This week Dr. Jeffrey Buchanan, the English Education Coordinator at Youngstown State University, review the history and operation of the departments annual English Festival. I know there are other festivals out their that bring in students. If you are associated with one, I would appreciate knowing the details. Thanks Jeff. I hope to here from more of you soon.
On the Monday immediately following the 2016 YSU English Festival, the Festival Committee sits down to review its most recent, and to plan its future, work. Eleven committee members—YSU English department faculty including one recently retired member, YSU’s Writing Center Coordinator, retired secondary school teachers, an Associate Provost, and a former student who went on to earn a MA in YA Lit—tell stories of their experience of the Festival.
On the Monday immediately following the 2016 YSU English Festival, the Festival Committee sits down to review its most recent, and to plan its future, work. Eleven committee members—YSU English department faculty including one recently retired member, YSU’s Writing Center Coordinator, retired secondary school teachers, an Associate Provost, and a former student who went on to earn a MA in YA Lit—tell stories of their experience of the Festival.
This year, about 750 student participants visited us each festival day. (The Festival is a three-day event, although each student attends only one day. Senior high students (grades 10-12) attend on Wednesday; junior high students (grades 7-9) attend on Thursday or Friday. Each festival day, students take part in a series of activities, presentations, and contests—workshops in prose or poetry writing, an impromptu essay contest, discussion sessions on one or more of the books on the year’s booklist, presentations by YA authors, like this year’s guest, Matt de la Peña (mattdelpena.com), a Not-So-Trivial Pursuit game, small group sessions designed to provide historical or cultural context for one or more of the festival books, a collaborative writing contest called Writing Games, and presentations by people who have made their professional lives in the field of YA literature, as this year’s guest, Steve Bickmore, has done.)
Around 175 schools are represented. Each school brings up to 30 students and two or three adults—teachers, librarians, parents. One adult (or sometimes two) must judge one of the day’s contests. One adult must serve as a Festival monitor. But our guests, Dr. Steve Bickmore, Matt de la Peña, and Dr. Randy Testa (you can read more about Randy's interests here), also do sessions just for the teachers; the Festival, you see, isn’t just for the kids.
One week later, we are reviewing the 2016 Festival again for our Advisory Board. We have our art contest winners scrolling via powerpoint in the background. We play a couple of original musical compositions, winners of our music competition. We recite this year’s major story, the “Festival Flu,” and how Matt de la Peña avoided its grasp and how Steve Bickmore wasn’t so lucky. We single out teachers and volunteers and students who acted extraordinarily, and we marvel at how extraordinary an ordinary three school days can be.
Around 175 schools are represented. Each school brings up to 30 students and two or three adults—teachers, librarians, parents. One adult (or sometimes two) must judge one of the day’s contests. One adult must serve as a Festival monitor. But our guests, Dr. Steve Bickmore, Matt de la Peña, and Dr. Randy Testa (you can read more about Randy's interests here), also do sessions just for the teachers; the Festival, you see, isn’t just for the kids.
One week later, we are reviewing the 2016 Festival again for our Advisory Board. We have our art contest winners scrolling via powerpoint in the background. We play a couple of original musical compositions, winners of our music competition. We recite this year’s major story, the “Festival Flu,” and how Matt de la Peña avoided its grasp and how Steve Bickmore wasn’t so lucky. We single out teachers and volunteers and students who acted extraordinarily, and we marvel at how extraordinary an ordinary three school days can be.
And then we talk about 2017. The 2016 Festival is five business days past, but the Festival Committee must move on. We already have our featured authors. 2017 festival participants can anticipate hearing presentations from E. Lockhart (emilylockhart.com) and Gene Luen Yang (geneyang.com), but we have to assemble and distribute a summer reading list before our committee members disperse for the summer. From this gross list of 20-25 books, we will pick seven books for a junior high list and seven books for a senior high list. Those lists will share one or two or three books in common, and they will feature one or two or three books from our festival authors. Those seven books will be the books students will be required to read to attend the Festival.
We are still scrambling to thank all our 2016 volunteers, to pay our bills, and to put our materials into boxes to be stored for next year. At the same time, we are brainstorming programming changes, and fundraising sources; we are revising policies and rewriting informational material; we are still learning how to effectively communicate with local schools, our local communities, and our professional colleagues.
We are still scrambling to thank all our 2016 volunteers, to pay our bills, and to put our materials into boxes to be stored for next year. At the same time, we are brainstorming programming changes, and fundraising sources; we are revising policies and rewriting informational material; we are still learning how to effectively communicate with local schools, our local communities, and our professional colleagues.
The YSU English Festival now boasts a 38 year history. We joke that we keep doing it because the students keep showing up. It may also be true that we keep doing it because we are afraid of what will happen if we do not. The Festival is a service project, an unwieldy and remarkable collaboration among a committee, an academic department, a university, and a host of local and sometimes not-so-local schools and communities; the Festival is a teaching opportunity as hundreds of students participate in reading and writing activities centered on young adult books; and the Festival is a scholarly activity, an event where the richness of the encounter among teachers, authors, students, and librarians energizes the intellect. In fact, at the 2016 NCTE conference, the YSU English Festival’s Gary Salvner, the one festival committee member who has been involved in all 38 festivals, will receive the ALAN award (http://www.alan-ya.org/awards/alan-award/) for a career-long dedication to YA Lit, a career in which the English Festival has figured prominently.
I wish I could explain more accurately what the Festival is or describe what exactly it does to students and teachers and committee members. To be honest, during most festival days, I’m holed up in room with 450-550 impromptu essays and the 30 or so judges who will read them each at least twice. Then, I move with the better essays to another room where 20 or so judges will read them each at least twice more. There is much to tell about that experience, just as there is a story about what we had to do to rearrange the festival program when Dr. Bickmore was knocked over by the flu. And then there are stories Dr. Bickmore can tell himself. And stories Matt de la Peña can share. And each of the festival committee members has stories of their individual experience, including Gary Salvner’s experience of 38 festival years. And then there’s the students—over 100,000 in our 38 years. And the teachers.
I wish I could explain more accurately what the Festival is or describe what exactly it does to students and teachers and committee members. To be honest, during most festival days, I’m holed up in room with 450-550 impromptu essays and the 30 or so judges who will read them each at least twice. Then, I move with the better essays to another room where 20 or so judges will read them each at least twice more. There is much to tell about that experience, just as there is a story about what we had to do to rearrange the festival program when Dr. Bickmore was knocked over by the flu. And then there are stories Dr. Bickmore can tell himself. And stories Matt de la Peña can share. And each of the festival committee members has stories of their individual experience, including Gary Salvner’s experience of 38 festival years. And then there’s the students—over 100,000 in our 38 years. And the teachers.
Mostly, I am simply proud, proud of all of the people dedicated to this crazy thing. I may not know what it is, but I know for sure that it is a good thing. Yes, I know, that is the easy way out—to call the English Festival a “good thing” instead of trying to articulate all the ways it celebrates reading and writing and values collaboration and teacher work. And while I’m on the easy road, allow me to proceed a little farther. Instead of my trying to tell you what the Festival is, let me just invite you to come visit it. Then, I assure you, you will understand the pride that invests the words of this blog post. Come to Youngstown and visit the Festival. You’re all invited. In fact, this is the perfect forum in which to invite you; we want to invite you to be part in the same way that Steve Bickmore has invited you to be part of the field of YA literature with YA Wednesday. Now we’ve got to get back to planning for 2017.
Contact me to ask questions about the YSU English Festival and especially about coming out to visit: [email protected]. The 2017 Festival is April 26-28.
Jeff Buchanan
Co-Chair, YSU English Festival Committee
Contact me to ask questions about the YSU English Festival and especially about coming out to visit: [email protected]. The 2017 Festival is April 26-28.
Jeff Buchanan
Co-Chair, YSU English Festival Committee
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