Author Caroline Kennedy spoke to a packed audience April 5 at Highland Park (Ill.) Public Library about her family’s love for reciting and collecting poetry. “Poems are little capsules of memory,” she said, helping listeners recall favorite teachers, friends, sights, and sounds of the time when the poem was first heard. She found that learning poems gave her confidence to not be afraid. Kennedy was at the library to help celebrate its 125th anniversary, Librarypalooza. She is the honorary chair of ALA’s National Library Week this year.
Kennedy talked about the influence poems have for kids today, something she discovered while working with students in New York City. “We face an education crisis in this country,” she said. “Poems are short, they’re intense, they’re emotional” and appeal to today’s students, who face multiple competing interests.
“I enlisted my own children in putting this book together,” she said, referring to her latest anthology, Poems to Learn By Heart. Kennedy is the editor of eight New York Times bestselling books on American history, politics, constitutional law, and poetry. “Maybe it will encourage you to do your own [collection of poems]. I hope it helps all of you like it’s helped me,” she said.
Rapheal Mathis, a senior at Plainfield East High School, and Eli Singer, a sophomore at Deerfield High School, recited poetry at the event. They were winners in “Poetry Out Loud,” a contest that encourages kids to learn about poetry through memorization and recitation. The audience stood patiently—some for nearly an hour—waiting for Kennedy to sign her new book at the conclusion of the talk.