FEATURE Te book, “Tat’s Why Kids Want to Stay Up Late,” is a 2013 self- published collection of Snack’s poetry carrying a single thread of encouragement while using the work to address a variety of social topics, such as sexual abuse, poverty, war and homelessness. Whether it is writing, drawing, composing music, playing an instrument or any other artistic endeavor, Snacks says his book answers the question, “Why am I up at 3 a.m. trying to finish this poem, this song, this picture, this painting, this CD or this book?” Te reason is that all kids, as they grow into adults, sometimes miss out on filling an artistic niche they seek; “we were born to create … because sometimes you have to make a wave,” Snacks says. “Tat’s why Kids Want to Stay Up Late urges everyone to take part in art, not just sit back and listen,” he says. Snacks found he was a young man of action when he started writing at 14. “I was trying to get the attention of a girl, so I wrote a poem every day for a month,” he says. He did win the freshman girl’s affection. But Snacks was quickly taught the lesson that many good poets before him learned on the road to becoming great: He got his heart broken. A senior at Paducah Tilghman High School, where Snacks graduated from in 2005 — asked the girl who was the focus of the poetry — as his date to the prom. What made things worse? Te senior had a car. “Prom with a senior and a car, or poetry? Te prom and the car won,” Snacks said. A couple of years later, though, Snacks’ life would change forever. At 16, while on an NAACP trip, the trip director, Rose Lowery, saw some of Snacks’ writing and she liked it. She encouraged him to participate in the oratory portions of ACT-SO – the Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics – and to compete using his own work. Snacks, through his performance poetry, won local and state ACT-SO titles. He admits, when he went to the national competition the first time it was just to go and get a feel for performing at that level. In his second year on the big stage, Snacks finished in the Top 10 nationally. After graduating from Tilghman, Snacks went on to get a degree from Bethel University in McKenzie, Tenn. For the past four years he has worked for the Oscar Cross Boys & Girls Club, where he serves as the unit director for the Oscar Cross Avenue Midtown site. INTHEVUE.COM Snacks works as a positive role model for the kids at the Oscar Cross Boys & Girls Club whether it’s playing video games or working with the students one on one. His work with children has been as inspirational for Snacks as it has been for the kids, he says, as he works with them to develop good relationships through field trips, games and personal interaction with positive role models. “Tey can’t be what they can’t see,” Snacks says. “Tey are all capable of great things. Tey teach me every day, too.” Snacks says he had similar role models in school. History teacher Patty Tompson at Paducah Middle School taught him to be as passionate about learning as she was about teaching history. Tompson most PROMOTING EVENTS THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE JULY 2014 51
