He starts lessons by showing them the potential of dialect and sound in poetry and by asking them to read aloud Brooks’s poem “We Real Cool” (“We real cool.
Today, much like the poet who inspired him, young visits schools all over the Chicago area to teach poetry. “In regard to the code or dialect that I write most of poems in, she was encouraging me to really figure that out and master that, because there was something there.” Over dinner, Brooks told him to continue developing his voice - his poems attempt to convey African American English in a unique textual style. After one event, she invited him to dinner at her favorite restaurant in Chinatown. “I learned at 8 that if I took all the sassiness that was coming out my mouth naturally and put it into a poem, people were way more accepting of the poem than they were of me just talking out of turn,” he said.Īs an adult, young began reading at the same events as Brooks, and she took notice.
