Photo credit: Sherrie Y. Young

From July 17 to July 22, Benjamin Alire Saenz, a poet, novelist, and young children’s author visited Kingsbridge Heights Community Center, located in the Northwest section of the Bronx.

Mr. Saenz began his residency at a brunch with about thirty senior citizens. In addition to reading poetry, he shared stories about his maternal and paternal grandparents and talked about how much of an influence they both had on him.

Mr. Saenz told the group about a meeting he witnessed in the airport between a man and a woman who apparently knew each other from years ago. The man and the woman were walking in separate directions, saw each other, embraced for a few seconds, and then continued to walk their separate ways without exchanging words or contact information. Mr. Saenz asked the group to stretch their creative minds and tell a story about the relationship between the man and the woman. One senior said that it was they were long-lost brother and sister. Another one said that they were married at one time and regretted the separation.

All grandparents in the group received a copy of Grandma Fina and Her Wonderful Umbrellas.

Mr. Saenz’s visit at Kingsbridge Heights enhanced the literature-focused summer day camp where he read aloud to youngsters ranging from four-years-old to six-years old and conducted age-appropriate poetry workshops with older participants. About ten eight and nine-year olds were taken to the Conservatory Garden in Central Park where Mr. Saenz conducted a poetry workshop and the youngsters were inspired to create poems about nature.

On the last day, participants read work that they had written in workshops during the week. A teen thanked Mr. Saenz for making her realize the importance of language, whether written or spoken, in our lives. A set of youngsters recited a poem that they wrote collectively as a group.

At the end of the event, Mr. Saenz had all of the participants hold hands in a circle and repeat a poem after him.

All of the participants received a copy of one of the following books authored by Mr. Saenz: Elegies in Blue, A Gift from Papa Diego, Grandma Fina and Her Wonderful Umbrellas, and Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood.

The National Book Foundation Settlement House Author Residency program is made possible through leadership funding from the Theodore H. Barth Foundation, R. R. Donnelley, and National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from Houghton Mifflin, the New York State Council on the Arts, Neil Baldwin, John T. Beaudouin, Jonathan Franzen, Jean Fritz, George and Susan Garrett, Regina Lee, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Nicholasa Mohr, and Carl and Susan Tubbesing.

Cinco Puntos Press has offered books authored by Mr. Saenz at a deep discount, which were donated by the Foundation to the participants and to the Settlement House library.