The Bank Street School for Children has announced that 2015 Newbery Medalist Kwame Alexander will be its inaugural Dorothy Carter Writer-in-Residence. As Resident, Alexander will work with the school’s nine- and 10-year-olds on their poetry curriculum for six weeks, from early April through mid-May.
The residency is named for Dorothy Carter, who was the first African-American member of the Bank Street College graduate faculty, and a leader of the Bank Street Writer’s Lab. Additionally; she was a children’s book author and Broadway actress. She passed away in 2012. Alexander’s father, Dr. E. Curtis Alexander (a 1970 graduate of the Bank Street College Graduate School of Education) worked with Carter at the Harlem Institute for Teachers.
Both Alexander and his father will celebrate the residency with a special event on Monday, April 6 from 6:30-7:30 p.m., entitled Doing the Write Thing, 1969-2015: A Literary Legacy Conversation Between Kwame Alexander, 2015 Newbery Medalist, and his Father, Dr. E. Curtis Alexander (GS ’70), moderated by children’s book historian Leonard S. Marcus.
