Festival of written words
Published 8:10 am Friday, September 22, 2017
Danville and Boyle County schools, along with the group Citizens Concerned for Human Relations, have been working together this week during the Frank X Walker Literary Festival IV.
CCHR started the Frank X Walker Literary Festival to honor Danville native and Kentucky poet Frank X Walker, who was named Kentucky Poet Laureate in 2013.
In the Danville Schools, this year’s festival featured a reading chain focused on literature by authors of color or about characters of color for fifth-graders at Mary G. Hogsett, Jennie Roger and Edna L. Toliver elementary schools and eighth-graders at John W. Bate Middle School. Throughout the week, guest readers read from highlighted works by authors including Javaka Steptoe, Sharon M. Draper, Carole Boston Weatherford, Frank X Walker and more.
On Thursday, Walker read from three of his books of poetry to eighth-grade students at Bate and students at Danville High School and talked about his life growing up in Danville, his work as a writer and teaching at the University of Kentucky.