Magic Carpet
Washington, Sharon (2011-3-14)
>>SHARON WASHINGTON: I think I really began to think of myself as a reader or writer through my imagination. And some of it was when I was very young.  My older brother, Luzerne, used to be asked to sort of take us to bed or put us to bed at night and one of the ways that he would get us to sort of be quiet was he promised us a story.  And sometimes it would be out of a book, but most often my brother really liked to make up stories.  So it was really through my imagination that I became fascinated with the idea of literacy and of books and of writing.  And our bed would become this magic carpet or a wagon and he would sort of act out the parts and take on different voices and my sister and I would just be enthralled.  And we would feel like he was making us or asking us to fly places with him all over the world as our bedtime sort of ritual and he was just brilliant in his imagination and his acting.  And he went on to become an actor so I really think of it getting into reading because of the imagination.  And then later on my dad used to always quote part of a poem when he would talk about the status of my room.  And he would always say that it was the Wreck of the Hesperus.  [LAUGHING] And then I realized it was actually a poem.  And so I went looking for it so I could try to figure out what did my dad really mean.  But when I read about the Wreck of the Hesperus, which was a ship and I heard all of the things that had gone wrong with it and I thought my room's not that messy.  And I realized I was beginning to use it sort of like as research to sort of look things up.  Then I'd probably say my third big influence in my life when I think about writing more so than reading was through my mother, um who was a music teacher.  And I really began to think about music as another form of literacy and really thinking about what would it mean if I were to write music or to tell a story through music.  And our mother really encouraged us to really sort of look at our sort of imagination and how we can think about music as just another vehicle for explaining what we're thinking about. And I just love that my family sort of gave me all of those sort of gifts of theirs whether it came out through through music or writing or with my dad through stories and poetry.  I just really appreciate it.  And I certainly have, its been something now that I've been able to use in my life in all of those areas.  At different parts of my life I have done theater and done acting and really understand sort of scripts and what does that sort of mean to sort of translate thoughts into a script and into something that is enacted for others. And I've just really enjoyed it.  And I'm so glad to be a part of the national writing project who I think makes a big difference in the lives of teachers as well as the students that they impact.
>>UNKNOWN:  What's your name?
>>SHARON WASHINGTON:  Sharon Washington