This Is the Recipe For Being Amazed by Young People: @getnicced @lorenlong @mattdelapena

I'm still shaking my head about how wonderful yesterday's Dear Martin, Writing Our Lives with Love event went. In the last 10 years, I've probably hosted 25 to 30 Writing Our Lives conferences across the United States for young people, grades 6-12, including this annual MLK Youth Leadership Academy at Fairfield University.

Attallah (the Diva) and I (Frog, Ribbit Ribbit) have our presentations down to a science. We change it up for each event, but we read each other's minds and know exactly what needs to come next. It's good synergy.

Ah, but Attallah had a baby, so I said, "I got this." (scratches head. wonders. frets. thinks).

I knew Nic Stone's Dear Martin needed to be a part of it. Then Matt de la Peña and Loren Long's Love was delivered earlier this month. The concept became clear. What if we wrote our own love letters to Martin Luther King, Jr. Yet, they weren't actually Love Letters. They were celebration letters or poems and/or Frustration letters and poems. But how did we get there?

First and foremost. We needed two fantastic books to get us talking. Next, it helped to have Attallah Sheppard's poetic skills and personality. She poemed us (that's for sure). I guess I poemed some, too.

We started by giving the 85 middle school kids 12 Martin Luther King memes and asking them to choose one that spoke the most to them -- the one that made them think about where they are at this moment in time. I let them write for 5 minutes. They asked for 10. Every kid. All 85. The teachers looked at each other wondering, "What is going on?" Then they shared what they wrote at their tables.

Crickets as they wrote. They were engaged as they shared their writing with each other. You could hear my whistling as I walked around the room and congratulated them for being amazing writers. Their attention was on the work.

Next, we turned tour direction as I shared Loren Long's artwork, without Matt de la Peña's poem. I wanted the kids to tell me the story they thought Loren Long wanted us to know through his colorful expressions. As we flipped pages (without words) the kids speculated. They made up their own stories and had imaginations, too. They were funny, but also sad at times. Then I said, I want to revisit this artwork with a poem by a great writer. We then read Matt de la Peña's poem with the images. I asked, "Does art communicate? What about the writer's poems? How do they go together? Why do you think they collaborated on this book?"

Obviously they first said, "Ah. I want this book."

I said, "You deserve this book, but we've only just begun."

I split from the program at this point and did a human lap sit/team building exercise. 85 early teens and their teachers are hard to harness, but in three tries they got it. I explained the philosophy of Ubuntu and noted that teamwork changes the world. Togetherness is an answer. I said, "This wasn't what I planned, but they did such a great job writing and had been listening to me, that I wanted to try something else.  I wanted them to know that it isn't just about them....it's definitely not about me....but it is always about each other. With Ubuntu, they need to write for the world, not me as a teacher. With community and empathy, love makes much more sense.

We then asked the students to make a list of 10 things they LOVE. I also said, "Why not also make a list of 10 things that FRUSTRATE you?" These lists were made quickly (and interestingly, the FRUSTRATIONS were much more immense with this group). We shared and, phew, they were stirred up. "Good. Good. Harness this frustration."

"I hate it when my mom makes me get something for her out of the fridge when she knows I'm doing my homework and she's already in the kitchen."

We discussed that MLK would want us to turn our frustrations into love and how his biggest challenge was to find a way to LOVE those who HATE us most. We discussed how we might take our frustrations and do something loving with them....to take action.

Here's where we brought  Dear Martin by Nic Stone to the table. Michael Joseph Harding, a senior at Fairfield University, was asked to write a letter to MLK after I introduced him to Stone's brilliant YA novel. He nailed it. After he read his letter, I said, "Funny thing. I'm a jerk. I have another book you'll all want to read once I tell you about it." I told them that Michael's letter was in response to another book I wanted them to know about.

I gave them a little of the Dear Martin Story, then two middle school girls and I shared one of the chapters where Justyce writes Martin Luther King. We discussed how Justyce uses writing as therapy to make sense of his world. We discussed that sometimes life came at this character in stereo, like it does for everyone, and how it's hard to find a way out. Writing, we emphasized, is one solution. Letter writing, we presented, is healing.

The silence continued. I'm not used to such silence with middle (what I sometimes call mental) school students. They were all ears and eyes, however. I told them, "See, we gave each of you a writer's notebook and Ralph Fletcher said they are perfect locations for planting seeds. Seeds are meant to grow. Writing our lives is a way to heal, to hope, to believe, to wonder, and to discover." I said, "You could write poetry like Attallah and the author of Love. You could also write letters to MLK like Justyce did in Nic Stone's book or like Michael, a student at Fairfield."

I said, "Tell your teachers you want these books in your school. I want to read what comes of the seeds we're planting today."

Then, Attallah performed her poem Sweet Brother Martin. Of course she awed the room (she always does). What was amazing to us, however, is how the pens of middle schoolers started moving while she performed. When time came to call for the buses, the kids were still writing. All 85 of them. Writing. I'm serious. Some of them had been writing before Attallah evan began to perform. A few filled three to four pages in their notebooks in the hour we gave them after lunch. They didn't want to line up and exit the room, either, when it was time to go back to school. I'm for real.

They were writing their lives because of these books. They didn't want to leave. They wanted to stay. 85 urban school youth from a district that is too often made into a single story of deficits. Yet, on this day, yesterday, they put their own voices to page. Phew. I will be carrying this with me for several weeks....so will my graduate students and undergraduates who came to help out.

All LOVE, DEAR MARTIN, for Attallah Sheppard (DIVA) and Rony Delva (The power of a single drop). This was another spectacular year. More love, however, to the brilliance of Nic Stone, Matt de la Peña and Loren Long.  Finally, a million finger snaps for their publishers for bringing forth these creative explosions.

Teachers like us are able to make magic when we have the resources to do so!