By Emma Bynes @emma_bynes4
Springfield College hosted its 11th annual Arts and Humanities Speaker series on Thursday, Oct. 17. This year’s speaker, New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds, has won the Caldecott Medal and the Carnegie Medal for writing, comprising two of the many prestigious awards under his belt.
Among his popular books are “Ghost” and the Spider-Man series “Miles Morales,” to go along with a catalog of over 20 others published works. To kick off the event, Springfield’s Dean of Arts and Sciences Rachel Rubenstein thanked professors, donors, the bookstore, student volunteers and many others for making a complex event like this possible. Moreover, the college invited surrounding high schools to the event. Rubenstein said “young people devour [Reynolds’] books” and pointed out to audience members that his newest book, “24 Seconds,” was on sale for the book signing later on.
After being welcomed onto the stage, Reynolds opened up to the audience about his upbringing. Growing up in Washington, D.C., Reynolds described his walk home from school each day. There were two directions to get home from school: one way was full of drug addicts, and the other way was full of “hustlers” trying to sell drugs. His book “Look Both Ways” is about the struggle of having to pick between the lesser of two evils.
Reynolds commended Springfield College students for choosing to be there and attend his talk. Despite being an author, Reynolds did not read a novel cover to cover until age 17. He failed his first college English class twice. The third time, he passed, despite still not reading a book. His next English class was about Shakespeare, and the professor said Reynolds was not only going to fail his class, but also life. He challenged Reynolds to read two pages of “Black Boy” by Richard Wright.
Reynolds had come to a revelation. “I didn’t hate to read,” Reynolds recounted, “I just hated to be bored.” He then went on to read most high school required books, such as “Lord of the Flies” and “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Reynolds graduated and moved to Brooklyn – making the difficult decision to leave his mom – who was then battling cancer, and who he said was the reason he writes – and friends behind to pursue a publishing deal, but having those important people in mind. He was successful after signing with Harper Collins at age 21, and later used the money he made to pay off his mother’s and friend’s debts.
Inspired by Queen Latifah from a young age, the growing author wanted to incorporate cadence and rhythm into his stories. He told an anecdote about his first cassette tape he bought from a gas station – Latifah’s “Black Reign” – and the excitement from hearing the voice of someone just like him.
Reynolds concluded his talk with an audience Q&A session. One audience member asked Reynolds how rap and art influence his work.
“Most American music – jazz, rap, blues – is rebellious music, it’s pushing against the status quo,” Reynolds responded. “Everything is rhythmic: James Brown said, ‘Every instrument is a drum. I feel that way about writing – everything is poetry.’”
Photo courtesy of Springfield College Flickr