http://wordsignite.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/newsletterwhitehouse.pdf
You’re Invited to the White House!
Washington D.C 2011
I got the call on Thursday… are you available to come to the White House for a Poetry Workshop next Wednesday,May 11th? You have to let us know by 2:00 tomorrow. WHAT? I had so many questions? Would the President or First Lady be there? Who were the Poets? How many other youth organizations were invited? Was the White House paying? HOW DID YOU GET OUR NAME & NUMBER???
Traci, the Executive Director of The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities wouldn’t tell me much. She said they had heard great things about Get Lit, and that 4 other organizations were invited. We had to pay ourselves. And this was all TOP SECRET! They wouldn’t tell us if the President or First Lady would be there, who the other poets were, and wouldn’t let us make any announcement at all to the press… We could bring 10 students –but how could I possibly get them all across country in 1 week?
I shared the dilemma with my husband who was emphatic – “You have to get to the White House! Do you know how many people are invited to the White House? NO ONE GETS TO GO TO THE WHITE HOUSE!” I told him,“Every year little kids get to go roll eggs down the White House lawn.” He retorted, “20 kids get to roll eggs down the lawn. 20 kids! You GET to the White House!”
So the next morning I called the families of my Get Lit Players… “I know this is unfair and I’m sure you’re not able…but if you are interested in going, the only way we can make this happen is if you contribute $600 towards the trip and get back to me within two hours with your child’s full name, social security number, birth date, middle initial, etc… Of course I left messages as everyone was in school, working – this wasn’t going to happen…Within two hours every family had responded. “We’re in!” If they had to beg, borrow, or steal, they found the funds, with some of the families who had a little more, helping out some of the families who had a little less.
And I immediately contacted our old friends at JetBlue Airways who had flown our Get Lit Players in the past. I was giving them NO notice but they were moved that our local teens had received this special invitation and weren’t going to let our kids down so they helped with the tickets. OH MY GOD! THANK YOU JETBLUE!!
And then my best friend in the world got on the phone with a friend of hers in DC who runs a mansion/hotel. She graciously gave us her place for free (sans cleaning charges.) CAN YOU IMAGINE – LOANING YOUR MANSION TO 10 TEENAGERS FOR 3 DAYS??? This was a miracle beyond belief. Not only was it gorgeous, it is located right in the prime area of Adams Morgan, ethnic center of D.C. and home to all the cool shopping and restaurants! Perfect!
AND THEN – the dad of one of our Get Lit Players (Bryan) - told a friend at Buick who he knows from having worked with GM about our situation and they stepped in with support that included a video crew and photographer who documented the trip and provided two Buick Enclaves with drivers to move our troupe around D.C. They would film our kids performing poetry at all of the historic landmark locations and call it POETRY IN MOTION… ARE YOU KIDDING ME???
We bit our tongues, dying to share the news that WE WERE GOING TO THE WHITE HOUSE, when one day the news broke to the press that the White House was having a poetry workshop and salon. Now everyone knew! And President Obama and Michelle WERE going to be there! And would our kids meet them??? This was too much!
Press started contacting me through all kinds of leaks…wanting to know “Are your kids one of the invited groups to go the White House? Can we interview them at the airport?” They even knew the airline and time we were flying! I begged the White House, “PLEASE, it’s such a great story! Three of our kids have never even flown before!” NO GO. So we told the press not to come… and got ready for the trip of our lives.
AND WE’RE OFF…
The night before we left, two of our 10 kids – Anika and Jazmine slept over. Aisha met us at my home and then we all drove together to the airport. The other Get Lit Players were there waiting for us, and all went off without a hitch. The JetBlue counter agent graciously moved many of our seats so we had windows, aisles, and were sitting close together and we got ready for take off! Anna and Aisha (our flying newbees – Ka’lynn too but she was taking her own plane because her mom had ironically already purchased a ticket for her to fly to DC for her sister’s college graduation from Howard) – held onto their seats and THERE WE WENT!!! UP IN THE AIR!!! I had to ask Aisha, do you know how to pop your ears? She didn’t but luckily she is an incessant gum chewer, which seems to have come in handy here!
After a great flight, we arrived at Dulles, got our bags, and onto our shuttle. We drove for about an hour when we finally arrived at our Biltmore Mansion. OMG! It was giant and looked like a New Orleans Manor home. It had sprawling gardens and more bedrooms than could be counted. My friend Andrea was there to greet us. She had gone out and bought multiple air mattresses and set each up with sheets, pillows, comforters, and brought in a ton of waters and snacks for the week for all of the kids. Unbelievable! Everyone was tired and hungry so we dropped our bags and went out to eat – a Mexican restaurant – right down the street. The food was delicious and luckily across the street from a Payless Shoe Store …Jazmine had forgotten her shoes!
After dinner we settled in and got ready for bed. Ooops! No internet connection! Thank God for Iphones! I had a ton of messages from General Motors about our Wednesday schedule. Pick up times (WHAT? I STILL CAN’T GET OVER THE FACT THAT WE ARE BEING ESCORTED TO THE WHITE HOUSE!) and our shoot in front of the first landmark – the Washington Memorial – which will happen BEFORE we enter the White House…and the poem that we will be doing. OMG! The poem we will be doing! Of course! The poem we “will be doing” is a Get Lit staple called, “When I Grow Up,” by Sekou Andrews. He has allowed us to perform it in the past but NOT FOR BUICK AND NOT FOR A WHIRLWIND TOUR OF WASHINGTON DC AND NOT WHILE BEING TAPED… And I don’t have his phone number! And it’s 11 o’clock at night! What are we going to do??? I frantically called everyone I knew back home who had his phone number and found his email and other numbers online. I left him a message, “Um.. Hi Sekou… remember me, Diane and Get Lit? You know how we love you, right? Well, what would you say if we perform your poem all over Washington DC…blah blah blah.” Then I went to bed. What could I do? What were the odds that he would say yes and that he would even get this message by tomorrow morning?? They were picking us up at 9 AM – 6 AM Sekou’s time…
WEDNESDAY AM
First thing I did was check my email … (thank God for Iphones)… OMG – heart flutter, pitter patter… there was a message from Sekou… I opened it…I would be honored to have you perform my poem. My heart just melted,splat, all over the floor. No discussion about rights, contracts, money,nothing. Just, “Yes.” He said to say, “What’s up,” to the President and tell the kids to “Rock it.” Sekou himself had been invited and performed at the White House last year. He is a major artist/poet and of course most importantly HUMAN BEING. Thank you, Sekou!
2 GORGEOUS BRIGHT AND SHINY BUICK ENCLAVES ARRIVED TO PICK US UP … 1 white and 1 red. Our drivers were Fred and Marty. They were awesome. Explained the city to us as we drove to our first destination. THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT. We arrived. The Buick producers were there. Had the kids step out of the car, back into the car, and again – out of the car, and into the car. Now see the monument! Point to the monument! Smile! … Hmmm…. I have done commercials for the past 20 years…our Get Lit Players…? Not so much. They weren’t quite sure what was going on. I guess somebody – me - hadn’t properly explained that we weren't shooting a "commercial," we were shooting a documentary about how the Get Lit Players were “Poetry in Motion” and were
featuring the Buick cars getting us there! Anyway, once everyone finally piled out, they stood near the monument and began reciting “When I Grew Up,” and it was … great. There they were with the White House behind them, reciting some of the most powerful words I know…”Ask me now, am I too late? Ask me now what I want to do for a living…am I too late? Cause I think I finally figured it out…I don’t want to DO for a living…I want to BE for a living…”
Chills, hair rising on my arm, and then all of the other poets chiming in to recite all of their different parts… gorgeous. Interviews followed. I was so proud. These kids are all so smart and informed. They are such good ambassadors for the work that we do. I have watched them all grow so much. It was amazing. AND THEN WE WERE OFF – piling into the Enclaves again for lunch. We ate at a bustling, WDC hangout. Delicious. Hurry, hurry. We had 1 hour before we had to be at the White House. Teiji, Kelsey’s dad picked up the whole check! So amazing!! THANK YOU, TEIJI!
WHITE HOUSE
Our Enclaves pulled up. Other youth groups were there waiting. Most of those students wore suits. Our kids piled out in their POET t’s and so of course the press was all over them. Because what says “poetry event” better than 10 kids wearing “Poet” shirts? The New York post had our kids all line up, “Put the modely looking girl in the middle!” I had to laugh – Jazmine. GM made us all feel like stars with their shooting, interviewing us prior to going in, all the excitement… and then the panic! We don’t have our ID’s! Good God! We were told so emphatically to leave all bags behind, that some of the kids didn’t bring their ID’s … Ka’lynn, Aisha, Anna, and Jazmine. Entering security I felt like I was a character in Midnight Express…everyone got through except Anna. She’s 18. Luckily her bag was in the Enclave and they VERY NICELY came back around to drop it off to us. So she got in and we entered together. I took photos for her mom. Look Mom! Anna is entering the White House!!!
This was thrilling! Why? Because how many people get to enter the White House? As a matter of fact, last summer I went sightseeing in Washington DC with my family. See the picture OUTSIDE the gate? This was our Christmas Card. So exciting just to be OUTSIDE THE GATE. And now it was OPEN and we were through! Walking through those front doors was AMAZING. There were uniformed soldiers greeting us, massive paintings of past presidents, and the most ornate curtains and furnishings. There were hallways upon hallways, stairs upon stairs, until we came to a large open area.
Everyone was waiting here, movie stars like Kerry Washington, icons like Carolyn Kennedy (and her daughter) just in front of us.
Our kids ran up to us, “Kerry Washington wants a shirt!” I had brought a gift bag for the Obama family - POET shirts for President Obama, Michelle, and Sasha and Malia, plus a book from California Poet Laureate, Carol Muske-Dukes. I didn’t have an extra but we promised we’d get her one FAST and then were hustled inside of the room.
Great seats. Such a small space. Camera men all lined up against the back wall, up high, standing on platforms. The stage up ahead. What will happen? Elizabeth Alexander takes the stage. I remember the Inaugural Poem, “Praise Song For the Day,” she recited at President Obama’s Inauguration. She welcomes us. She tells us that 77 youth from around the country have been invited from Los Angeles, San Francisco, WDC, Chicago, Detroit and New York. She introduces two more speakers and then suddenly she is introducing … Michelle Obama!!!
Have you ever met a Queen?
I haven’t. Full disclosure here. I am not wowed by movie starts, celebrities, personalities. I live in Hollywood for God’s sake. I run into Aerosmith in the grocery store (and I’m not kidding!) So I was not prepared for my reaction to Michelle. First of all, she was a few feet away from me. Second of all, she is gorgeous. I know you’ve seen her in photos. Don’t trust your eyes. Because whatever you have seen, has not done her justice. I guess some people are like that. She is very tall. Her skin is taut and shiny. Like she uses million dollar, shimmery
creams. Her clothing impeccable. Also shimmery. Creamy. Colored peach, which personally sets off her cocoa skin. She is strong. And confident. Intimate and commanding, formal and non chalant, all at the same time. She is greeting Mexico’s First Lady - Margarita Zavala, BONUS! - who is a good friend and also happens to be here. And then she is welcoming us. She says we have been specially invited because
we are good at what we do and so we have been chosen to receive instruction from some of the best poets in the nation. And after we do, we must go back to our communities and spread the word that poetry is IMPORTANT. That the arts are NECESSARY. We must become ambassadors for the work and the word. And Michelle has this quality that when she speaks, it appears as if she is looking in YOUR eyes, and
speaking directly to YOU.
We heard her loud and clear.
And then each of the invited poets gets up and speaks. (See Link)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/videos/2011/May/051111_PoetryStudentWorkshop.mp4and our Get Lit Players get up and ask questions (Kelsey, Jazmine, and Tayllor.) Kelsey raises her hand and is the first youth to speak. She is so brave and inspired by these great poets. I think that Billy Collins is my favorite speaker, in part because my son, Luke, performs his classic “The Lanyard,” and in part because he is so funny and smart. Aimee Mann is Aisha’s favorite. And Kenneth Goldsmith is Daniel’s favorite… there is something here for everyone.
That evening we go back to the White House, the Eisenhower room, for a special screening of the Poetry Event hosted by Barack Obama himself. 40 other teens join us. We watch Steve Martin, Jill Scott, Common, Billy Collins, and others do their thing. They are fantastic. Special highlights for us … Jill Scott “I’m a G,” Billy Collins’ “The Lanyard,” and of course Common, … “With one King's dream he was able to Barack us…”
I’m exhausted now because it’s been A LONG DAY but do you think our teens are? NO! There is an open mic at Busboys & Poets and we’re going!
So we pile into our Enclaves and go. Busboys & Poets is inspired by the fact that Langston Hughes used to be a busboy in this area, and of course was a poet. They have AWESOME open mics, a gift shop, restaurant and so much color and SOUL. The kids all sign up and I meet Tayllor and her mom to eat.
Later we hear that Anika, Aisha, Junior and Jazmine all got up – all killed it and then Jazmine got a standing ovation. I’m so glad our kids have a chance to get it out of their systems and SHINE. That night it’s back to the Mansion. Of course everyone is up talking, hanging out. I TELL THEM GO TO BED – Buick will be back tomorrow morning at 8 AM! Poetry in Motion Part II!!!
THURSDAY
For whatever reason, everyone gets up excited to go. SHOCKING considering that these are teens and it is 6:30 AM! But they do. Marty and Fred pull around in the Buicks and it’s like seeing old friends! We get to first location, the steps of Lincoln Memorial and the kids stand on the steps and begin their poem again…“When I Grow Up” … and it’s Aisha (who begins it.) And I don’t know what it is – the Lincoln Memorial behind her, her deep sonorous voice, the enthusiastic and truthful way she performs, the blue sky above her, all the beautiful faces of her fellow poets around her, the empty space of Martin Luther King looming in the distance just beyond her shoulder… for whatever reason … it is THRILLING to watch her. To hear her. It is what poetry is supposed to be. Life changing, powerful, altering. I watch the Buick photographer shooting this and again, I am so grateful to them for providing this opportunity and for documenting our Poets performing all over the city like this. It is AMAZING!!!
Next it’s Anna. “I wanna provide children with their first definition of HOT!” And Ka’lynn: “I don’t wanna be the singer, I wanna be sound…the song you sing the way you sing it when you think ain’t nobody else around!” And Junior: “I wanna speak antibiotic poetry to defeat your life’s viruses…but only if you take my words in three times a day until the entire bottle is gone!”
And then we stop at the Washington Monument again. Only this time, the backdrop
is the Washington Monument and not the White House and it Jazmine’s turn. We are getting her ending. Jazmine has been a Get Lit Player for four years. She started at 14 and a freshman and now she is 18 and a senior. I have literally watched her grow up. Jazmine is 6’ tall and stunning, but more than that, she has emerged as some kind of a Malcolm X. She is powerful. Her voice is like thunder. She says: “I wanna be the opposite of darkness when I grow up. So that when the greatest poet in existence…recites the first line…of the greatest poem ever written…GROUP LINE: “Let there be light!” Jazmine: “Then I can Begin…”
Watching these beautiful young people, their voices lifted in unison under the blue sky, I swear I see it open and blessings pour out. And when Jazmine speaks, her voice is so strong, it causes reverberation, a trailing echo, which seems to come up out of the Monument itself. The monunment stands erect in the background, just behind her long neck which is its mirror image. Jazmine’s hair is blowing back. Her gaze is in the distance – and when she says, “Then, I can begin…” it seems the most powerful thing I have ever heard.
And I marvel at these young Poets in our Nation’s capital. I marvel at the power of their collective voices and at the power of their individual ones too. I see how much they have all grown and I realize the power of the arts to give a person confidence, experience, education and opportunity to display those gifts and share them with others. Their talent is a living testament to this work and now they have been called to share it and to waken other youth from their slumber and dreams of inadequacy, lost opportunities, and mediocrity. I know not every youth in the country has access to a “Get Lit” but they do have access to books…and that is the message. Open them, read them. And maybe these incredible youth will inspire other youth to do just that.
Next stop: Capital Building. Some final shots of our Poets. Pick up lines. Anika recited a really nice poem written by someone from Buick. Some final interviews. And we left. GOOD BYE Tara.
Monday (the Buick photographer) camera man, and sound guy! THANK YOU! Later Ka’Lynn said, “I didn’t even say goodbye!” But NOT so long to Buick because they arranged for Marty and Fred to continue to drive us around for the day. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? They made us feel so incredibly special!
We went back to the Lincoln Memorial, so we could really spend some time there, actually go inside. And now let me mention and additional member of our team, my
good friend and Get Lit Board Member, Jill Rosenthal. Jill volunteered to go on this trip with me. Everyone thought that I’d need help managing 10 teens on my own –HA! I thought. Well, were they ever right! And Jill went to Georgetown Law School so she knows DC like the back of her hand. Jill had been chomping at the bit to take the kids on a guided tour of the Lincoln Memorial and Vietnam Memorial. Now that the kids were starting to calm down from the excitement of the visit to the White House, Jill wanted to give the poets an opportunity to really “connect” to the human history behind some of the landmarks they’d been performing in front of. As they stood before the statue of Abraham Lincoln, she pointed out that the position of his hands on the arms of his chair make the sign language symbols for “A" and & “L” – his initials – and then explained that the sculptor of the statue -- Daniel Chester French -- had a deaf son.
Coincidence? Maybe. But Jill explained that Abraham Lincoln signed the federal legislation giving Gallaudet University, a university for the deaf, the authority to grant college degrees, so it was not unlikely that the position of the hands was the sculptor’s private way of honoring a man who had helped pave the way for deaf people like his son. COOL! She also pointed out that Leonardo DiVinci sometimes embedded hidden messages in his art by placing his subjects hands into sign language symbols.
Next, Jill had the kids walk in a single line along the wall of the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial, making them promise not to say a word until they got to the other side. I wondered if they’d get it. This was not their generation’s war afterall. The memorial is nothing but a black marble wall with names carved into it. But when the kids arrived on the other side, it was clear several were visably moved from the experience of physically viewing the individual name of every single soldier who died in that war. Looking at name after name – the walls rising higher and higher above your head for as far as the eye can see – is mesmerizing...all those names. We even had to go back and get Jazmine – who stood with tears in her eyes, frozen on the spot where she had watched a mother point to the name of her son on the wall and realized that “every name on that wall was somebody’s baby.” She later said she composed several poems right on that spot!
Jill explained that the design for the memorial was chosen in a blind competition open to the greatest architects in the world, and that the winner had been a college student! Only fitting, since it was college students who rose up to protest and ultimately end that war! The power of words! The power of believing in something! The power of teens!!!
Jill finished off the tour with a viewing of the statue of The Three Soldiers, pointing out how their eyes reflect the “100 yard stare” common to soldiers who have experienced the horrors of war – a stare that doesn’t seem to focus on anything. Sure enough, no matter how much they moved around, they couldn’t get the statues eyes to seem to “focus” on them. The kids were fascinated by that detail -- particularly Anna.
I never would have known how much knowledge feeds her. Once again, the power of art to inspire! I marveled how many new poems would come from their experience today. And I was surprised that something which happened so far out of their generation could have such an impact.
Jazmine spoke about how her “great grandfather” fought in this war and I almost died! Great grandfather! Good Lord!
Then we went home. Regrouped. Had some downtime and made plans for the night. Some of the kids went shopping. Others went for an excursion through the woods, outward-bounds style, for a little bonding and emotional release.
THAT NIGHT…
Call of the Wild
We took the advice of some people and went to an open mic near Howard University. This was the first time we were ON OUR OWN… we had bid our dear Marty, Fred, and Buick Enclaves goodbye! It was cabs for us – which cost a bloody fortune! They dropped us off in nowhere’s land… and have I mentioned that Washington DC was once the murder capital of the country? And that I am legally responsible for these 10 young people? And that the club we have found ourselves at is in what appears to be an abandoned building in the middle of Timbuctoo???
Well, yeah… it was. I’m not scared of much and I wasn’t scared now either… though I’m sure that many people would have been! We ascended the endless set of stairs up up up, not a soul in site, until we got to a room. Humble, vacant, six broken chairs facing each other in a circle in the center of the room. Hmmm? This is the hot open mic you all heard about?
Starting in 15 minutes??? Suspect. Strange. Some of the kids were nervous. It was time to go. So we went out to the street. Time to get a cab back. Bummer. $40 for … ? And now we had to spend another $40 to get back. That is if we ever got back. Apparently cabs didn’t come here. So we waited and waited and waited…Jill said, “Did you know WDC used to be murder capital of the country?” Yes, GOT IT, Jill! Eventually we saw a bus. I ran down and flagged it and we all hopped on. This caused major reaction amongst the passengers inside, especially one, loud, and liquored up guy who reacted to Anika and me sitting next to him with “I ain’t sitting next to no white girls!” We had such a huge group that the bus had to start while we were still looking through our pockets for change, causing our disgruntled neighbor to start demanding to know if we’d paid. “Kick ‘em off -- How you gonna get on a bus without any money?!” It took Ka’Lynn, our youngest ambassador (15) and heart of the Get Lit group to mollify everything. “Hey, how you all doing? We’re from California!
We’re poets!” By the end of this bus ride (which was just to a better place to hail a cab), Ka’lynn had them all waving to us, wishing us well, and the bus driver telling us not to worry about paying! Look out for Ka’lynn, by the way… She is a powerhouse and going to be LETHAL!!
While we’re waiting for a cab in this very urban and raw neighborhood I look over at Aisha and Anna who have wanderlust in the their eyes. Aisha says, “I just want to go.” She doesn’t want to jump a cab back to normal. She wants to keep on riding out into life. She wanted to stay on that bus, mixing with locals and letting her antennas fly out, uncensored. And I feel her. I remember what it was to be young and want to experience life. In fact, I still feel it. Raw, undying life sometimes lies outside schedules, plans and safety. This reminds me that I have to give Aisha the Goethe quote from Faust: “I want frenzied excitements, gratifications that are painful, love and hatred violently mixed,anguish that enlivens, inspiriting trouble.Cured of my thirst to know at last, I’ll never again shun anything, distressful; from now on my wish is to undergo all that men everywhere undergo, their whole portion, make mine their heights and depths, their weal and woe, everything human embrace in my single person, and so enlarge my soul to encompass all humanity…”
But as her chaperone and legal guardian, I have to escort her back to safety. Still, secretly, I’m glad she’s had the taste of the wild and I know that this part of the trip (however short) will be one that she remembers.
Isn’t that what poetry is? And all of art? The cultivation of the wild?
Ethiopian Restaurant…
We get back to our neighborhood and are starving. I’ve just spent $80 in cabs though on an aborted trip and so am not about to spring for another $200 dinner… so we look for pizza. But it’s our last night together and no one wants to eat a random slice on the corner. Jill spots an Ethiopian restaurant and asks if the kids are up for the adventure! Referring to the huge population of Ethiopians (including our most recent cab driver,) Jill says “If you are going to eat Ethiopian, no better place than DC!”
Hmmm . . . interesting . . . well, at least we can all eat around one table and be together, so we go inside…Have you ever eaten Ethiopian food? I have not. And it is very very . . . interesting, especially when you’re exhausted and punch drunk and 42 and sitting at a table with 9 teenagers and two sock puppet creatures (a giraffe and a whale who lived on Anna and Aisha’s fingers…)
Jill (the most cultured among us) orders for the table, and out comes a huge pan with some kind of flat spongy bread on the bottom and a few piles of what look like smashed beans. The waitress just lets it sit in front of Daniel - a huge boy and
actually our incredible, genius photographer -- just sitting. Everyone looks at Jill. She laughs: “That’s just the platter and garnish, don’t worry, there’s more coming!” Next the waitress places several plates of the same spongy bread rolled up like napkins. We start to poke at it, not sure whether to eat it or put it in our lap. A few of us start to giggle. Then the food came – pile after pile of food we’ve never seen before, mashed, minced, but some with whole carrots, a whole egg,a leg of chicken meat still on the bone …and nothing to eat it with but the spongy bread! Hilarious! Not really. But as I previously explained, anything is funny when you’re punch drunk and exhausted. Half the table (the cultured half!) dug in like rock stars and enjoyed the whole experience while the rest of us laughed and laughed at trying to mop up whole carrots with spongy bread and the seeming absurdity of it all. Felt good to let off steam . . .
Back at the house, time to pack it up. Shuttle bus was coming at 6:45 AM. Ugh! There was time for a quick tarot card reading though. Anika and I spent an hour reading each other’s cards. It was a perfect way to connect and share our fears and hopes for the future – as we ended a deliriously rich trip.
WE SAY ADEAU…
Miraculously – we got up on time, packed up our things, cleaned up the house and boarded the bus. So long Biltmore!!!
Thank you!!! Jill gets the shuttle driver to tell the few kids (who are awake!) what it was like to be in Washington D.C. on 9/11, how he saw smoke rising from the Pentagon, while everyone was talking about the twin towers in New York,and how it felt when he learned his city had also been targeted. The kids were riveted, having forgotten until that moment Washington D.C.'s role in that fateful day!
Plane ride home was perfect. (THANK YOU AGAIN, JETBLUE!!) Parents picked up their children – our illustrious poets. We are different for going. We shared something very special - last weeks events, a better insight into who each of us are, confidences, secrets, inside jokes, and most importantly – a charge from the First Lady of America to go back to our city and share what we’ve learned. To PASS IT ON!
TAKE AWAY…
I have always been the type of person who likes to give more than I receive… so I will accept the First Lady’s challenge. We at Get Lit will be ambassadors for the word. We will share the White House’s message about the importance of the arts. We will share poetry with teens throughout this city. And we will rock Los Angeles with poetry in a way that has not previously been seen… Wait and see!!!
In closing I would like to give a special thanks to all those who made this trip possible for us…THANK YOU
JetBlue Airways
Buick
Linda & John Quigg and the Maison Biltmore
Jimmy & Judi Collins
Andrea Zomber
Richard Hansen
Laura Sillerman
James Catterall
Carol Muske-Dukes
Eric Borsum
Jill Rosenthal
Our Get Lit Players & their high schools:
Aishah Allah, Los Angeles, 16, sophomore, home schooled.
Bryan Erickson, Los Angeles, 18, senior, LA Center for Enriched Studies
Junior Herrera, Alhambra, 17, senior, Alhambra High School
Anika Jade Levy, Sherman Oaks, 16, sophomore, CHAMPS Charter High School
Tayllor Johnson, Los Angeles, 17, senior, Santa Monica High School
Kelsey Kawana, Los Angeles, 17, junior, Poly Tech in Pasadena
Anna Osuna, Alhambra, 18, senior, Alhambra High School
Daniel Schaefer, Studio City, 17, senior, CHAMPS Charter High School
Jazmine Williams, Venice Beach, 18, senior, Hamilton High School
& their families
