Arthur Curley Lecture: Ishmael Beah
I had the great pleasure of attending the Arthur Curley Lecture featuring Ishmael Beah yesterday afternoon. For those unfamiliar with Ishmael Beah, he was born and raised in Sierra Leone and at the age of 12 became a child soldier, but was later adopted and moved to America where he began a new life – learning about the American culture, going to school and transitioning into civilian life.
Ishmael Beah is a captivating speaker, the audience hung on his every words he described his life before the war and how important education and books were to him. While growing up in the countryside, he would visit his teachers home to spend time reading the few books he could get his hands on. In a previously British controlled country, Beah could recite Shakespeare at a young age and although birthdays were not celebrated in his home, good grades were. He spoke about the first time visiting the school library in New York City and being so excited to take home books to read.
He began writing his memoir not expecting it to be published , but rather as a way to explain to people at UNICEF and other organizations the effects of violence on children and people in war-torn countries. His new book, a fictional work, is written in the oral tradition of his native language, which from as I understand it, is a much more beautiful language that English. Beah explained that in English you would use the simple word ball, but in his language, ball is described as a “nest of air” or a “vessel filled with air.” This beautiful example of how oral tradition can be so rich made me very intrigued to read the book, which I got a chance to pick up at the exhibit hall this morning.
Ishmael Beah has had a much more difficult life than anything I can imagine, but he overcame it with his quiet, calm demeanor, his aversion to violence, his work with organizations to help children of war-torn countries around the world and his control of language and storytelling skills made him an amazing speaker.
I forgot to mention, I’m also live blogging during the conference over at the ALSC blog, check it out, there are a number of live bloggers posting about everything that’s happening at the ALA Midwinter Conference!