Students at Craig School treated to literary Xmas give-away

By Mason Harrison
Contributing Writer

Books and bikes were part of a holiday toy giveaway December 18 at Joseph A. Craig Elementary School in the heart of Tremé. The Rho Phi chapter of Omega Psi Phi awarded eight students with bikes who were top finishers in the fraternity’s book-reading contest for sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders. Craig, home to more than 400 students, has been a longstanding part of local education for the past 200 years.

Rene Metoyer, the fraternity’s chaplain, spoke to the more than 100 students gathered to witness the bike giveaway, encouraging them to delve into mathematics with the same vigor they have applied to reading. “A math equation is just a sentence,” Metoyer said, working to demystify the subject. He and others from the Rho Phi chapter touted the link between reading and professional success.

District C Councilmember Nadine Ramsey attended the giveaway, noting her pride for the students’ efforts. Ramsey, whose council district includes Craig elementary, said “reading opens up a world of opportunities that allows you to experience many things you may never have considered.” Ramsey told the students to read as many books as they can because “it’s the key to get you where you want to be.”

The students who received bikes from Omega Psi Phi were sixth-graders Justice Matthews and Chavonda Roberts, who led their class in the number of books read; seventh-graders Cornell Morris and Felicia Smith, along with Domonique Condall and Darryl Williams; and eighth-graders Jonae Green and Shawn Stewart.

Felice Brightman, a member of the Gamma Rho chapter of Omega Psi Phi and a social worker at Craig elementary, said the fraternity’s bike giveaway and reading competition were part of the fraternity’s core mission objectives, along with voter registration programs and sponsoring blood drives. “This is important to us,” Brightman said, “because we are mandated to serve people in our communities and it’s important to us because it’s naturally what we want to do as members of Omega Psi Phi.”

The Department of Justice has linked illiteracy to delinquency, causing increased criminal behavior. Two-thirds of students who cannot read proficiently by the fourth grade will end up in jail or on welfare. Fourth grade is the “watershed year,” according to the Utah-based group Begin to Read. “We can predict that if a child is not reading proficiently by the fourth grade, he or she will have approximately a 78 percent chance of not catching up.” In greater New Orleans, 39 percent of residents age 16 or older read below a fifth-grade level, according to figures from the New Orleans-based Data Center. Just north of 30 percent of residents in the same age group fail to read above a level set for eighth-graders.

The Omegas were joined by author Kareem Kennedy and master barber Kevin Kimbrough. The pair teamed up to sponsor a book giveaway for more than 60 Craig elementary students. Kimbrough asked the students to recite Langston Hughes’ poem entitled “My People,” containing stanzas of Black affirmation.

“Clap for yourselves,” Kim­brough said at the end of each recitation. “How many people like to read?” he asked. As the first-grade students raised their hands, he encouraged each student to read daily. “How many of you get on your parents’ nerves? Don’t they tell you to go sit down and don’t bother them? Well, I want you to bug them each day and ask them to read to you for 10 minutes, just 10 minutes.”

Kimbrough said he decided to initiate the effort because reading helps students to avoid trouble. “You have to start young,” he said. “We have to get them while they are still impressionable. I meet a lot of young people because I cut their hair. They listen to me; I talk to them; they respect my words.” He hopes to use his knowledge of how to communicate with youths to expand their reading habits.

Kennedy said he became an early reader “by mistake” because his aunt would punish him by making him read books. “Whenever I got into trouble, she would make me read books and then she would have me write summaries on what I read.” He said his aunt’s disciplinary measures opened a whole new world, helping to keep trouble at bay and inspiring him to broaden his horizons. “I became aware of more things. Reading gives you hope when you learn about other people’s stories compared to yours.”

Kennedy published his first book, Aunt Alice vs. Bob Marley, as a high school graduate. The book, dedicated to his family, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and other Black luminaries and “kids growing up in the struggle,” details his early life in the city and is intended to serve as inspiration to others. He was also instrumental in helping a group of sixth-graders collectively publish a book of short stories and poems as part of a local project designed to boost writing and reading comprehension in urban New Orleans.

Kennedy uses an oft-repeated phrase he coined as a young author to describe the joy and purpose of reading. “People read books,” he said, “for a simple reason. They read your mind to ease their mind.”

This article originally published in the December 22, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.