Alumnus, Faculty Member Composes Poem for KC Library Anniversary
Photos courtesy Kenny Ellison.
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Glenn North has a number of titles on his resume 鈥 he鈥檚 a 2006 graduate of 射精视频, an adjunct faculty member in the English department, director of inclusive learning at the Kansas City Museum and poet laureate for Kansas City鈥檚 Historic 18th and Vine District.
By his own admission, some of the credit for what he鈥檚 accomplished is due to another title 鈥斕齦ibrary patron. So it makes sense that when the Kansas City Public Library was seeking someone to compose and read a poem as part of the kickoff event for its 150th anniversary celebration, North got the request.
鈥淎ll Are Welcome Here鈥 is the result, an abecedarian poem (where the first letter of each line is a consecutive letter of the alphabet) that serves as a love letter to the library and a meditation on its unique role in a complicated society. It was inspired in part, he said, by the hours he spent among the stacks himself.
鈥淲hen I was in grade school, on Saturdays my father would drop me off at the library,鈥 he said. 鈥淎nd I remember on this one particular Saturday in fifth grade, he had tickets to the ballpark. He asked me if I wanted to go to the game instead, and I felt kind of disappointed that I wasn鈥檛 going to the library.鈥
North remembers combing the shelves at the central branch of the Kansas City Public Library, discovering J.D. Salinger鈥檚 鈥淭he Catcher in the Rye,鈥 and, after being pulled in by its first line, devouring the book in a single sitting. It was a spark for his interest in poetry and writing.
鈥淚 thought that if I could make anyone else feel this way, that鈥檚 what I wanted to do,鈥 he said.
In addition to his own experience, 鈥淎ll Are Welcome Here鈥 builds on work done by Tommi Laitio, public innovation fellow with Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins, who delivered a keynote address at the same anniversary kickoff event where North shared the poem. Some of Laitio鈥檚 work centers on the notion of conviviality, which he defines as including friction and perhaps discomfort from the exchange of different ideas and interaction with people from different backgrounds. North said that idea resonated with him 鈥 the library as a place where ideas exchanged, and resources accessed, help make a community better.
Though not North鈥檚 first commissioned poem 鈥斕齢e鈥檚 one of the few, if only, poets to have a work commissioned through Kansas City鈥檚 1% for the Arts program 鈥斕齆orth said 鈥淎ll Are Welcome Here鈥 is close to his heart, and he took his time in the writing process to express the power of public libraries.
鈥淢y pride comes from the high esteem that I hold libraries in and the part they played in my development,鈥 he said. 鈥淟ibraries provide an opportunity for self-determination. I鈥檝e encountered information in libraries that has changed my life.鈥
Read "All Are Welcome Here" at the Kansas City Public Library's .