(bright jazz music) - I believe that books are amusement parks, and sometimes we gotta let kids choose the rides.

I grew up in a house where books were reward and punishment.

Books were everywhere.

So from the time I was born, my mother was reading me poetry.

Lucille Clifton, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, Dr. Seuss.

I was reading it by the age of three by myself.

My mom made reading fun and cool.

(bright jazz music continues) My mother would sing to us in the mornings while we were getting ready for school.

On road trips, she would tell us stories, African folk tales.

Like, she always found a way to make the words come off the page.

She'd put them on the stage.

When I'm with young people, whether I'm writing or whether I'm presenting or speaking or performing, I'm always trying to bring the words off the page and to make them come alive for young people, much like my mother did for me.

(bright jazz music continues) - [Presenter] We are very pleased to welcome Kwame Alexander.

Grew up in Chesapeake, and he is a multi-award-winning author.

- The first rule for me is when I'm writing something for young people, I gotta love it first.

I'm not talking down to them.

I'm writing something that 12-year-old Kwame would've loved and Kwame today would've loved.

'Cause I figure if I love it, the chances of you loving it are gonna increase tremendously.

- [Narrator] This is evident, especially when he's sharing his knowledge with young readers.

- So let's take, for example, rhyme.

It's rhyme an ingredient that goes into making a poem?

I think so.

I wonder if there was a rhyme that I could give you as an example.

Hmm.

"Aacoustic Rooster sat outside, strumming his bass guitar.

"He practiced jazz all summer long so he could be a... star," exactly.

There is a book that is the most popular and probably the biggest-selling book, and the book that got turned into a television show, and the book that got turned into a television show that won a Emmy Award.

Dribble, fake, shoot, miss.

Dribble, fake, shoot, miss.

- [Players] Dribble, fake, shoot, miss.

Dribble, fake, shoot, miss!

(players cheering) - If you don't keep that ego in check, you gonna lose yourself.

We go hard, just like we always have.

- [Narrator] No matter what, you're a net tied together.

- [Player] Let's rock this.

We got this.

- Let's rock this.

We got this.

Let's rock this.

- And the book that millions of kids around the world have read, and that's called "The Crossover."

And that's the book that sort of changed my life.

That was book number 14.

(audience applauding) "The Crossover" was published in 2014.

And it's about two brothers who are twins, and they play basketball.

And the brothers, one has long locks and the other has no hair like me.

And the brother with no hair, he bets his brother he's gonna make the last shot in the basketball game.

And if he makes it, he gets to cut off all his brother's hair.

And his brother responds like this: "If my hair were a tree, I'd climb it.

I'd kneel down beneath and enshrine it.

I'd treat it like gold and then mine it.

Each day before school, I unwind it.

And right before games, I entwine it.

These locks on my head, I designed it.

And one last thing, if you don't mind it.

That bet you just made, I decline it."

- Why did you want to become an author?

- I believe the world is not such a beautiful place all the time.

And I think we want it to be beautiful, right, Jackson?

And I feel like in order for it to be beautiful, we have to imagine it beautiful.

And I feel like in order to imagine it beautiful, we have to have some understanding or experience or connection to what's possible.

There's no better way to open up a world of possible than to open up a book.

And so I thought maybe I can help kids imagine a better world by writing books and feeding your imagination.

- Oh, okay.

- It's the first thing I'd say.

The way we become better writers is by reading.

The second thing I would say is probably something that Nikki Giovanni said to me at Virginia Tech.

I was taking an advanced poetry class with her, and I got a C. And I was kind of upset.

And I went to talk to her, and she said, "I can teach you how to write, Kwame, but I can't teach you how to be interesting."

And of course that was... Like, I felt a certain kind of way.

I was in my feelings.

But when I look back on it, it was some of the best advice I've ever gotten as a creative, as a writer.

If you want to write something that's interesting, you have to be interesting.

In order for you to be interesting, you have to be interested in life.

So I try to walk through life as a willing participant.

I recommend that everybody who wants to write, whether it's children's books or novels or whatever, walk around as a willing participant in life.

Pay attention to things and to being, you know?

Have something worth writing about.

(thoughtful music) - [Narrator] When he's at home, and even when he isn't, One thing Kwame Alexander enjoys is exploring and sharing his family history.

- So this over here, this used to be the mill.

- [Sean] Oh, get outta here.

- Bell's Mill.

- Oh, Bell's Mill.

Oh, right, right, right, okay.

- The first Alexanders, my namesake, to come here was James Henry Alexander.

He brought his family to work in the mill.

- [Narrator] On this day, joined by his cousin, he visited the family cemetery.

- These are all soldiers, United States colored troops.

You can tell a lot about, you know, a family by visiting a cemetery.

You can learn a lot.

(thoughtful music continues) That's Aunt Jenny.

I didn't know her first name was Fidellia.

So this has got to be granny and granddaddy.

I'm afraid of dying.

I'm afraid of that process of it.

But the flip side of that is I'm intrigued by this idea, this spiritual notion that I will be reunited with these folks.

Because I feel like I got to know them when I was a kid.

I didn't get to really interact with them as an adult.

I got so many questions.

Everything I write is me trying to imagine and reimagine all of their stories.

And so for me, it's the writing.

That's what keeps me sane and gives me hope.

Books are powerful, man.

Literature can transform you.

It can save you.

It's life-giving.

It's life-saving.

And whenever I talk about the ancestors and our people, I feel a little bit stronger.

(thoughtful music continues) - [Narrator] His time back home also triggered memories surrounding his love for jazz, his music of choice when he's writing.

- I came home on spring break sophomore year, and I was in my attic at my parents' house looking for something and found this crate of records: Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley, Duke Ellington, Ornette Coleman, Ella Fitzgerald live in Berlin.

That was my introduction to jazz music, these jazz records that my father owned when he was in the Air Force that were just sitting in the attic.

Coincidentally, it was also the moment where I realized that my dad is probably more than just an academic.

He's probably kind of cool if you listen to these records too.

And I kind of fell in love with him in that moment too.

- I'm still awestruck.

Even though his mother and I produced him when he was three.

I told a group of students at William Paterson College, we are trying to prove that we can raise him to be the kind person to make a difference in this world.

And we planned for him to be different, to be concerned about other people, to be helpful.

(subtle upbeat music) - [Attendee] How do you choose what you're gonna write next?

- I write what I like and what I'm into in the moment and what I'm interested in.

Right now I am writing a movie, but I won't tell you what it's about.

You'll just have to wait and see.

But I'm writing a movie.

I don't know what it's called yet.

- [Narrator] And with 42 books under his belt, you can bet that number 43 is coming.

- If I was forced into answering what's my favorite book, my answer's always gonna be the next one.

(relaxed music) (relaxed music continues) (relaxed music continues) (relaxed music fades)