Cedric Tillman's Blog - Posts Tagged "laura-warr"
April 23—Virtual Visit with graduating lit majors at American University, Hickory Ridge Middle School visit (Harrisburg, NC)
Quite out of the blue this past week, I got an invite via Instagram to attend Hickory Ridge's Middle School's poetry slam—and woke up the next day to an invite to chat with Kyle Dargan's senior capstone literature class at my alma mater, American University. (Kyle, who I met during my time as a student there, is now a professor at AU and the author of six poetry collections.) My fellow panelists and I passed on some advice about balancing life as writers with the need to work and other topics such as how to decide when and where to send work out to journals.
Later in the day, I had the pleasure of being the featured poet at Hickory Ridge afterschool poetry slam. I'm grateful to librarians Laura Warr and Montressa Hunter for inviting me out and giving me the opportunity to share my work and some pointers on writing. The setup was super cute—they'd turned off most of the lights but put what seemed to be battery-operated candles on several tables and arranged them along with some couches facing a stage set up with a music stand and stool.
Several teachers read their work and I came up toward the middle of the show. At the end, a handful of kids came up to me at the end to talk about why they write, to ask for advice about how they might self-publish, or just say they enjoyed my work. They made me feel, to echo the little flyer they gave me, like a "real-live poet." I'm very lazy about making it known that I'll do things like this (some of the reluctance is laziness, some of it is my enduring nervousness in front of crowds) but when approached, I usually make it happen—and I'm always glad I did.
Later in the day, I had the pleasure of being the featured poet at Hickory Ridge afterschool poetry slam. I'm grateful to librarians Laura Warr and Montressa Hunter for inviting me out and giving me the opportunity to share my work and some pointers on writing. The setup was super cute—they'd turned off most of the lights but put what seemed to be battery-operated candles on several tables and arranged them along with some couches facing a stage set up with a music stand and stool.
Several teachers read their work and I came up toward the middle of the show. At the end, a handful of kids came up to me at the end to talk about why they write, to ask for advice about how they might self-publish, or just say they enjoyed my work. They made me feel, to echo the little flyer they gave me, like a "real-live poet." I'm very lazy about making it known that I'll do things like this (some of the reluctance is laziness, some of it is my enduring nervousness in front of crowds) but when approached, I usually make it happen—and I'm always glad I did.
