The planners asked me to rev up the students before they break out in well-organized sessions for kids to share with kids what they'd like to see in their school, not only for their generation, but for many generations ahead.
This is such a Brown School task (and one that was carried over into my doctoral work and CWP-Director leadership...listening to kids! What a great way to launch a day of exciting conversations). Google says it is just a 50-minute drive so I have to factor in the fact that I'm not a morning person and I need to travel to give opening remarks. Exciting for me is I get to be at the stadium where the UCONN Huskies play. This is a childhood dream, as I remember always loving the rivalries of Syracuse and UCONN teams. It's the same excitement I had when visiting Gampel Pavillion
It's an easy talk to give, as I'm always building my thinking on so many giants before me, including all the students I listened to and learned from in my decade of teaching in Louisville. It's also a shout out to the 8 young men who helped me with a responsibility to speak out about their relocation stories from refugee camps in Africa, to classrooms of the United States. It is listening to youth that brought forward the Writing Our Lives conferences and Young Adult Literacy Labs that have been part of the work I now do at Fairfield University.
Now, if only I can find the right gate to enter and the right location to be introduced to the microphone and technology. Yes, I know it is the first of April, but I'm used to being the fool and that is the them for my talk (dad jokes and all, 100% 4th grade approved).
And with that, I must hit the road.
It's also the launch of #VerseLove '25. Hope to see you for the next 30 days of April writing poetry with incredible writers, teachers, scholars, and students. I love all the challenges that come our way.
