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Award Winning Author Alice Faye Duncan Inspires Harding Students
For the National African American Read-In our SK–Grade 12 students were treated to an energetic reading experience given by a creative Memphis educator and author.
Alice Faye Duncan is a poet and teacher from the city of Memphis who uses words like music. She aspires to write lyrical prose and poems that are meant to be spoken aloud. Her early discovery of the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, and Gwendolyn Brooks moved her to make words her life’s work.
Her celebrated books include Willie Jerome, Honey Baby Sugar Child, A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks, Twelve Days of Christmas in Tennessee, and Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968.
Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop has been voted a best picture book and recently received a 2019 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book Award.
Duncan believes that Dr. King’s last stand for justice in Memphis was a sign of courage, faith, and love. And in the spirit of the King legacy, she writes books to inspire and educate children—who are the future leaders and Drum Majors for Justice.
Below are more pictures from the assembly.
“The National African American Read-In is the nation’s first and oldest event dedicated to diversity in literature. It was established in 1990 by the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English to make literacy a significant part of Black History Month. This initiative has reached more than 6 million participants around the world.”