Award winning poet, author, and educator Kwame Alexander visited Kenya Connect! As part of our work to build a culture of readers, we invited Kwame to visit Wamunyu to inspire our students and teachers through reading aloud, storytelling, teaching, dancing and playing with our community. Our students recited some of his poems, listened to him read, and became inspired to write by what he shared. Teachers, participating in a Professional Development workshop, wrote poems and discussed strategies to nurture writing. Kwame encouraged the teachers to write themselves. “You can’t teach children to write if you aren’t writing too!” Using the theme, “Where I am from” the teachers wrote poems and shared with each other.

As a special thank you to Kwame, we installed a book spine on one of the steps for our new Library Learning Center with his Newbery Medal Winner and Coretta Scott King Honor book, The Crossover. It was an empowering visit for our Kenya Connect staff and teachers, students, and parents in our community.

Interested in having a STEP in our Library Learning Center? Contact sharon@kenyaconnect.org