Like poetry and Jazz, students and diverse books go hand in hand. This winning combination was on full display at NEA’s Read Across America celebration at Langston Hughes Middle School in Reston, Va. The event featured Kwame Alexander, the award-winning author and poet who also hails from Reston, reading from his book, The Crossover, accompanied by jazz bassist Amy Shook.
For more than 25 years, NEA’s Read Across America has been encouraging people to crack open a book and read. The year-round literacy program is not just about turning pages—it is about opening minds.
“Authentic joy in reading begins with having diverse books--books where I can not only see myself but appreciate and learn from the stories and the experiences of others,” says NEA Vice-president Princess Moss.
This year, NEA celebrated Read Across America by also marking the 10th anniversary of Alexander’s The Crossover winning the Newbery medal.
The Crossover
The Crossover is a coming-of-age “novel-in-verse” about two twin brothers who play basketball and their relationship with their father.
The Langston Hughes Middle School (LHMS) students listened to the rhythm and beat of the twin brothers navigating love, loyalty, and family on and off the basketball court, all while Shook played along on her bass. Some of what they heard was already familiar to a few students.
“You read The Crossover? What did you think about it?” Alexander asked an LHMS student.
“It’s a great book overall and it has a great story,” the student replied.
“On a scale from one to ten, what would you give it?” Alexander followed up.
To everyone’s amusement, he said, “I’d give it like a nine.”
Alexander told the students about the five years it took him to write The Crossover, and how he visited a café not too far from the school every day until it was written.
He also shared how, even after completing the book, he struggled to get anyone to acknowledge the story as one worth being told.
It was a message LHMS educators wanted their students to receive.
“This partnership of NEA’s Read Across America, our school, and Kwame Alexander is so important because we need our children to see that it is possible here in Reston to come back and build our community together and succeed,” said ESL teacher Jill Sheroni, the educator who first received the news that Alexander wanted to come to the school to celebrate his book’s anniversary on NEA’s Read Across America Day.
The Poet of the People
“What happens to a dream deferred?” LHMS principal Herman Mizel asked, looking around the room full of students. “Does it dry up in the sun or fester like a sore—and then run?”
The famous poem was recited as homage to the school’s namesake, Langston Hughes, the poet, playwright and novelist who was a social activist, innovator of jazz poetry and a pivotal leader of the Harlem Renaissance who became known as the “poet of the people.”
Mizell’s reading of the Hughes’ most famous poem, “Harlem,” also known as a “A Dream Deferred” was an apt introduction to the inspiring performances that followed.
The Talent of Langston Hughes Middle School
There are many budding artists among the students at LHMS. Students from the school’s choir, orchestra and band showcased their musical talents, several brave students read their original poems, and three gifted artists who created artwork on the theme of Jazz and reading were celebrated for their interpretations.
Nolan, the first-place winner of the art competition, said he just drew what was in his head.
“I was inspired by the reading part [of the prompt], so I drew a bunch of books falling around the center, and for the Jazz part of it, I was inspired by Jazz fashion from the early 30s,” he explained.
The most captivating part of his piece were the hand-drawn music notes from the song “Fly Me to the Moon.” Nolan is both a visual and musical artist – he also performed with the band at the celebration.
Siblings Michael, a seventh grader at LHMS and his little brother, Matthew, a sixth grader, were in attendance of the Read Across America event, supporting their sister Mia, an eighth grader who won second place in the art competition.
“In The Crossover the brothers fight but also play fight, and they do competitions over stuff that is kind of silly,” says Matthew. “I think I have a connection with that too because me and my brother [Michael] play basketball. I can relate with [the story] because I have the same problems, too.”
Why Diverse Stories Matter
After the story concert concluded, teachers watched as their students ran to line up to get their copies of The Crossover signed.
“Diverse books give students a window into what the world can be and what the world is, but it also gives them an opportunity to reflect and see themselves,” explained eighth grade English teacher Jackie Durr. “And quite literally, books save lives, so it's always important to be able to pick up a book and engage with it as either an escape, but also as a way to see what the world can be and open up windows and doors for yourself to just aim high.”
Sheroni added that it is important for kids to see themselves “in books and in the content and in everything!”
A Story in Every Note
As an advocate of education and reading, and as a musician, jazz bassist Amy Shook had high hopes for what the students would take from the story concert.
“I want them [students] to leave with a sense of excitement and enthusiasm to pursue writing if they've never really done it before, certainly keep reading, to pursue music if it's something they never really thought about doing and to see that there are ways to integrate those two things together,” she said. “I want to foster the imagination and plant some seeds of creativity because these young people, they will sustain us.”
As the next generation of change-makers, the students of Langston Hughes Middle School will one day have the opportunity for their art to mean something to others as Alexander’s book, The Crossover meant something to them.
“Now is the time that we need writers and artists, because writers and artists feel free and we are unafraid, and we're going to say the things that need to be said!” exclaimed Alexander. “We will not allow all of the work and the love and the hope and the dreams and the challenges that our ancestors, our parents, our grandparents and great-grandparents, went through to not matter.”
