President Obama Zooms into The Telling Room!
“Our Young Writers & Leaders students were recently invited to have a special conversation with acclaimed author and renowned world leader President Barack Obama.”
The author of A Promised Land shared his work and insights with The Telling Room's Young Writers & Leaders Program
President Barack Obama left a group our students astonished and inspired after he dropped in on a recent Tuesday-afternoon session of The Telling Room’s award-winning Young Writers & Leaders (YWL) an afterschool creative writing and leadership development program for students with international and multicultural backgrounds.
Recently, the 44th President of the United States conversed over Zoom with YWL students who represent seven high schools in Greater Portland as well as 11 different nations, including Angola, Burundi, Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Iraq, Jordan, Kurdistan, Rwanda, Somalia, and Sudan.
President Obama, whose critically acclaimed memoir, A Promised Land, was released in mid-November and spent 11 weeks at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, shared insights on writing, reading, his taste in music, and the experience of growing up between cultures. He began the discussion by noting his awareness that the YWL students are soon to become published authors themselves, with their work collected in a Telling Room chapbook due out in June. He added that he hoped they’d maybe autograph a copy for him to have as a keepsake. Ahead of his visit, Crown Publishing sent a free copy of A Promised Land to every student enrolled in the Telling Room YWL program and made the audiobook available as well.
“The students had really great questions for him,” said Hipai Pamba, one of YWL’s two co-teachers and herself an alumna of the program, saying that Obama—who was born in Hawaii, had a Kenyan father, and spent part of his childhood in Indonesia—spoke about the value of knowing different cultures. “He specifically encouraged students to embrace all the different parts of their identities—and not to box themselves in by picking just one. He said that it makes you a better writer to have all those experiences to draw from.”
Telling Room students also discussed leadership and its challenges with President Obama, asking questions on how to bring about positive change in the world. Simona Ickia Ngaullo, a South Portland High School senior, felt grateful for his advice. “You can’t change the world by yourself,” she said. “You need other people trying to do the same thing as you to make it happen.”
Acknowledging that writing can sometimes be difficult, the former president encouraged students to stay positive and continue working hard. This landed with Alia Usanase, a junior at Deering High School. “I’m not in this alone,” she said following the conversation. “I’m going to get better with time. You just have to keep going.” YWL teacher Sonya Tomlinson encouraged students to journal after the meeting. “Definitely write about this day, capture it. How do you feel? Write it down. Leave that legacy.”
Celine Kuhn, The Telling Room’s executive director, noted that Obama’s visit provided an energizing boost to students who normally would be meeting in person weekly but given the pandemic, have instead had to learn and form community remotely over Zoom. “That a world leader and a renowned author wanted to meet them and honor the work they’re doing as writers and leaders themselves was thrilling. Their joy over this has been amazing to witness.”
Among those touched by Obama’s words was Khalil Kilani, a senior at Waynflete who immigrated to Maine from Iraq in 2011. “This is just another person. He was in our shoes at one time. Your path isn’t always clear, and look at him, he became president, and he’s here talking to us,” said Kilani. “It gave me inspiration. I’m not sure what I want to be when I grow up, but anything is possible and he made that very clear.”
Thank you for a great conversation, President Obama! View the video of the conversation here from NowThis.
