#24. Because, because, because, because, because…. because of the wonderful things (s)he does

You can’t leave an answer to a question at “because.”

Last Monday, I volunteered at the Thurgood Marshall Academy on behalf of the Behind The Book program, “a literacy nonprofit that brings authors into NYC schools to inspire students to love reading and writing.” I’ve been volunteering with them, on and off, for the better part of four years now.

We were working with 7th graders who had read the book, This Side of Town by Renée Watson, a book that discusses gentrification through the eyes of twin sisters who live in a historically black community.

The project had our students writing poetry to express their feelings — both bitter and sweet — about gentrification in their neighborhoods. A topic I was especially interested in because I could easily be seen as the problem, considering I and my family had recently moved to Harlem from not-Harlem.

Things went off without a hitch. They always do. Any uncomfortableness that might have arisen from discussing the subject material— which was all in my head — ultimately never happened. The children focused on writing about their homes, whatever home meant to them, and that looked like an homage to their daily lives. And our role was to help them unpack what they’d written — being as descriptive as possible —by using their five senses.

Unfortunately, most of the children weren’t able to complete the assignment given the limited time we had to work with them, but the experience was incredibly satisfying for me because I got to watch the students think. And create. And enjoy the their sense of accomplishment when they recognized what they’d finished was really good.

So there we were, after the class, Joel and I, briefly discussing our experiences. He’d never volunteered with Behind the Book before, so I asked him what he thought of the experience.

“I loved it. I especially loved helping them expand on their work. I was working with Isaiah and he started reading to me about his home. And each time he ended a sentence, I asked him ‘because’? And I could see his mind expanding and him really getting it. And his piece turned out really good!”