Q & A at the American Library Association

I would like to share with you such great time  I had responding to audience questions at the ALA Midwinter Meeting President's Program, Jan. 13, 2008, speaking about my greatest basketball memory, the reason I changed my name, how to get reluctant youth to read, my new book "On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance," and more.

(video credit: ALA)

Comments

[Juliana]

Kareem, you are so successful, everybody pays attention to your opinions and respect your insights.
Thank you for writing this blog and for all you have accomplished in so many different fields, you are such inspiration!

[Andy Jacoby]

Hi Kareem:

Thank you for blogging and writing. I have two questions for you:

1. We have an interesting situation in the U.S. election with an african-american and a woman both achieving a flood of initial support. They say we can learn everything about the present by looking to history, yet this situation seems unprecedented. Can you think of any history lesson to apply to the current political circumstances?

2. Like many of your readers, when I was growing up you were my idol. Many of the athletes I looked up to as a kid in the 1980s were also writers (Giant Steps), musicians (Wayman Tisdale) and all-around excellent role models (Minnesota Viking Alan Page). These days there seems to be so many stories of athlete arrests and drug problems, and I wonder if it is only a recent media fascination with the scandalous that has created an impression that the character of our athlete role models has gone down. Do you think that today's athletes are as worthy role models as athletes in your era, or is there a trend that disturbs you?

Thanks again for taking the time to write your blog.

Sincerely,

Andy Jacoby
New Orleans, Louisiana

[sue Kamm]

All the great 'Showtime" years seem to meld in my memory. I was a young adult librarian at the Cypress Park branch of Los Angeles Public Library in the '80s. My boss and I were invited to a dinner by the graduating class at the local parochial school. Their teacher was a devout Celtics fan (we thought we'd like to buy him a share of stock when it was listed ). The dinner was the night of a final game. Somewhere in my photo collection at home I have a series of shots taken as librarians, teacher, and students are gathered around, and the cheers as the Lakers won.