Renée Watson's Keynote: The Craft of Making You

Renée Watson inspired with
her call to action and
self-examination

Award winning creator Renée Watson captivated the audience with Ruth Forman's poem, "Poetry Should Ride the Bus," to open her keynote. She believes "poetry, stories and art should be about something, honor, critique and challenge. Everything we create should be in context with what is happening in the world, sometimes obvious and sometimes not."

The Coretta Scott King Award and Newbery Honor author continued, "We are creating at a time while children are in cages, white supremacists are emboldened, when children are being bullied not being enough. All of this happens while we are creating in our studios, polishing words to the page, and querying agents and editors."

She challenged the audience to examine themselves. She guided everyone through a series of questions for reflection about their motivation, goals, and direction before they head back home. In a word—powerful.

Her upcoming book

She ended with reminding us to "remember joy. Remember the children. We do this for them, because of them. We are making and creating for someone's best thing. Someone's hope. Someone's tomorrow. Handle this privilege with care."

 For more information about Renée, visit her website or follow her on Twitter.