Tuesday on the NewsHour, Jeffrey Brown talks to award-winning author Walter Dean Myers, the Library Of Congress' National Ambassador For Young People's Literature.

Myers is author of more than 100 novels, biographies and other books for young adults and children (some of the later illustrated by his son, Christopher). His works frequently focus on the gritty side of city life, one that he's lived and still knows from visits to detention centers and prisons, as well as schools around the country.

A new book, "Just Write: Here's How," tells of Myers' own troubles in and out of school, how reading and writing saved him, and how they can help others, too. His mantra, he says: "Reading is not optional."

This spring, Myers published his latest novel, "All the Right Stuff." Set in Harlem, it tells the story of a young man trying to find direction in his life. We'll post Tuesday's piece from the program here later Tuesday evening.

In the meantime, watch this profile of Myers produced by WETA's Reading Rockets:

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A woman looks at a book in the "aMAZEme" labyrinth at the Southbank Centre in London on Tuesday. Brazilian artists Marcos Saboya and Gualter Pupo used 250,000 books to create the maze, which will be on display through Aug 26. Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images.

By Patricia Smith

Tavern. Tavern. Church. Shuttered tavern,
then Goldblatt's, with its finger-smeared display windows full
of stifled plaid pinafore and hard-tailored serge, each unattainable
thread cooing the delayed lusciousness of layaway, another church

then, of course, Jesus pitchin' a blustery bitch on every other block,
then the butcher shop with, inexplicably, the blanched, archaic head
of a hog propped upright to lure waffling patrons into the steamy

innards of yet another storefront, where they drag their feet through
sawdust and revel in the come-hither bouquet of blood, then a vacant
lot, then another vacant lot, right up against a shoe store specializing

in unyielding leather, All-Stars and glittered stacked heels designed
for the Christian woman daring the jukebox, then the what-not joint,
with vanilla-iced long johns, wax lips crammed with sugar water,

notebook paper, swollen sour pickles buoyant in a splintered barrel,
school supplies, Pixy Stix, licorice whips and vaguely warped 45s
by Fontella Bass or Johnny Taylor, now oooh, what's that blue pepper

piercing the air with the nouns of backwood and cheap Delta cuts --
neck and gizzard, skin and claw -- it's the chicken shack, wobbling
on a foundation of board, grease riding relentless on three of its walls,

the slick cuisine served up in virgin white cardboard boxes with Tabasco
nibbling the seams, scorched wings under soaked slices of Wonder,
blind perch fried limp, spiced like a mistake Mississippi don' made,

and speaking of, July moans around a perfect perfumed tangle of eight Baptist
gals on the corner of Madison and Warren, fanning themselves
with their own impending funerals, fluid-filled ankles like tree trunks

sprouting from narrow slingbacks, choking in Sears' Best cinnamontinged
hose, their legs so unlike their arms and faces, on the other side
of the street is everything they are trying to be beyond, everything

they are trying to ignore, the grayed promise of government, 25 floors
of lying windows, of peeling grates called balconies, of yellow panties
and shredded diapers fluttering from open windows, of them nasty girls

with wide avenue hips stomping doubledutch in the concrete courtyard,
spewing their woman verses, too fueled and irreversible to be not
listened to and wiggled against, and the Madison St. bus revs its tired

engine, backs up a little for traction and drives smoothly into the sweaty
space between their legs, the only route out of the day we're riding through.



Patricia Smith is the author of five volumes of poetry, including "Blood Dazzler," a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award, "Teahouse of the Almighty," a National Poetry Series selection, and most recently "Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah."

She is a professor for the City University of New York and a Cave Canem faculty member.

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Performers practice the dance of Caporales during Saturday's Folkloric Dance Festival in La Paz, Bolivia. Photo by Jose Luis Quintana/LatinContent/Getty Images.

The building of Versailles, not the one in France, but one in Orlando, Fla., which was set to become the largest home in the nation, is the starting point for a documentary film titled, "The Queen of Versailles." (Watch the trailer above.)

The film focuses on an immensely wealthy couple and the ups and downs that they go through when the financial bubble bursts. Director Lauren Greenfield won the directing award for U.S. documentaries at this year's Sundance Festival. I recently spoke to her in our newsroom about her film:

A transcript is after the jump.

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Construction workers add the final touches Thursday on a statue depicting Nelson Mandela outside Howick, South Africa. The monument will become part of the Capture Site, the museum which sits on the spot where Mandela was arrested on Aug. 5, 1962. Photo by Ian Carbutt/Natal Witness/Gallo Images/Getty Images.

Here are four arts and culture videos from public broadcasting partners around the nation.

Whoah. Bob Ross remixed by Symphony of Science's John D. Boswell for PBS Digital Studios:

Watch Happy Little Clouds: Bob Ross Remixed on PBS. See more from PBS Digital Studios.

Idea Channel asks, "Did The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes pave the way for 50 Shades of Gray's success?"

Watch Idea Channel: From Sherlock Holmes to 50 Shades of Grey on PBS. See more from Idea Channel.

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A mural depicting Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt looks over east London on Thursday, two days before the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Photo by Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images.

"I'm from the city of Detroit. This is an island on its own," says artist Antonio "Shades" Agee. "We don't have distractions here." Growing up first on the city's east side, then on the west, it was up to Agee to find his own diversions. He knew he wanted to paint, fascinated early on by oils and canvas but frustrated by its "tedious" pace. A classmate showed up one day with a can of spray paint, and he was hooked. "You could create the Mona Lisa in four hours," he says.

Agee had his first gallery show by 15, and now, at age 42, is a full-time graffiti artist with regular corporate commissions and several pieces archived at the Detroit Institute of Arts. His nickname, "Shades," stuck from a teenage habit of wearing sunglasses day and night.

On Wednesday's Newshour, Spencer Michels reports on Detroit's thriving arts scene. We'll post Michels' piece here later this evening. In the meantime, enjoy our interview with Agee above.

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Soldiers check a clown's car during a parade Tuesday in Guatemala City, the site of the fourth annual Latin American Clown Congress. Clowns from Central and South America and the Caribbean are gathering for three days to exchange ideas and attend workshops. Photo by Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty Images.