The 2024 NCTE Awards Ceremony

Event: The 2024 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Awards Ceremony (#BeingPresent)

Date: Saturday, November 23, 2024

Kicks of Choice: Brown Suede Timberland Boots (because sometimes you gotta take it back to the essence)

Thoughts captured on Tuesday, March 11, 2025

After getting word on receiving the Russell award, my wife made a point to me – she said, “I know that you spend a lot of time working and planning for the future, but don't forget to enjoy the now.” When she said that, it made me think about stopping to really be present in all of the moments that have been happening. So it's taken me a little while to get back to this blog, because I needed some time to be present in each and every moment I’ve been experiencing. With that in mind, there will be a series of blog posts about a series of events in small-scale rapid-fire. But the first one I want to talk about is going to the National Council of Teachers in English – or NCTE – to receive the David H. Russell award.

NCTE is a conference I hadn't been to in a little while. It is definitely overwhelming because it’s such a huge conference. It was also up in Boston, and Boston has always been an interesting place for me because I spent some time in that city. When I lived in Rhode Island in the summers, I would buy records in Boston. I lived there one summer when I worked at Wellesley (shout out to the EXPLO Summer Program), and I also went to grad school in Cambridge for my Masters. So there's definitely a love-hate relationship that I have with New England and specifically with Boston. But even with that context, it was great to be at NCTE. While I was at the conference, I got a chance to finally see Goldie Mohammed present her work, and her presentation was incredible. I also got a chance to see “Home Team”: Yolanda Sealy-Ruiz. I also got a chance to see Emory Petchauer, as well as Brian Mooney from Fairleigh Dickinson University. And it was funny, because I told a lot of people I ran into about the Awards Ceremony and folks said they were genuinely interested in seeing me receive the award. They said, “what time is the Award Ceremony?” And I would say, “7am!”

Needless to say, people were like, “oooooooh.” And it was all good, I get it. My response was always, “It's cool. I know it’s mad early, so you don't necessarily have to show up for the Awards Ceremony.” And because it was so early, they didn't show up.

But on the day of the ceremony, the person who did show up…Havoc! And it was just crazy, because Hav got there SUPER EARLY! It was dope to see him, and it was really dope to have family in the building to support me in this moment and witness me winning the award. Of course, shout out to my man Dr. Bilal Polson, who also won an award – Bilal literally won the award right before mine, so we gave back-to-back acceptance speeches! Shout out to Patty Polson, one of my oldest friends, and their sons, Ali-asha and Malachi who were also in the building. Yolie and Goldie were adamant about attending, and they both made it happen!

And Sherita Roundtree was there as well. I was like, “Sherita, what are you doing here?” Her response was “I'm getting an award! What are you doing here?”

And I said, “I'm getting an award!” Sherita has been a solid colleague and friend, so it was crazy to receive an award alongside her as well. A special shout out must go to NCTE and everyone who won awards. The acceptance speeches were moving and really inspiring.

One of the things I don't get to do a lot is thank some of the people who are closest to me for what they've done and how they’ve influenced me. So I can’t think of a better way to honor them than to post a video on my acceptance speech, so that way I'm shouting out all of the people who I need to shout out accordingly!

I'm still honored and humbled by the fact that I received the David H Russell Research Award. It's a short list of folks, so I'm truly humbled that my work has reached the status where I could be included in that small group of people doing extraordinary work in the field of English Studies. So enjoy these pics, enjoy the video, and I'll be back in a second, because from MLK Day to the end of Black History Month was a RUN, so you about to get that play-by-play. Peace and Love…