Acceptance Speech for the Newbery

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Acceptance Speech for the Newbery Newbery MEDAL ACCEPTANCE SPEECH “I believe there’s a calling for all of us. I know that every human be- ing has value and purpose. The real work of our lives is to become aware. And awakened. To answer the call.” ―-Oprah Winfrey Two hours after being awakened by the Call, I get another call, from a reporter. She asks, “How did you find poetry?” Let me go on record as stating that New- bery winners should not be required to answer questions, especially on record, during the two-week period after receiv- ing the greatest and most miraculous Kwame Alexander received the news of their writerly lives. This haze, 2015 (John) Newbery Medal for this Newbery trance, if you will, is not The Crossover (Houghton Mifflin kind to clarity and conciseness. I tell her: Harcourt). His acceptance remarks were delivered at the Newbery- I think poetry found me. I think So I tell her to call me later, after I’ve Caldecott-Wilder Banquet on it circled above, for years, until I gathered my thoughts. “When?” she Sunday, June 28, 2015, during the was ready, and then it swooped asks. April, I offer, half-jokingly. My wife American Library Association down, grabbed me by the arms, suggests that I meditate, seek seren- Annual Conference. lifted me up, and I’ve been soaring ity, calmly embrace this incredible mo- ever since. Being honored in this ment, and then write about it. So, I do: manner, receiving the 2015 John Newbery Award for the most dis- I get the call at 7:16 a.m., and I can’t tinguished contribution to Ameri- speak, which is ironic for a poet. I can literature for children, is other- am wordbound. Mazy, even. Lost. worldly. And found. Am I ready? Of course. Am I prepared? No. Who is ever “What do you mean?” she continues. prepared for the big sea? It is one And, of course, I have no idea what thing for a boy to tell you he has I mean. never read a book until yours. It is another different kind of thing Kwame Alexander is a poet and author of 18 books, including Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band and He Said, She Said. He is founder of Book-in-a-Day, a student-run publishing program that has created more than 3,000 student authors; and LEAP for For more information Ghana, an international literacy project that builds libraries, trains teachers, and em- about the Newbery Medal, visit powers children through literature. He visits schools and libraries, has owned several http://bit.ly/newbery-award. publishing companies, written for stage and television, and taught high school. In 2015, Alexander will serve as Bank Street College of Education’s first writer-in-residence. FUN FACT: In a January 30, 2014, YouTube video on why he thinks librarians will like The Crossover, Kwame said, “Over the years, librarians, I’ve checked out a lot of your books, so it seems only fair that you’ll check out mine! Right?” Newbery MEDAL ACCEPTANCE SPEECH for that book to be awarded a journey, but please don’t write so 2015 NEWBERY HONOR BOOKS Newbery Medal and a Coretta much of this kind of thing that you Scott King Honor. On the same have nothing good left to put in day. In the same beautiful world. your actual speech. This community of children’s literature is a Harlem Renaissance And, my favorite: for me. I say, Let the rent parties commence. We shall dream a Anonymous, Not a Librarian: Con- new world, and toast the children gratulations, Kwame, I guess I will we aim to inspire who are our have to read it now. reward. I leave you with the words of the six-year-old who woke up Actually, this is my favorite: El Deafo. this morning inquiring about the Bell, Cece. commotion and dancing coming Katherine Paterson, Author: Amulet Books/ABRAMS from her parents’ room and, upon Kwame, welcome to the club. being told the grand news, said, “YAYYYY, Daddy. Can you go make A friend of mine calls, cackling with joy. my French toast now?” “Powerful words, man. Your speech is going to rock!” he says, then adds, “I I send this testimony to the reporter, heard they send you to write the Speech who kindly thanks me but, alas, has at a destination of your choice. Anyplace already turned in her story. I decide you want.” His laughter builds. It’s con- to post it online for the world to see. tagious. “No way,” I answer. “Are you Hundreds of librarians, friends, and serious?” Oh, the places I could go… Brown Girl Dreaming. fans offer their well-wishes in response: Tuscany…Bali…Or maybe even a re- Woodson, Jacqueline. turn to Bahia. “Perhaps,” my wife says, Paulsen Books/Penguin Lynne White, School Librarian: “they only send you somewhere domes- This post brought a tear to my eye. tic.” That’s fine. Miami. Sedona.Hawaii . The Newbery award is great… Over a celebratory dinner a week later, but readers you will change and I recount these mind-boggling conver- inspire…this will be even greater. sations to my editor…my editor, who, #hugs #highfives #majorfistpumps though she has quite the pulchritudi- #ThisCommitteeGotItRight nous grin, rarely laughs out loud. “Get this, Margaret,” I say with excitement. Betty Bouton, School Librarian: I’ve “They send me to Any. Place. I. Want.” never seen boys, reluctant readers, She laughs. A lot. And then, still laugh- fight over a book…The Crossover is ing, asks, “Kwame, who is they?” This, of truly something special. course, tells me that they are not her. Teresa Saxton Bunner, Reading ALSC? The committee? Previous New- Specialist: I’m stopping by Krispy bery winners? Is there a Speech and Spa Kreme on the way home so we can Club Getaway Fund that Curtis and Ap- toast you at our house tonight. plegate and Gantos and Naylor all con- tribute to? Are they them? Lisa DiSarro, Director of School and Library Marketing, Houghton I end up in Key West. As it turns out, Mifflin Harcourt: Kwame, I love they is me. this. I love how you are inviting your readers into this part of your Newbery MEDAL ACCEPTANCE SPEECH In between Ping-Pong and writing ourselves—math, lawn maintenance, of the LPs, read the liner notes: Sarah and parasailing, I check out the Mel basketball; the genius way they showed Vaughan’s Swingin’ Easy, Dave Brubeck’s Fisher Maritime Museum. Mel Fisher, us how to dream big. Each morning I Take Five, Duke Ellington’s Such Sweet the treasure hunter. Mel Fisher, who spent writing The Crossover began with Thunder, Miles Davis’s Sketches of Spain, gave up more than ten years of his life, remembering my mother’s smile. And Billie Holiday’s Body and Soul. I bring the of his family’s life, in search of a 1622 my father’s glower. At some point in his box downstairs to the living room and shipwrecked Spanish vessel called life, I was sure my father had been a cool, play each on our record player. I must Nuestra Señora de Atocha, never knowing likable guy, maybe when he was a tennis have listened to Nancy Wilson and Can- if it’d be found, yet each day claiming, star in high school, maybe when he was a nonball Adderley for three straight hours. “Today’s the day,” until July 20, 1985, basketball star in the Air Force—The Big I danced around the living room, in awe, when it was the day, and he found it. Al, they used to call him. But all that was inspired, in love. At the top of each record, And, it had gold on it. Lots of it. So much behind him. Behind us. My mother often stenciled, was the name of the owner of that his find became known as “The asks why I write so many poems about the records: Property of The Big Al. That Atocha Mother Lode.” Perseverance, my father and never poetry about her. It’s is the moment I think I fell in love with persistence, patience. I can relate to that. because my mother was “A Kiss to Build my father. Any man who listened to John Like Mel Fisher, each word, each poem, a Dream On,” and as any songwriter, Coltrane’s A Love Supreme couldn’t be all each writing day has come with sacrifice comedian, or poet will tell you, we write bad. Had to be cool. and hope. Today’s the day, I would claim about the people and things that trouble while immersed in this novel. About us. My father gave us “The Weary Blues.” The Crossover is a song for my father. Yes, Basketball. And Boys. In Verse. Mel Fisher it moves and grooves on the court with immersed himself in a sea of possibility, A few months into writing the first draft, the rhythm of verse. But it is first and fore- crossed over miles and miles of ocean I’m sitting in the café, listening to a jazz most about family. floor searching for a treasure, sacrificed mix, brainstorming nicknames for the ten years, and the reward was a discovery main character, when a song that sounds Thank you, Mom and Dad, for introduc- of 450 million dollars worth of gold. After very similar to “Rikki Don’t Lose That ing me to the song and dance of words six years of writing and rewriting, twenty Number” comes on. But, after the open- and visual melody.
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