He led them through counting to 10 in English, and then Spanish, and when he said, “Let’s do that in Swahili - BOOM, let’s go!” the students giggled. When Alexander stepped in front of the rapt audience, he yelled, ”Hello… Hola… Bonjour… Buon Giorno,” with the students repeating each greeting. “We have viewed beautiful art that Dare told us is meant for feeling, healing and celebrating, and we got a taste of the many books that Kwame has put into our world and our hands, and we even got playful with poetry as we wrote creative couplets and crowd-sourced a poem on the topic of joy.”Įvery part of Alexander’s presentation was interactive and celebratory of language, rhythm and collaboration. “We have spent the last week learning about Kwame Alexander and Dare Coulter,” Cole said to the students and guests. She then shared details about the recent murals and paintings by Coulter, and pointed to the brand new yellow Affirmation rug in the library, a creation by the artist. In her welcome, librarian Kathryn “Kat” Cole said, “What a treat, what a treat! 2023 is the Year of Joy.” She provided a summary of publication highlights among the 37 books Alexander has written, including the newly released “An American Story,” narrated in the voice of a classroom teacher who struggles to navigate the topic of slavery with students. Kwame Alexander!” The children roared and clapped, and the event was underway.

NES Principal Coretta Sharpless received a huge hug from the internationally-acclaimed author, and then she called out, “In our presence today, we have none other than Mr. Students in third through fifth grades had already been patiently assembled in the library for more than 20 minutes, and when they saw all that brightness through the windows, their excitement was vibrant and contagious.

Joy was abundant from the moment the brightly colored “KwameMobile” pulled up in front of the school, when Alexander and Coulter practically bounced out onto the sidewalk, both attired in canary yellow, their smiles even brighter than their outfits. The word “ JOY” was used countless times in the hours and days following the January 6 Northside Elementary School (NES) event with author Kwame Alexander and mixed-media illustrator Dare Coulter.

Cheryl strayed pct