This past weekend, I was honored to give receive an honorary doctorate from American University and to give the commencement address to their schools of education and communications. For months, I thought about what I wanted to say to the graduates, and as I thought back on my own graduate school experience, I was reminded that the most important thing I did in the process of getting my degree actually wasn’t in a university classroom, it was in a prison classroom with men serving life sentences.
I shared with the graduates how important that experience was. How important it was to make myself proximate to incarcerated people and not just read about them in the library. How it was teaching writing at a prison in Massachusetts that helped me more fully understand that, but for the arbitrary nature of birth and circumstance, it could have easily been me sitting inside of the prison rather being someone who gets to walk in and out of one. That logic extends all manner of situations around the world:
But for the arbitrary nature of birth and circumstance, I could have been a child in Ukraine, living under the constant barrage of missiles and drones that whistle nightly above my bomb shelter.
But for the arbitrary nature of birth and circumstance, I could have been a child in Gaza who has watched his entire family killed by weapons that struck homes, and hospitals, and tents.
But for the arbitrary nature of birth and circumstance, I could have easily been an undocumented person who came to this country fleeing violence and poverty to provide my children with a better life, only to be snatched off the street by masked men.
As such, I offered, we should live our lives grounded in a humility, an empathy, and a generosity that recognizes how easily someone else’s lives could have been our own. And in that spirit, we should work to build a world in which such arbitrary allotments of opportunity, do not singularly shape the trajectory of people’s lives.
I’ll share the full speech when it’s available online.
Shout out to the class of 2026. Keep going. We need y’all.
Grateful to have the young readers edition of How the Word Is Passed honored by the @janeaddamspeaceassociation which “recognizes children’s books of literary and aesthetic excellence that effectively engage children in thinking about peace, social justice, global community, and equity for all people.”
Shout out to @sonjacherrypaul who adapted the book so beautifully. And it’s real pleasure sharing this honor with @authorderrickdbarnes whose books are all over my kids’ bookshelves.
These are hard times in the world, which makes me so much more aware of those moments for joy and gratitude. Performing poems with my friends Sarah, Anis, and Hanif (for nine straight years!) remains one of my the best days of the year, every year. Every time we do this, I marvel at the fact that I get to move through the world alongside these incredible artists. Listening to them, I am reminded of why I fell in love with poems all these years ago. Thanks to everyone who came out. What a night.
Photos by @qbertplaya & @dadarria
Listen to our episode with Clint Smith, best-selling author of How The Word Is passed, out now! (link in bio)
#history #americanhistory #storytelling #themostimportantquestion
When the young readers edition of How the Word Is Passed came out, I spent October traveling to middle schools and high schools throughout the South—crisscrossing states like Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina—talking to students about the history and legacy of slavery. More broadly, however, we talked about how we as a nation tell the story of our past. What do we include? What do we ignore? What does it mean to speak honestly about American history when some of the most powerful people in our government are intent on preventing us from doing so? What I found were open, curious, thoughtful students who understand that we can tell a story that includes the moments in which America has done good, and the moments in which America has done harm. As one 8th grade student in Memphis said, “Doesn’t seem that hard, just say both things.” Link to the story in my bio
⭐️One brilliant author - @clintsmithiii
⭐️Two schools - @eliothinems_eagles & @kramermiddle_dc with incredible staff
⭐️Seven hundred-ish 6th, 7th, & 8th graders
⭐️Seven hundred-ish books - HOW THE WORD IS PASSED YRE (@littlebrownyoungreaders and adapted by @sonjacherrypaul )
⭐️Three AOB staff members
⭐️One fabulous partner @lovedclibrary with @dcpubliclibrary
⭐️One bookstore partner @loyaltybooks
These are the ingredients to a powerful day! Clint gave meaningful and thought-provoking talks to both schools. Students listened, engaged and asked good questions. Listen to Clint answer the question about why he came to speak with middle schoolers today.
Our sincere gratitude to everyone who made today possible. We couldn’t do what we do without all of you.
Had the immense pleasure of being in conversation with Bryan Stevenson at The Atlantic Festival last month in New York. Bryan is someone I’ve long admired. His work to end mandatory juvenile life without parole, and his work winning reversals and release for over one hundred wrongly convicted people, inspired much of my dissertation work in graduate school and was one of the catalysts for me to begin working in jails and prisons. The National Memorial to Peace and Justice that he built in Montgomery, Alabama is a model is what is means to create a space that confronts of country’s history of racial terror honestly and directly. The work he’s done over the course of his life is remarkable and it was powerful to spend some time with him discussing how we go about building a better world in midst of our current political environment.
You can watch our conversation at the link in my bio.
Just got back home after a whirlwind week traveling to different cities throughout the South and got the wonderful news that the Young Readers Adaptation for How the Word Is Passed is a New York Times Bestseller. I’m so grateful to all of you who supported this project and I’m so grateful to have spent the past 9 days meeting so many brilliant, thoughtful, and hilarious young people in cities like DC, Richmond, Atlanta, Memphis, New Orleans, Columbia, and Charleston. Spending time with y’all reminded me why being a high school teacher remains the best job I ever had.
Shout out to my partner in this project @sonjacherrypaul for helping bring this book to life along with the whole team at @littlebrownyoungreaders . It was truly a team effort.
On Friday, we were honored to welcome Clint Smith, author of How the Word Is Passed, to McDonogh 35 to share his insights, spark conversation, and personally sign copies of his book for our students. ✨
To everyone who listened, asked, and engaged, thank you. We hope you left with new perspective, fire for the future, and stories to carry forward. 👏
This is how we #InspireTheCity. 🩵
#InspireNOLA #NewOrleans #Louisiana #StudentRally #AuthorTalk #Author #poetry
We were honored to partner with @baldwinandcompany yesterday to welcome back Franklin alum @clintsmithiii , poet, scholar, and author of "Counting Descent" and "How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America."
Smith gave a fantastic and moving talk before answering some incredibly thoughtful questions from our students and generously signing hundreds of books, including 20 copies of the Young Readers' Edition of "How the Word Is Passed" that we raffled off to students in the audience. He even had a chance to reconnect with his former English teacher, Dr. Hightower, whom (we hope we're using that correctly, Dr. Hightower!) he fondly recalled as one of the hardest teachers he ever had.
Many of our students have read Smith's work in history and English classes here at Franklin, and it was such a treat for them to not only hear from a nationally recognized voice on history, memory, and social justice but also see the impact that a fellow Falcon is making on the world.
Thank you to Ms. Youngblood '09 (another alum!) for putting together this truly special event and to Lila Sanchez '27 for the photography!
