On the evening of October 2, 2007, I attended a reception hosted by Kwame Alexander at Border Books at the Blvd at Cap Center. Kwame is Co-Founder of the Capital BookFest, this is the third year for this outstanding community literacy oriented event.
On the picture above you will find me with two of 20 co-authors of the book, invisible? The young man to my left is Malcolm Towler and the young lady to my right is Jasmine Taylor.
This is the first book for Malcolm, Jasmine and the 18 other co-authors. I encourage you to buy invisible? We must support these outstanding Crossland High School students because they represent our future and as you can see this book is just the beginning for these students.
Let me explain how this book was written and published because it represents excellence. As I stated earlier, Kwame Alexander and Carla Nelson are Co-founders of the Capitol BookFest and each year they come up with a different work, specifically in a book genre.
This year Kwame had this brilliant idea. What if you put 20 high school students into a classroom for one day and taught them how to craft good poems--baiku, free verse, etc.---and just let them write about anything they wanted. Allow them to express their thoughts, feelings, ideas (drama) about their world. And, what if you equipped these students with the tools to actually publish a collection of those poems. In one day?
Could they summon the focus and courage to accomplish such a lofty goal? Kwame stated, "Could I show them how to Do The Write Thing in 24 hours?" Would it be fun and insightful? Could they produce a piece of work that made them no longer.... invisible?
The answer is a resounding yes, because 20 Crossland High School students co-wrote "invisible? in one day as a part of Kwame Alexander's Book-in-a-Day program. To learn more about Kwame Alexander and his program visit:
http://www.bookinaday.com.The ISBN 13 for the book invisible? is: 978-1-888018-39-4. I challenge each of you reading this blog to purchase this book of poetry because it represents the best of the students at Crossland High School, all of Prince Georges County, and the entire state of Maryland and it lets you know, these students are not invisible by any stretch of the imagination.
By the way, Malcom and Jasmine autographed my copy of Invisible?, and I know this is just the beginning for them and the other co-authors. We must stand with them as they put their message into the world, the best way to support them is by purchasing invisible?
I encourage you to attend the 2007 Capitol BookFest on October 7, at Border Books located at the Blvd at Cap Center from 10:00-7:00pm. I want to see you there and to purchase Invisible?
Visit
http://www.capitalbookfest.org/ to see the full day schedule and if you get there early you will receive a free copy of the newly commissioned book Kwame's team published.
Paul Lawrence Vann
The Wealth Building Academy
938 Swan Creek Road E 144
Fort Washington, MD 20744
(800) 476-8976
