make it plain

I’ve got three days left to develop a ten-minute talk for the folks in Austin. It shouldn’t be so hard but I find myself wanting to include quotes from other scholars, and photos from my childhood, yet I haven’t actually described my own books, and how on earth am I going to remember everything? I scoffed at those who asked about using a teleprompter but now I’m wondering if I should, too. I’m used to letting my slides guide me when I present in schools, but this is different. This is a live taping in front of an audience of strangers, and I’m expected to turn my own scholarship into something that matters to “everyday people.” I timed myself earlier today and my two-page script only took me 5 minutes to read. It could be a long weekend…

I plan to talk about Weeksville in my presentation, and will find a way to announce that I will be the inaugural writer-in-residence at the Weeksville Heritage Center this spring! We haven’t ironed out all the details but this truly is a dream come true. I used to haunt Weeksville, sending endless copies of my books in the hope that someone would say, “We could use a writer like her around here!” But no one ever did until last fall when I met the new executive director, Tia Powell Harris, who wants to make literacy a priority at the center—as it was when Weeksville was founded in the 1800s. I’ll be teaching writing workshops for kids and adults, hosting a literary salon (in period costume, I hope!), and WRITING. I will finally finish the sequel to A Wish After Midnight and I’ll develop a picture book about Weeksville to engage the many children who visit the center. Basically I’ll be doing whatever I can to bring people to this historic Brooklyn community.

Ok, back to my BlackademicsTV talk. Still haven’t figured out what to wear, of course…