Poetry News

Kwame Alexander Talks Children's Poetry at NPR

Originally Published: July 31, 2017

Newberry Award Medal-winning poet Kwame Alexander stepped into the studios at NPR's "Morning Edition" to talk about some of the best poems and poets for children. His appearance is timely, as the program's host Rachel Martin explains: "Oh, the long, hot days of summer - the kids are bored, parents are out of ideas, and everyone's just a little bit cranky. What to do? We wondered if poet and educator Kwame Alexander might have some ideas for what we are calling poetry play. You know, you read it, you write it - not supposed to be scared of it. Right, Kwame?" From there: 

KWAME ALEXANDER: No. You have to embrace it.

MARTIN: No, got to embrace it. All right, so this is your challenge. As you go around the country and you do these workshops for young people, in particular - trying to convince, I imagine, probably, most of the time, it's parents - that poetry is possible for young kids, that it's not beyond their reach from a really young age, right?

ALEXANDER: Well, the parents are a little bit afraid of it. And I get it. I mean, who wasn't in high school?

MARTIN: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: ...With Auden, and Frost and Shakespeare. But how do you get your kids excited about it if you're not? And I think we got to sort of remember the fun, the whimsy, the joy, the passion in poetry. I mean, my mother used to read to me a lot of Nikki Giovanni. She used to read to me a lot of Lucille Clifton.

You know, I got poems that jumped off the page. You know, my mom would come into my room and - folks, birthing is hard, and dying is mean. So why not get yourself a little loving in between? Like, what parent does that?

MARTIN: (Laughter).

ALEXANDER: But I got a lot of that. And of course, it made you smile. It made you happy. And it made you say, wait, what was that? That was a poem? I want more.

Tune in and listen to their complete conversation at NPR