At almost the same time we got or diagnosis, N was being mildly feted by Clyde Haberman in the Times. Not directly, of course--she deflects direct feting with an alacrity fit for a bird--but in connection with some of her work.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/nyregion/20nyc.html
Senetta Smith survived Jim Crow (which puts cancer to shame, I might add) and made her way to New York years and years ago. She never stopped improving herself on all counts, like a good human, and so recently has been taking classes in Adult Literacy at the Seward Park branch of the NY Public Library's Center for Reading and Writing, where she was lucky enough to have N as one of her tutors.
N started the NCV Foundation,
ncvfoundation.org
named after her paternal grandfather. The NCV Foundation is dedicated to education and uplift all over, but it's American efforts come in the form of the Storylines Project, which culminate in a once-yearly awards event, the Storyines Award with the NYPL, celebrating the efforts of ESL and Adult Literacy students. A published author judges entries by students, awards are given, and--of greatest import--the students are shown that their efforts are on par with any of the greatest writing, with any of the strongest efforts, with any of the tales people tell in this world. From one paragraph to three pages, the courage to tell your story is what gives it value.
This coming year the Storylines Award will be judged by the phenomenal cross-gifted writer Naomi Shihab Nye, and her book Honeybee will be given to each participant in the program.
Senetta Smith was one of the first winners of the Storylines Award, and her piece was about learning of the racially motivated murder of a boy her age in the South.
That piece has now been entered into Storycorps,
http://storycorps.org/
the national movement to preserve stories through audio recordings and interviews.
Senetta told her story...to N. And Clyde Haberman was there. And duly impressed.
