NAACP Awards. Watching wide-eyed for Kwame Alexander

Earlier this year at the New York State Reading Association conference, author Kwame Alexander was highlighted as a speaker and guest. I did not see his performance, but a text message changed all that. Rhiannon Berry, teacher at Liverpool High School, sent me words  to pick him up at the hotel because he agreed to present to her students. I was brought into the mix and hen we arrived, she billed me as a presenter, too.

Kwame went first. Not only did he recite poetry off the top of his head from numerous publications in print (and on their way), but he dazzled the kids with his voice, poise, and confidence. Something about his style warned me, "I'm being set up and he's going to throw this at me any second now." As he rocked his words, I went to work on my computer adapting several presentations in case he wanted me to follow his brilliant execution. Inhaling and exhaling over obnoxious nerves and a tendency to sweat, I went into chill mode and began to syncopate and rift a presentation that could follow such excellence. My volleyball coaching days taught me to be cognizant of the bump, set, and spike routine. He bumped it, he set it, and I knew he wanted to see if I could hammer it over the net when he called upon me. I did my thing with Berry's sophomores and he asked for a copy of what I presented. I took this as a sign I didn't let him down.

The morning after he presented at Liverpool High School we went to the Carousel Mall, now Destiny, where he hoped to get a new winter coat for the upcoming year. I hate malls, but because he was a visitor to Syracuse I showed some CNY hospitality. He hated malls, too, so I took him to Wegman's to get a sub, but he got pizza. I left him with a copy of Lopez Lomong's chapter 8, Writing For My Life and the magnitude of his achievements didn't hit me until yesterday when I saw he was heading to L.A. for the NAACP Image Awards. I knew he was a writer, but I didn't know he was a WRITER WRITER!!!

Mr. Alexander, Friday night, is a finalist among the nominees for Best Children's Book at the NAACP Image Awards and he is up against some powerhouses. The nominees are:

0. Outstanding Literary Work - Children
   
• "Fifty Cents and a Dream" - Jabari Asim (Author), Bryan Collier (Illustrator)
  (Little,nBrown Books for Young Readers)
  
• "Harlem's Little Blackbird" - Renee Watson (Author), Christian Robinson (Illustrator)
  (Random House Books for Young Readers (Random House Children's Books))
  
• "In the Land of Milk and Honey" - Joyce Carol Thomas (Author), Floyd Cooper
  (Illustrator) (HarperCollins / Amistad)
  
• "Indigo Blume and the Garden City" - Kwame Alexander (Author), JahSun (Illustrator)
  (Word of Mouth Books)
  
• "What Color is My World?" - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Author), Raymons Obstfeld (Author),
  A.G. Ford (Illustrator) (Candlewick Press) 
  

I'm waiting watching NBC in hope they will air the winner. I might have to wake up at 2 a.m. to do a Google Search, instead.

I'm rooting for Kwame Alexander and cherishing the strange coincidence that was created because I returned to CNY to present at the same conference where he was a keynote (here's irony, I did my presentation and booked and only agreed to go to bring him to Liverpool because I believe in the power of Rhiannon's teaching).

I do know that regardless of the committee's decision at the awards, I'm a fan (as I'm sure Nikki Giovanni is, too). Here's to the Rooster. He's winning no matter what the result entails.