Spence News

Jacqueline Woodson Delivers Annual Courtney Steel ’87 Lecture

“She was once just a brown girl dreaming, writing on any surface she could find,” junior Brooke H. said about Jacqueline Woodson, the esteemed writer and guest for Spence’s annual Courtney Steel ’87 Lecture.
Woodson, who visited Spence in November, is the author of Another Brooklyn, Brown Girl Dreaming, Miracle’s Boys and many more stories for children and young adults. She has won scores of awards, including the Coretta Scott King Award, the Newbery Honor Medal, the Margaret E. Edwards Award for Lifetime Achievement and the Poetry Foundations’ Young People’s Poet Laureate.
 
The author spent time with Grade 6 students, discussing her book Feathers, which was inspired by Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant. Then she visited with the Grade 4 students and read to them the story Each Kindness, which also shared some of the same themes of Wilde’s short story about rejection and the power of kindness.
 
During her time with the Lower and Middle Schoolers, Woodson spoke about wanting to create characters who were resilient. Woodson described herself as an author who is committed to social justice and as an individual who looks to spark change through her creativity. Through her realistic fiction, she delivers a message of hope. Beyond reading from her work and talking to the students about the writing process, Woodson also discussed how the illustrations are made and answered students’ questions. One student asked, “If you were to make the story longer, would there be a happy ending?” Woodson explained that stories that are left open-ended give readers more to talk about. 
 
Later in the day, Woodson talked to a packed Theater of Upper Schoolers about what it meant to be named Young People’s Poet Laureate, including her travels across the country “preaching the gospel of poetry.” She shared that poetry wasn’t something she always felt comfortable with—when she was younger, Woodson thought it was a secret language that “only a few dead white men knew” and that she hadn’t been taught it. Poets such as Nikki Giovanni and Langston Hughes made her realize that poetry was a language everyone could speak. 
 
Woodson read excerpts from her work Another Brooklyn, a biography of Bushwick; Brown Girl Dreaming, a memoir; and Behind You, a story inspired by Romeo and Juliet and told in vignettes. 
 
In Behind You, a white girl and black boy who attend the fictional Percy Academy on the Upper East Side fall in love. Woodson spoke about growing so attached to the two characters that she didn’t want to kill them off, even though she knew a character had to die to mirror the Shakespeare play. Recalling the 1985 shooting of an African-American boy named Edmund Perry by a white police officer, Woodson decided that her male character would die in a similar way.
 
In the question-and-answer portion of the assembly, a student asked Woodson how current events such as the Black Lives Matter movement affect her writing.
 
“I see myself as an activist who was put here to create change,” Woodson responded.
 
She said one of the reasons she started writing was because, as a young person, she didn’t see many books written by people who looked like her. Now, she knows how important it is to bring visibility to people of color, women, queer people and individuals of different socioeconomic status. Woodson added that she is still processing current events, such as the recent election, and that she is interested to see where it lands in her future writing.
 
Woodson offered some writing advice to students. She said she doesn’t believe in writer’s block, and that it’s really fear that keeps people from writing. One solution she offered was to write as if no one is ever going to read what you put down on the page. She also encouraged the students never to think they can’t write about something, even if the topic is difficult or painful, and to stay true to their story.
 
Woodson’s visit was made possible through a personal connection to Brooke and her family, who are friends with the author. During Brooke’s introduction, the junior shared that her mother and Woodson went to school together in Bushwick and that she considers Woodson her aunt. Brooke said that as a young student, Woodson was “imaginative and full of wonder” and was deeply passionate about reading and writing.
 
“Her mind is full of stories to this day,” Brooke said.
 
The Courtney Steel ’87 Visiting Author Program was established to honor and remember Courtney Steel ’87 by her parents, family and friends. Through lectures, which bring a writer of national stature to the school each year, Courtney’s passion for literature, gift for writing and respect for the nuances of language continue to inspire Spence students.
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A K-12 independent school in New York city, The Spence School prepares a diverse community of girls and young women for the demands of academic excellence and responsible citizenship.

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