This news item expired on Friday, July 9, 2021 so the information below could be outdated or incorrect.
With the theme of “Our Park and Recreation Story,” this year’s Park and Recreation Month showcases stories of those who love parks and recreation and the professionals who make parks and recreation happen.
As a member of the National Park and Recreation Association, Buncombe County Recreation Services has partnered with bestselling author Kwame Alexander to create a community poem — one poem compiled from the many voices of people just like you who love parks and recreation. Help share our community’s stories about our local parks and the experiences that grow within them.
Members of the community are invited to submit original poems — or meaningful original thoughts and phrases — about parks and recreation. Alexander will select lines from the submissions and combine them into one single community poem.
Your poem should begin with, or include somewhere in the poem, the line:
"Everything around you is..."
The final piece, “Our Park and Recreation Poem,” will represent the combined voices of communities from across the nation and will be showcased online at the end of the month and during the 2021 NRPA Annual Conference. The deadline to submit your poems is July 9, 2021.
<< SUBMIT YOUR POEM >>
About Kwame Alexander:
Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, publisher, and New York Times bestselling author of 35 books, including, “Swing”; “Becoming Muhammad Ali,” co-authored with James Patterson; “Booked,” which was longlisted for the National Book Award; “Rebound,” which was shortlisted for prestigious UK Carnegie Medal, The Caldecott Medal and Newbery Honor-winning picture book; “The Undefeated,” illustrated by Kadir Nelson; and, his Newbery medal-winning middle grade novel, “The Crossover.” A contributor to NPR's Morning Edition where he regularly creates community crowdsourced poems, Kwame is the recipient of numerous awards, including The Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, The Coretta Scott King Author Honor, Three NAACP Image Award Nominations, and the 2017 Inaugural Pat Conroy Legacy Award. In 2018, he founded the publishing imprint VERSIFY, and opened the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic in Ghana, as a part of LEAP for Ghana, an international literacy program he co-founded. He is the writer and executive producer of “The Crossover” TV series on Disney Plus.