Excited to Host my 11th MLK Youth Leadership Academy @FairfieldU - Writing Our Lives and Dreaming with a Purpose (Spreading the Greatness of @yohuruwilliams)

Yesterday, I unloaded 125 copies of Dr. Yohuru Williams and Michael G. Long's More Than a Dream: The Radical March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom for the young people who will be attending the 2024 MLK Youth Leadership Academy at Fairfield University. In 2012, Dr. Yohuru Williams invited me to attend the academy and a year later, Rony Delva - winner of a 2024 MLK Vision Award - asked me if I wouldn't mind taking over the hosting role.  It remains one of my favorite days of each year.

I simply adapted the traditions of Dr. Marcelle Haddix's Writing Our Lives platform from my days with her at Syracuse University and the rest has been history.

This year, in addition to More Than a Dream, we will be highlighting the work of Nikki Grimes, Kwame Alexander, Gene Luen Yang, Ger Duany, and Kelly Baptiste to inspire the next generation of innovators, thinkers, writers, creators, activists, and dreamers. The books and prose are inspiration for the young people to find their own way into textual lineages (thanks, Dr. Tatum, for helping me to invest in such tradition by offering that language). 

I spent most of yesterday organizing the event in my office, including snacks and copies, so that all will ready to move forward in the MLK Youth Leadership Academy tradition. Time to pack the coffee and muscle up the goods.

It is always wonderful to make Kings and Queens of middle school writers and to shout out the MLK Essay contest winners. There are so many schools, teachers, community leaders, and Fairfield University staff and faculty that make the week of celebrations possible. I'm honored to do my part each year with he leadership academy.

Here's to the kids! Here's to the writers! Here's to the brilliance of Queens and Kings who make such a day possible.