just might be polishing his Newbery-award winning novel. @kwamealexander @LSUCHSE #lsuyal2015
"What saved my life is being immersed in literature and literacy from the time I was born" @kwamealexander @LSUCHSE #LSUYAL2015
"We want readers to read our books. We want to connect with youth. Writers need their audiences" @kwamealexander #lsuyal2015 @LSUCHSE
"The stories are universal. We love. We cry. We study. We laugh. We play. We hug. We are human" @kwamealexander @LSUCHSE #lsuyal2015
"My intention was to write a book for all of us." @kwamealexander on THE CROSSOVER @LSUCHSE #LSUYAL2015
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