SPRINGFIELD — Award-winning creator Rita Williams-Garcia joined seventh-grade students at John J. Duggan Academy Oct. 26 to debate her book “One Crazy Summer.”
Melvin Murry, a seventh-grade special education and English language arts teacher, told The Republican the principal reason behind hosting the book talk is to introduce students to role models which can be diverse and dealing in successful careers. That way, students can envision their very own pathway to success.
“One Crazy Summer” can be a part of the college’s English curriculum.
Plenty of students are focused on the careers of sports figures and high-profile celebrities but mentors like Williams-Garcia can shows students other options, Murry said. He added it’s vital to indicate students of color a various array of profession options and role models.
In line with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 24.9% of scholars at Duggan Academy are Black and 58.9% are Hispanic.
“It is vital because, for example, students say they need to be a basketball player like LeBron James, but don’t see the entire other jobs in that field that help to support a profession like LeBron James has because there isn’t a access and visibility to those careers,” Murry said.
Williams-Garcia is the second artist Murry has arranged to speak at the college. Tonya Lewis Lee — film and tv producer, creator and the wife of American film director, producer and screenwriter Spike Lee — got here to the college via Zoom to speak about her experience in film last 12 months.
“This all comes all the way down to purpose. Why people do what they do. That is our second 12 months to get someone here to talk to students and I believe it’s great,” said Principal Michael Calvanese.
During her talk, Williams-Garcia shared details of her journey to a profession in writing through a visible presentation, showing students photos of diaries and journals, for example.
The presentation included anecdotes about her life’s desire, whilst a baby, to put in writing and sell stories to get money for garments that her family couldn’t afford.
Through the talk, Williams-Garcia also noted pitfalls she has faced when becoming a author, like having to tackle terrible grammar and spelling, where to search out inspirations for character development and how one can set a scene when she was writing about something unfamiliar.
Williams-Garcia also told students about her personal writing rituals, her technique of writing and editing, her other creative interests resembling dancing and boxing and the way she celebrates by dining out when a story gets picked up by a publishing company.
Moreover, Williams-Garcia shared difficulties and challenges she has experienced within the industry when writing with a cultural lens and about African American subject-life matter, which exposed a nuance of systemic racism interwoven throughout the understanding of language and culture within the industry.
As an illustration, editors asked Williams-Garcia to alter a scene in regards to the girls “getting their hair styled within the kitchen with a hot comb” to “blow drying” their hair “in the lavatory,” she said.
“I noticed that mainstream publishers didn’t understand Black stories; each nuance needed to be explained,” Williams-Garcia said. “But I didn’t need to cross over. I wanted to put in writing about what I knew.”
Williams-Garcia’s book tell the story of three sisters who travel to Oakland, California, amidst the turbulent Nineteen Sixties seeking their mother, who’s different than what they expected. Within the story, the ladies find yourself attending a summer camp run by the Black Panther Party.
Hailing out of Queens, Latest York, Williams-Garcia is a distinguished American creator of kids’s and young adult books.
Williams-Garcia graduated from Hofstra University. At Hofstra, Williams-Garcia studied with American novelist and screenwriter Richard Price who’s best known for novels that take a look at late-Twentieth century urban America and creator, playwright, and poet Sonia Pilcer, noted for her semi-autobiographical novels.
In 2011, “One Crazy Summer” won the Newbery Honor Award, Coretta Scott King Award and the Scott O’Dell Award.
Williams-Garcia’s other titles include, “P.S. Be Eleven,” which was listed as a Junior Literary Guild, A Latest York Times Editors Selection and went on to win the Coretta Scott King award in 2014. Her book “Gone Crazy in Alabama” won a Coretta Scott King award in 2016 and “Clayton Byrd Goes Underground” was finalist for the National Book Award and won a The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) award.
Williams-Garcia’s website will be found at ritawg.com.
