Naomi Shihab Nye
On Thursday, November 17, 2022, The Country School will welcome Naomi Shihab Nye as a visiting poet/author.
The daughter of a Palestinian refugee, Nye spent her adolescence in both Jerusalem and San Antonio, Texas.
Nye is the Poetry Foundation’s Young People’s Poet Laureate and recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Book Critics Circle, the Lavan Award, the Paterson Poetry Prize, the Carity Randall Prize, and many more. She has received fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and she was a Witter Bynner Fellow. From 2010 to 2015 she served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. In 2018, she was awarded the Lon Tinkle Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Texas Institute of Letters.
Nye’s multi-cultural experience has greatly influenced her work. Known for poetry that gives voice to ordinary events, people, and objects, Nye has been quoted as saying, “the primary source of poetry has always been local life, random characters met on the streets, our own ancestry sifting down to us through small essential daily tasks…Poetry calls us to pause. There is so much we overlook, while the abundance around us continues to shimmer, on its own.”
A group of Country School students read Nye’s book The Turtle of Oman this past summer and 5th and 6th grade students read her narrative prose poem Gate A-4 this fall. Next Thursday, she will be working with 4th-6th grade students, who are all working on their personal narrative writing.
Country School Interim Head Jean Waller Brune has known Nye for many years and looks forward to her sharing her many gifts with our students and staff. “Naomi speaks to our shared humanity through metaphor and everyday experiences that are familiar and resonate within,” says Brune. “She draws us in through her vivid imagery, love of life, and joyful spirit.”
Willow Construction, one of the largest and most trusted commercial construction firms on Delmarva, has begun work on The Country School, a private school in Easton, Maryland. Work began on Monday, April 23rd, and is expected to take 16 months to complete the project and be ready for the 2019-2020 school year. The project consists of three phases. Phase one includes construction of a new parking lot and drop off/pick up lanes and associated site work. Phase two consists of construction of a new, two story, 20,000 square foot brick building to house the upper school. The last phase of the project will include renovations of the existing Lower School. “Our team is beyond thrilled about this opportunity to not only enhance this prestigious institution but also to update the gateway to Downtown Easton. Additionally, we are proud that The Country School has put their trust in a locally owned and operated company, such as ours, to meet their construction needs” says Mike Hiner, President of Willow Construction. “We love these kinds of projects because we understand what it is going to mean to the people that will be benefiting from the upgraded facilities and supporting the communities we serve.”
