Students, teachers and community members are still basking in the warmth, wisdom and talent shared by Young People's Poet Laureate Naomi Shihab Nye, who visited Nacogdoches earlier this week.
Dr. Heather Beal, SFA professor and facilitator for the Barrio Writers, said Dr. Mark Sanders, a poet and fellow professor at SFA, helped bring Nye to Nacogdoches.
“Nye contacted him when she was named US Young People’s Poet Laureate and asked whether there was a youth writing program here she could connect with,” Beal said. “He asked me whether I’d be interested in working on getting her here to work with Barrio Writers, and I said, ‘Yes, of course, sign me up!”
After months of planning, the big day arrived. Nye came to Nacogdoches and, in a short amount of time, made a tremendous impact on the entire community.
The Barrio Writers and the Scribblers creative writing club met with Nye in the NHS library all day Wednesday.
“We simply must nurture young writers,” Beal said. “We so desperately need our youth and their optimism and authenticity to lead us forward. And we need them to use their voices in all the ways (including the written word) to advocate for good changes in our community, our country, and the world.”
Beal said Nye connected with people of all ages “with grace and ease” during her time in Nacogdoches. In addition to the workshop in the library with students, she met with teachers and had a poetry reading at the public library.
“The youth at NHS were just walking right up to her and asking for advice – from the US Young People’s Poet Laureate! – about their writing, because she is so genuine and so approachable,” Beal said.
She said she heard from countless students, SFA staff and faculty, NISD teachers and community members that the time they spent with the poet was magical and transformative.
“Several people said their children who were in attendance Wednesday night would remember meeting her forever,” Beal said. “I hope they experienced an hour or so of joy. I hope they were inspired by her beautiful words and the meanings behind them. I hope they were encouraged to read more and listen more to what’s happening in the Middle East so that we can all always remember that – behind all the bullets and bombs and drones – are real people and families and neighborhoods. And everyone wants to live in peace and without violence or threat of violence.”
Beal said she hopes everyone who heard Naomi takes to heart her advice to write just three lines a day – just anything that stands out to them, including words, phrases, etc.
“At the end of the month, we will have 90 whole lines written,” she said.
“I hope the kids realize what a tremendous opportunity it was to be able to interact so closely with her,” she added. “It really is a once in a lifetime opportunity to have a writing workshop with such a renowned writer.”
It was Paris Bryant’s very first week as a student at NHS, having transferred from Timpson; and Paris was one of the students lucky enough to spend the day working with Nye in the school library.
“As soon as I heard about it in class, I wanted to go,” Paris said. “It was fascinating to work with her all day.”
Paris said Nye asked the students to share “something they aren’t.”
Paris was going to say, “I’m not a stereotype.” But the student next to her said it before it was her turn, so she decided instead to say, “I’m not shy.”
Nye later asked the students to write down on a piece of paper something someone said to them that they will never forget.
Paris remembered when her Spanish teacher in Timpson, Ms. Milo, told her, “You’re like a totally different Paris.”
This was a compliment, because Paris had matured so much during the time she knew Ms. Milo.
“We were supposed to write a poem based on that phrase,” Paris said.
Nye also challenged the students to write about “an exchange.”
“We were to write about something that someone exchanged with us,” Paris said, “Something like knowledge.”
Paris wrote a poem about the knowledge her grandmother gave her about the library.
“My grandmother is legally blind, so we used to walk to the library together,” she said. “It was the Fanny Booth Library, in Center. I learned that they have everything you want at the library, from books, to poems, to movies, to computers, to different events.”
When Paris was in kindergarten, she won an award for reading the most books out of every student in the school.
“I’ve always loved reading and writing,” she said.
Meeting with Nye was very special, Paris said.
“I loved her positive energy,” she said. “She said things and helped us with things we wouldn’t have been able to do by ourselves. Her words meant so much to us. Our writing just flowed after we listened to her.”
Paris said those who can’t talk about how they feel, can sometimes write about how they feel.
“It’s like talking to paper,” she said.
This is one of the poems Paris wrote Wednesday:
“I will never understand how life would be
Without my grandmother and the library
I will never understand how life would be without reading
I will never understand how life would be, without any understanding
I will never understand how life would be without the exchange
Of the knowledge my grandmother gave to me about the library.”
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