Photo provided Nate Marshall, a well-known poet, artist and educator will visit Columbus in April.
Renowned poet, artist and educator Nate Marshall will be visiting Columbus in April.
A Chicago native, Marshall’s first book “Wild Hundreds” was released in 2015 and honored with the Black Caucus of the American Library Association’s award for poetry book of the year and his most recent book, “Finna,” was named one of the best books of 2020 by NPR.
Columbus North English teacher Barbara Handt is in charge of organizing and managing Marshall’s visit, which was supported by the Bartholomew County Public Library, the Bull Dog Alumni Association, The African American Foundation and the Columbus Area Arts Council.
Marshall will arrive in Columbus on April 3 for a full day of events, Handt said. In the morning he’ll perform for Columbus North students in the auditorium where he’ll do a poetry reading, talk about his background and work as a writer and answer student questions.
“Our kids have to come up with ideas when they’re writing and they think that they’re waiting for a lightning bolt to strike them, but that isn’t the case. I mean, writing is actually a lot of really hard work,” Handt said. “For the writer to share how he or she came up with the idea and moved it from an idea into a work of literature, a poem or short story — that is a unique perspective from (a) writer.”
After, he’ll lead a continuing education workshop for a collection of teachers from North and CSA New Tech and librarians from the Bartholomew County Public Library.
“He’s going to do a workshop for us on creative writing, creative process, invention, hopefully student engagement, all of those kinds of things,” she said.
In the past, these kind of workshops have broadened educator’s horizons, Handt said.
“Having them instruct teachers is really a kind of renewal for teachers themselves,” Handt said. “They think of things and have ideas for motivating students to write that may not occur to us.”
The workshops also serve as a way for teachers to bond, she said.
“I look back and I think of when we had so and so and when this person came. I mean, those were big moments in my career that I can remember when we all sat down and learned something from a published author.”
In the evening, Marshall will be at The Commons from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in an event free and open to the public for a community performance reading some of his poems, signing books and answering questions in a “fire side chat” environment.
Handt said this is the third poet to visit in the last six years, following former Purdue faculty Kaveh Akbar and Indiana Poet Laureate Adrian Matejka. Matejka visited in 2018 and when Handt asked him who he had been reading, he brought Marshall’s name up.
Handt taught a couple of his poems in L202, a course that can be used for college credit at Indiana University.
“I don’t know if he would say this, but (his work) seems to have a sense of optimism to it, that it’s not all doom and gloom. He came from a tough neighborhood and he respects it, and he honors that neighborhood,” Handt said. “You can honor where you came from and still love it. You can love those things, but you can still rise above them.”
Handt points towards Marshall’s use of strong imagery and gift of encapsulating his experiences for wide audiences.
“Our students sometimes come from disadvantaged backgrounds. They don’t live in a big city but they experience some things that are very hard for them to overcome,” Handt said. “And I think the message from him is is that, you know, there is a lot of hope.”
Marshall also co-wrote Chicago Public Schools first literary arts curriculum and develops lessons plans for teachers, according to his website. Handt said the plan is for Marshall to return in the summer to help with lesson planning.
“He’s coming back in June to do a one day thing where he helps us write — not whole classes, but maybe a unit for each grade level at North.”
