sigh

I’m having a moment.  OVERLOAD.  A desperate desire to disappear for a while, even though I feel like I’m about to write something important.  Today’s visit to Brooklyn College was wonderful–the students arranged themselves in a circle, someone brought a box of donut holes (I just scarfed down the last six!), and everyone seemed engaged as I went through my presentation–sometimes reading from my paper, mostly extemporizing while showing the slides I’d prepared and the trailers for Bird and AWAM.  Then I joined the circle and took questions–it’s so great talking to READERS, hearing their ideas about the value of literature and the impact writing has had on their lives.  Roni Natov has written an important book, The Poetics of Childhood, but you wouldn’t know she’s a major player in the field of children’s literature (she also founded The Lion and the Unicorn); she’s so down to earth, and friendly, and engaging–she took notes during my talk, and then over lunch asked me her own set of questions.  I hadn’t been to Brooklyn College in a while–not since I taught there in 2003, prepping public school teachers for their certification exams.  I was also a student there in ’94; before starting graduate school, I spent a year serving as the Africana Studies Department’s research assistant in exchange for the chance to audit courses.

I used to sit in Prof. Buncombe’s African American literature classes, brimming with gratitude for the chance to learn about writers I felt had been kept from me all my life.  And now I’m a visiting author…I’m too tired to feel elated!  But I’m still grateful–for students who love literature, and professors who are inclusive, and for all the words that seem to spill from my mouth without a script clutched in my hand.  I can’t freestyle for this conference, though.  So back I go to this darn paper…