For centuries, humans have gathered around by campfires, in caves and huts, in town squares and around living rooms, telling stories, reciting poetry, and sharing music. Fort Hamilton High School is no stranger to this traditional practice. On Friday, April 5, 2024, Fort Hamilton’s Library Media Center, held its annual Read Aloud Day, where students and staff united over the art of storytelling.
Teachers and students gathered in the library, some with poems or short stories prepared and others reading a random text provided for them.
“Read Aloud Day is important on a variety of levels,” said librarian Mr. Nelson. “One, it binds today’s library to the library of the past, and more importantly, the librarians that have come before us. In that, it is a way to honor the hard work and love of reading we all share. Two, it is a way to celebrate something that transcends race, culture, and ethnicity. Every human society on the planet has an oral tradition; Read Aloud Day is an extension of that. Finally, it is a part of Fort Hamilton High School’s extensive offerings of cultural enrichment programming. Ballet, theater, music, and, in many ways, Read Aloud Day are all part of the ways Fort Hamilton High School works to bring cultural enrichment to its students.”
Junior Vernon Demir, who read an untitled work by James Baldwin, echoed Mr. Nelson’s sentiment and affirmed the value of Read Aloud Day for Fort’s students.
“I think one of the most beneficial aspects of this for students is having an experience not only with poetry and the analysis of it, but also with public speaking,” he told The Pilot. “There aren’t that many instances where, as a student, you’re going to have to speak in front of an entire library full of people. So I think that the read aloud really provided a great opportunity for students to get closer to public speaking, get closer to hearing from their fellow students.”
“When someone gets up there and reads something—probably for the first time in their lives—and you see that sense of pride, accomplishment, and satisfaction, well, stockbrokers may get holiday and year-end bonus checks—they can have them—I’ll take the pure, joyous energy I get watching a student read a random poem over any financial compensation,” Mr. Nelson added.
Read Aloud Day provided students with an opportunity to unplug and connect with their community. People shared stories about their culture, war, nature, and everything in between, representing the diverse voice of humankind that can often be overshadowed when everyone is distracted by the stress of school work or the buzzing of their phones.
“Even as we have more technology and things change with education and culture, teenagers reading aloud and listening to stories is something that is timeless and can go on forever,” said Ms. Sprague, another Fort librarian who helped coordinate the event. “And for students who write their own pieces, I think it’s really powerful for them to be able to have an audience. We’ve had students in the past even sing, which has been incredible. And then for the students who just come with the class not expecting to participate, we always have poems ready to go for them, and we generally end up with, you know, tons, dozens of students just popping up reading a quick poem or a quick haiku.”
Fort Hamilton’s annual Read Aloud Day provides a platform for teachers and students to share their voices with others, creating a space where people can laugh, grieve, and honor the myriad emotions that are part of the human experience. Fort Hamilton librarians are taking this historical tradition and bringing the echoes of our ancestors and the voices of the community right to our very own school library.
