Thank you for joining us at Kwame Alexander's presentation. Join us and SEND IN YOUR POETRY! One participant will win a copy of Kwame Alexander's books, and Jewell Parker Rhodes' Paradise On Fire.

The theme is: "Story of Me/I Am Like"

Entries are due Monday, February 28th. Submit your poem entries HERE

Want an example? Here's one that was written by Shoreline staff:

i am like a spring
deep wells
drawing from earth
boundless depths
born of fire
nourishing
nature
ancient
knowing

standing on the shoulders of
tapping into ancestral
knowing my name
containing multitudes

finding breath
bubbling up
into
joy
joy
i am
every
good
and phenomenal thing

Here's another example by Langston Hughes, a poet from the Harlem Renaissance:

 
Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain. 

                         Langston Hughes

(Need help with a starting point? Here's an "I Am From" poem template to help you. CLICK HERE) 

About Kwame Alexander:

www.kwamealexander.com 

(Kid friendly version)
Kwame Alexander has written 35 books, three of them in a chair next to a fireplace at his neighborhood Panera Bread. He now writes in a penthouse in London, where he lives. But, he misses the writing studio he built in Virginia a few years ago. It has huge windows, a large painting of John Coltrane, 3000 books, heated floors, a blue couch, and a loft which was Randy’s idea. When he’s not writing, Kwame’s playing Softball with his soon-to-be six feet tall middle school daughter, walking around London listening to audio books, and travelling to schools and libraries across the globe...on Zoom. Kwame has eaten snails, chocolate covered bugs, and grasscutter, which is like a big rat, which he had no idea he was eating because it was in a really tasty stew he ate in Ghana while building a library and a health clinic in a village called Konko. He’s never eaten frogs. But, he has written a book about them called Surf’s Up. And, some other books you may have heard of like The Crossover and Swing and The Undefeated and Becoming Muhammad Ali, all New York Times Bestsellers, which his Dad likes to brag about in grocery stores and doctor’s offices. Kwame loves jazz. Kwame loves his family. Kwame loves his job. Part of Kwame's job is to write and produce the Disney Plus TV series based on his novel The Crossover. The other part of Kwame’s job is to Change the World One Word at a Time. Oh yeah, he also won the Newbery Medal. Whoa!

(Grown-up approved)
Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, publisher, and New York Times Bestselling author of 35 books, including SWING,  BECOMING MUHAMMAD ALI, co-authored with James Patterson, BOOKED, which was longlisted for the National Book Award, REBOUND, which was shortlisted for prestigious UK Carnegie Medal, The Caldecott Medal and Newbery Honor-winning picture book, THE UNDEFEATED, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, and, his NEWBERY medal-winning middle grade novel, THE CROSSOVER. A regular contributor to NPR's Morning Edition, Kwame is the recipient of numerous awards, including The Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, The Coretta Scott King Author Honor, Three NAACP Image Award Nominations, and the 2017 Inaugural Pat Conroy Legacy Award. In 2018, he founded the publishing imprint VERSIFY, and opened the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic in Ghana, as a part of LEAP for Ghana, an international literacy program he co-founded. He is the writer and executive producer of THE CROSSOVER TV series on Disney plus.