Issue link: https://trevordayschool.uberflip.com/i/1399111
cannot happen independently of the world in which the reader lives. Reading Reynolds' Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You (2020) in the United States in 2020, a year that was disproportionally traumatic and hopeful, demonstrated to students and faculty alike how complex issues around race and equity can be conveyed in an accessible and significant way so that we experience and are conscious of meaning and purpose as we fight for social justice. e authors who have visited Trevor over the past 15 years have built upon their written words with presentations that encourage our students to look at their world through the lens of another. Jamaica Kincaid visited Trevor in January 2011. She is an author who gives voice to strong-minded girls who are coming of age, individuals and cultures seeking identity, and small nations searching for justice in a postcolonial era. To prepare for the visit of this important author, students read Annie John (1985), A Small Place (1988), and Lucy (1990). e Parents Association's (PA) book group also read and discussed the same texts. Kincaid's itinerary at Trevor included leading a writer's workshop with a small group of students; presenting to the Upper School and answering student questions during an assembly; and presenting to and being interviewed by parents in an evening session. It was no surprise to me that Kincaid, a quiet activist, spent her day connecting with everyone she met in our community in a purposeful and heartfelt way. She was humble—from asking Ms. Casey, our Upper School Librarian who books Trevor's visiting authors, to help her with her earrings, to answering playfully, "Well, it is Jane Eyre" to a student's request to share her favorite novel. She was also utterly absorbing, speaking with acuity and warmth when responding to a parent who asked her if she agreed with the PA book group's assessment that A Small Place moves beyond themes of racism and feminism to the larger world of universal human emotion. Kincaid showed us all that, for any text to have a life of its own, its author must first have a unique perspective on the world. In my experience, every author who has spent a day at Trevor has left us feeling exhilarated by our community's commitment to engaging with their work and art. Marjane Satrapi, the dynamic author of Persepolis (2000), came to Trevor in the fall of 2016 to meet with students and present in her enchantingly bold style on the need for historical and political perspective when times and democracies challenge our sense of the world. An excerpt from her comic—Satrapi said she doesn't like to use the term graphic novel—tells us that, "When we're afraid, we lose all sense of analysis and reflection." Ahead of Satrapi's visit, students grappled in their English classes with questions about the text that related to gender, politics, culture, adolescence, religion, and the world beyond Iran, the answers to which resonate in our own world. It is through discussing texts like Persepolis that we begin to understand the world beyond our walls, a world where knowledge overcomes fear and where the ability to analyze and reflect is a valuable tool in our war on ignorance. Satrapi's powerful presentations that day in 2016 grounded us all in the idea that engagement with injustice and oppression begins with self- expression. e first of two visits to Trevor by memoirist Malachy McCourt was in February 2010. His time with us was an uproarious but profoundly moving occasion as he spoke on the art of the memoir and finding a voice that could be distinct from his older, better-known brother Frank. Meeting with Malachy McCourt