Now the good part starts. Lets begin to talk about something before we start the id like to talk about something thats inspiration on and i have these stories every year and this is one thats recent. So you know i just ran into drew whittenburg whos here and he always brings me these bright Young Students from tipp city. And its such a pleasure to meet them. Theyre so inspiring to be here. And it reminded me of a story when i when devil grove first came out about ten years ago, i got a letter or email from a young law student at northwestern, and she wrote me this beautiful. She said, gilbert, after reading your book, ive decided what i want to do. I want to be a public defender in the spirit of, you know, Thurgood Marshall. And i said, thats beautiful and stayed in touch with her a little bit. And she said she moved down to florida. She got a as a public defender in west palm beach. Her name was claire. And, you know, she would keep me updated. Her progress and the cases that she was on and a of years later, she started to really rise up in the office and she said, you know what, i want to give you an award. Its called the gideon. And its for people whose. You know, work has for indigent clients. And were going to give it to you. Theres been a couple of authors that have gotten it. Would you like to come down and youll meet with our staff get the award and well have a conversation with you about this kind of work . I said, sure. I went down a few months ago and did a beautiful interview with claire. We inspire the of the office and after the the interview with conversation she said to me northwestern said that they want to put my name to be a clerk for justice carter, angie brown, jackson and she goes, i what should i write in the cover letter. Im just asking you for advice. And i said i thought the cover letter that you wrote me was one of the most beautiful letters being inspired to do this kind of work and how Thurgood Marshall meant so to you and how you wanted to go on and follow in those footsteps. I said, why dont you just write your heart the kind of things you wrote me . Its a long shot right. Three weeks later, i got an email. Gilbert got the clerkship. So she said, going to invite you down. Youre going to meet justice. You got to bring some books. We can do some signings. Turned out Justice Jackson was, a big fan of Thurgood Marshall and devlin, the grove. So there you have it. Well, yeah more inspiration, right. Lets move on to the meat. This ceremony, jordan writer khan writes narrative features about sports, culture and National International affairs. He has worked at grantland and espn the magazine. Hes also for New York Times, sports illustrated, a number of other outlets. Jordan is a two time finalist for the livingston for the defender. Manute bundles manute bol journey from sudan, the nba and back again and his story a death in valdosta. His podcast, sonic boom, was named one of the top 50 podcasts of 2019 by the atlantic and was nominated for a webby award. His piece, the end of the hoop dream, was named among the top ten stories of 2015 by long form dawg jordan as on the protest movement in hong kong. The refugee experience on the Turkish Border and the aftermath civil war in the ivory coast and the Independence Movement in what is now sudan. Here in the states, he has written features about survivors of the pulse nightclub shooting and about the Police Killings of tamir rice and breonna. He is a graduate of the Uc Berkeley Graduate School of journalism and lee university. Jordan is also the 2021 dayton literary peace prize runner up in nonfiction for the road from rockwall. Please welcome Jordan Ritter conn. This theres a word that comes up several times in Andrea Elliotts remarkable, necessary and gorgeous invisible child. A word that struck me every time i encountered it. There were just presents. Andrea describes the presence mice and roaches in brooklyn homeless shelter. She the towering presence. A tough and loving Public School named miss holmes. When writing about one father who chooses to be there in his childrens lives. And one father who does not. Andrea writes, quote, nothing beats being present. That line. Nothing beats being present. Came up for me over and over when thinking about andreas work on this book. The book tells the story of dasani, a young girl from brooklyn over the course of nearly a decade of her life. Dasani is passionate to curious and fiercely, fiercely to the people she loves. Shes poor. When we meet her, shes living with members of her family in a shelter. Shes black navigating a country built on the exploitation of her ancestors, her family and herself. Andrea writes, quote she sees out into a world rarely sees her. Dasani is the daughter of a mother and a step and a stepfather who love her deeply. But her struggle with addiction and poverty. Shes the big sister of several siblings who she often sometimes out on the experience to be a child herself within diligence and care. Andrea follows dasani and her family as they travel along the margins of. American society. She chronicles their moments of pain. Of grief. Hunger alongside their triumphs. And their moments of joy. She draws her reporting from access to government records, from notes by teachers and therapies, from facebook, messages sent between dasani and her sister, from dasani diary and many, many hours with dasani and her family in homes and in homeless shelters, in classrooms and trains and, busses on the streets of several york boroughs and the offices, government officials. What emerges is . A portrait of a family that grasps for each other when so many forces pull them apart. A portrait of a girl aside by so many whose job is to support her. But by her own determination often. And by the love people she encounters. Teachers in brooklyn and pennsylvania, street performer and fitness guru named jayant and in critical moments andre herself. Invisible is a staggering feat of reporting and an elegant and moving piece of writing. But as much as it is a remarkable example, all of the single most important a journalist can do to show up, to be curious about the lives of those around us and the systems that shape us all to be present. It is my tremendous honor to introduce as the 2022 runner up for the dayton literary peace in nonfiction, andre elliot. Thank you. Its an incredible honor to be with you all tonight and to be sharing this stage with remarkable and astonishing talent. Clint your book will stay with me for the rest of my days. Im humbled, if not a little nervous, to be the first of this years authors speak tonight. When i expressed this to of your organizers, she said, oh, this crowd is excited to have you all here, that you could just get up and read the phone book and it would be fine. I should also that in an attempt at being helpful, one of your previous winners recommended that i might avoid talking about peace because and i quote the subject has by now been exhausted. Well im not going to read the full book and. I am going to talk about peace because ive never been good at taking direction direction. When i think about word peace, my mind travels back in time to my first weeks with coates, the homeless child at the center of my. What i noticed in those first weeks was that she said goodbye at end of a phone call or a visit. She was only 11 years old, but her childhood had been marked by more loss, more sorrow, more departures than adults see in a lifetime. So rather than say goodbye, she opted for the word that her parents had taught her to say, which was peace . It was not just a word, but an in the religious teachings they followed that stood for properly educating children everywhere. Peace. They would say also by way of. And i learned to say it back. Peace until that word became the bookends of every encounter i had with them. Peace. When we saw each other and peace when we parted. Even if the things i had witnessed in the time in between were the opposite peace from small to major events that made plain how deep racism runs in america. To say word peace after losing your children to a system that polices black and brown families and routinely separates them without due process. To write the word peace at the end of a compelling you have filed in the brooklyn homeless shelter where Staff Members have just tossed your mothers urn into garbage. Never to be found again. To end the phone call with peace from Rikers Island jail as dishonest brother did with me just a few days ago from a place that can only be described as a disaster where detainees routinely go without food or medical care. This year alone, 18 inmates have in new york citys jails at rikers. Dishonest brother recently spent in solitary confinement after Corrections Officers broke his ribs piece. He said gently on the phone. I think of dishonest families devotion to this word as the ultimate example of peace as action. We tend to think of peace as a positive action, a destination, an ideal of being rather than as something that is still forming something is alive and molten and worthy of pursuit, even as it eludes us. So tonight i want to thank dasani and her family for me that i want thank them for daring to trust in me and for giving me the precious gift of their time. I want to know that to follow their lives has forever changed mine. And i want you all to know that the story the story of Dasani Coates is americas story. It is my greatest hope. That invisible child will open eyes to how poverty, Structural Racism play out on ground, and that to see the life of this one brave child from her deepest burdens, her greatest hopes is to see our nation in all its dimensions. Ill close with the word taught me to say peace. Its like its going to be one of those nights. Its beautiful. Susan Susan Southard first book, nagasaki life after nuclear war, is the recipient of the dayton literary peace prize and j. Anthony lucas book prize sponsored by the Columbia School of journalism and universitys Nieman Foundation for. Journalism. Nagasaki was also named a best book of the year. The Washington Posts the economist, Kirkus Reviews and the american association. Nagasaki has also been published in england, spain, denmark, china, taiwan and japan. And excerpts of the book have appeared in journals around the world. Susans work has also appeared in the New York Times. The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times and politico, among others. She holds an mfa in creative writing from antioch university, los angeles and was a nonfiction fellow at the Norman Mailer center in provincetown, massachusetts susan has spoken before United Nations and continues to at International Disarmament conferences universities and Public Forums around the United States and abroad. She teaches graduate level nonfiction seminars and directed a three year Creative Writing Program at a federal prison for women outside phenix. Susan was founder and artistic director of the phenix essential theater, serving communities across the southwest for 32 years. Susan the 2016 dayton literary peace prize winner nonfiction for nagasaki life after nuclear war. Please welcome susan. Southern southern. Thank you, gilbert and good evening, everyone. Its such great pleasure and honor to be with you tonight. So it is my great honor to introduce to you clint smith author of how the word is passed. A book in which clinton takes to seven sites that have deep, profound roots in and different ways of remembering the institution of slavery in the United States. With clint, we go to southern slave plantations, cemeteries, one for 30,000 confederate soldiers and one for 2200 enslaved children killed over a period of 40 years. In the early to. Mid 1800s, we go to angola prison, which was built on the property of a former slave plantation and today has a population is 75 black two manhattan for a walking of both slave trading and the underground railroad there to galveston island where on june 19th, 1865 Union GeneralGordon Granger announced to the of texas that all slaves are free free and to goree off the coast of senegal, where african men, women and children were forced onto slave ships to begin their journey through the Middle Passage of all of these places are critical to u. S. History. But its clints of past and present that is visionary because we can see, smell, taste and feel for each place, both through his personal experience and reflections during his visits his interviews with staff and guides and his informal conversations with visitors to see how they give meaning to these sites and in the past, through haunting about the enslaved adults and who lived in these places, thats how the is passed allows us to see the historical and contemporary realities his of the political legal, educational and psychological of White Supremacy upon our our upon which our country was founded and built. It us to feel some of the countless terrifying realities of labor, family separation and medical experimentation, rape, torture and, murder all birthed and by White Supremacy. This book us to better understand myths lies minimized nations justifications and silencing that allowed supremacy to flourish both during the centuries of slavery and in the 157 years since slavery abolished in our constitution how the word is passed invites us to continue to interrogate what weve been taught to hold the horrific truths our history, and to confront again and again the complex question of accountability. My life is already transformed by this. On the drive here, my father through north carolina, virginia, west virginia, ohio, i could no longer for granted the superficial views of the land and people all around. How did and how does slavery and continuing White Supremacy play out in all of our lives . In every square mile of this nation, clint ends his book with an intimate essay about his grandparents and his great and great great grandparents that illuminates with insight and love how close the history of slavery and its aftermath is to of us alive today. In one of my favorite passages, after listening to his grandparents recall some of their early experience excuse me, early experiences, segregation and violence, clint writes, while i knew about about how smoke of slavery and jim crow had billowed over their lives i did not know this specific shapes of their silhouettes. I did not know how either of them had walked through this country without turning into ash. Please me in welcoming to the stage are 2022 dayton literary peace prize in nonfiction clint smith clint smith. Hows everyone doing . Thank you all so much for being here. Thank you. This remarkable award. I want to thank my editor, vanessa mobley, whose vision helped bring this this project to fruition. I want to thank my agent whos here, aliya, who is a relentless advocate of my work. I want to thank my kids, or those of you who were here last night know that im known less as dad, more as brachiosaurus number one. I love. I love you more than the moon. The in the sky. I want to thank my wife, ariel who couldnt be here . Because we have two little brachiosaurus at home. Thank you, sharon. And thank you, nick. And the judges in this entire literary peace prize community for this honor. Ive been sitting here this evening watching the slideshow, which is both remarkable and incredibly intimidating, to be in the presence of of writers both here with me tonight and to think about lineage of writers and artists, Truth Tellers and storytellers who who have been a part of this community. This brilliant, remarkable, special community you all have built. Ive been thinking a lot about some different people from the book over the course of the last two days and thinking a lot. North henderson from angola. For those of you who arent familiar, angola, the largest maximum security prison in the country. Its 18,000 acres wide, bigger than the island of manhattan. Its a place where 75 of the people held there are black men. Over 70 of them are serving life sentences. And it was built on top of a former plantation. And when i tell people all the time and alluded to last night, is that if you were to go to germany and you had the largest, maximum security in germany, and it was built top of a former concentration camp in which the people held there were disproportionate you wish that place would quite rightfully be a global emblem of antisemitism. It will be abhorrent. It will be disgusting. We would never a place like that to exist because it would so run counter to all our moral and ethical sensibilities. And here in the United States, we have the largest, maximum security prison in the country where the vast majority of people are black men serving life sentences of whom were sentenced as children. United states is the only country in the world sentences children to life without the possibility of parole, many of whom were sentenced by nonunanimous, which has since been rendered in the constitution by the Supreme Court of the United States for. Being a vestige of White Supremacy. And i think about what are the specific contours of antiblackness in this country that allow a prison on top to exist on top of a former constant or two on top of the former plantation, in a way we would never allow in a different of geopolitical context. And ive been thinking specifically about norris henderson, who i spent time with on my visit there. And norris was incarcerated. They didnt go live for 30 years. And when we were leaving the exit of our tour together, all of our time together in angola, we saw these men who were working in the fields in the distance. These men were lifting their garden hose into the air and them into the earth, lifting their shovels into the air and digging them into the earth. And they were being by a man on horseback with a gun laid across his lap in order to look at the men. He looked at me and he looked at his hands. His hands had these calluses on them from. All these years he spent working in the fields of angola. He was like, clint, i cant to you what it felt like to pick cotton for 0. 07 an hour while somebody was watching me on horseback with a gun over their shoulder and wondering if my ancestors picked cotton in the same fields hundred years ago. So for the people who are incarcerated and all of this history is not an abstraction. Its not a metaphor. Its not an intellectual exercise. Its in their bodies. Its in their bones. Its the calluses in their hands. And ive been thinking a lot about the sort of profound unfreedom that exists our prisons, the profound unfreedom, the profound lack of peace that exists in the lives of people who are incarcerated, that exist in the lives of children who are told that for something they did when they were a child, that they might have to spend the rest of their lives in a cage. Ive been thinking to a lot about my grandparents is as susan to my grandfather born in 1930, jim crow, mississippi. My grandmother born in 1939, jim clipped florida. And i remember walking through the National Museum of africanamerican and culture with them and pushing my grandfather on his wheelchair. My grandmother is walking a few paces ahead of us and im walking through this museum and i have this moment where i recognize so much of the history of violence that is documented in this museum are things that my grandparents experienced. When i asked my grandmother about it later, she has refrain, but she says, i lived. I lived it. I lived it. I think about how this project began with a desire to understand the way that the physical practices, the physical landscape of slavery is sort of etched into this country in millions of different places. How the scars of slavery exist all around us. And in doing so i think what happened is that i got to a more intimate sense of our collective temporal proximity to this history. How this history we tell ourselves was a long time ago, simply wasnt that long ago at. I think all the time about ruth bonner, the woman who opened the National Museum of africanamerican history and culture in 2016 alongside the obama family. She sort of rang the bell to signal the opening of this museum that had been generations in the work. And ruth bonner, the daughter of an enslaved person, not the granddaughter, not the great granddaughter, the woman who opened National Museum of africanamerican history and culture in 2016 with the daughter of someone born into slavery. My grandfathers grandfather was enslaved. So when five year old son sits on my grandfathers land, i imagine my grandfather sitting on his grandfathers lap. And im reminded again that this history we ourselves was a long time ago, just wasnt that long ago at all. I was on a trip, england, a of years ago, and i went to oxford and i was visiting was on this tour of this prestigious Historical University and the tour guide was showing us all these buildings. And he said, you know this famous poet wrote this poem in this building this famous philosopher, his treatise on this building, this famous scientist did this experiment in this building. And he looked at one building. He looked the building and looked at us and looked at the building, looked at us. And he was like, this building was built around ten, 20. And in my head, im like, am or pm like i couldnt even conceive of the that a building that had been built, a millennium was still standing, was still functioning, was still something that people walked in and out of. But i bring that because its a reminder to me that the us history so young, it is so recent compared to the rest of the world, were basically the annoying preteen of the world in more ways than one these days. But for me its a reminder that there are people who are alive today who knew who loved, who were raised by people who were born into chattel slavery. Theyre still here and they are still with us. So the idea that we would ever suggest that this history has nothing to do. The contemporary landscape of inequality, the idea that we would ever suggest that this history has nothing to do with our social political and economic infrastructure. Today is revealed. Be profoundly, morally and intellectually disingenuous. Ive been thinking too about, my ancestors more broadly, ive been thinking about how. The first enslaved people came to the british colonies would become this country. In 1619. Slavery didnt formally until 1865. But that means. But whats true is that from the moment enslaved people arrived on these shores, they were fighting for freedom. They were fighting for liberation. There, fighting for emancipation. And what that also means is that the vast majority of people who fought for freedom never got a chance to experience for themselves, but they fought it anyway because they knew that someday someone would. I think how my life and my childrens lives, our are only possible because of generations of people who fought for something they knew they might see, but they fought for it anyway because they knew that someday someone would. And i think about what sort of responsibility does that bestow upon me . What sort of responsibility does that bestow upon all of us to recognize that we might not experience the fruits of our own labor to, recognize that we might be trying to build a more peaceful world, a more just world, more equitable world, and to also have the the humility and the historical recognition to understand that we might not see the manifest of that work in our own lifetime. And for me, you know, obviously this weekend weve beetha lot at gives me a sense of peace to think about the sort of peace that so people were fighting for that they never saw, but they fought for that peace anyway because they knew one day i would. And for me this moment this award, this community, i think part of what ive come to understand about the people here is that its a group of people who are dedicated, who dedicated their lives to remembering, to understanding, to learning, to unlearning. And what i know about this book and the way that this book has changed my life is that i ive come to understand that without remembrance, there can be no peace and that part of what we have to do is remember and to hold those memories and to sit with those memories and to wrestle with those memories, even when they run counter to all the stories we might have been told before, even when they were uncomfortable to with even when they challenged the stories weve been told by the people who love us and who we love. And for me, that is the the peace that working toward that every day i wake up and try to do get a little bit closer to the version of myself that my ancestors showed me so i could be and to recognize that again, that my life and our lives, my childrens lives, our childrens lives are only possible because of people who fought for something they knew might never see. And so i accept this award with an enormous sense of gratitude, and may we all continue to fight for the world that we might not see ourselves. And its definitely turning into one of those nights. Lisa page is coeditor of we wear the mask 15 true stories of passing america. Beacon press. Her work has appeared in the lit hub weekly, the crisis and my favorite magazines virginia quarterly review, short fiction, playboy Washington Post book world and other publications. She is assistant professor at english of at the George Washington university and director of creative writing. She previously served as interim director of africana studies. She is also a resident faculty member, the yale writers workshop. She lives in takoma park, maryland, presenting the 2022 dayton literary peace prize runner up in fiction. Please welcome lisa page. Thank you so much, gilbert. Writer Paul Laurence dunbar wrote these. Across the bread and a corner to sleep in a minute to smile and an hour to in a pint of joy to a pack of trouble and never a laugh. But the moans come double. And that is life. A crust and a corner that makes precious. With a smile too warm and tears to refresh us. And joy seems sweeter when cares come after and a moan is the finest foils for laughter and is life. Writer joanne ann tompkins writes about life in her debut novel, what comes after and talking about life as. It is for so many people who struggle with unspeakable loss, annihilation, violence and pain. Life is grief. Life is suffering. Life is abandonment. And disappointment. This novel so aptly what comes after is about what we do when the worst thing you can possibly imagine happens. It is also a brave interrogation of the nature of evil and of evil, sweet side, the evil that makes doing wrong feels so. The evil that can cajole and coerce and seduce and the evil presents itself as pleasure and agency. What comes after is also a road to evil. Opposite a highway to that better place of reconciling creation and forgiveness with, resilience and faith. That complicated place where everything isnt perfect. But belief is real and so is safety. Tompkins characters lose their way, and they also find direction. They find that crust of bread, that corners in that pint of joy. This, too life telling tompkins first career was as a trial lawyer. Mediation and immersed her in lives disrupted by conflict, injury, violence, abuse. Her explores the small moments hold the possibility of transformation. Her short work has appeared in journals such as country news lit hub, writer and the world stress journal of art and writing. What comes after was a state book award finalist, a best first novel by an american author. A finalist for the edgar award. And a runner up for the dayton literary peace prize for fiction. Please welcome joanne. Oh, my goodness. It is such an incredible honor and i am so humbled beyond words. Be here with all of you and these brilliant writers and it is a scary thing to have to come up here after these brilliant speakers. Oh, my lord. So just me tell you that im going to speak from my heart as clearly i can. Im so grateful to everyone in the dayton peace prize for being here and doing this and for making this one of the most amazing weekends of my life. And. As a debut novelist, i have. I really must think my amazing agent, susan garland, who took me on when i had such little to show for myself. And every the entire team at Riverhead Books that and in particular my remarkable editor Sarah Mcgrath i turned to writing late in my life, my legal before then involved many cases of great trauma. But one case in particular stayed with me 19 years ago to high school for players in seattle. Brutally murdered another football player. They had spent much of the summer planning the murder all the while pretending to be the victims best friend, sleeping over at his house calling his mother mom before the murder. The victims mother thought of these three young men as her children when they were convicted of first degree aggravated murder. She hugged their parents and she expressed her own intense sorrow at the loss of. All three of her children, she still loved these young men. There is unspeakable suffering in this world. And thankfully astounding grace and what comes after. I wanted to examine how we individuals in our daily lives and with our own personal traumas, how we move from great loss and betrayal into a reconnection with life and love and community. How we move toward grace. When i look at the world today, suspect our troubles boil down to one thing. We are profoundly confused about reality and an epigraph that opens what comes after Thomas Burton succinctly encapsulates, i believe is our primary confusion. We are already one, but we imagine that we are not. And it is this belief that we are not already, that we arent part of other. So what happens to one of us doesnt happen. All of us. That is what causes all the problems. Which is why tonight i want to briefly discuss insights of trauma, fedoras and quakers in Kurt Vonneguts slaughterhouse five. Billy pilgrim believes his in a zoo on the planet reform door. A guide at the zoo explains to fellow trauma for dorians that being human is like being bolted to flack or on rails over which you have no control while your head is encased in the steel sphere. Theres only one tiny eiffel tower which is affixed six foot long pipe humans. The explains believe that tiny dot a vision at their end of their particular pipe is all there is to see see. I suspect that here tonight is, driven by a desire to expand their own and others vision. We are working diligently to create more openings and those steel spheres and to loosen bolts that affix us to our rails. We are trying to create angles of use in doing this. We do the important work increasing our understanding of each other. And i believe, as importantly, we begin to understand how little we actually know, how profoundly wrong. The most treasured of our beliefs can be. Hopefully we gain a much needed humility and, a profound curiosity. We might even begin to treat those, see the world from a different angle, not as a threat to our very identity, but as a guide to of this past life that have no way of knowing without them ultimately. Though the facts may not save us, as we are finding out. And this is where quakers have some guidance. Isaac, the protagonist. And what comes after is a quaker and i should mention since there are different types of quakers that he an program to quaker one who participates in what are largely meetings. I am not quaker, but i have been lucky enough to spend lot of time with them over the years and they have taught me that words are often a distraction, the truth, and that they can easily foment conflict rather than create peace. But we dont need to despair because we can be at a place of understanding that exists inside, each of us. And it is an inner landscape more connected and expansive than anything we are ever going to see through that tiny pipe of ours. It a felt place where we dont need to agree on the facts, to love one another. Quakers believe that if we out of our minds and into our hearts if we go still and work a seeing each other, we will meet each other and all these surface differences that have created such suffering and violence in this world will disappear. We will wonder why we have been fighting ourself. Well, this quaker concept is far deeper and more profound than. Any understanding i ever managed on my own. It didnt match up perfectly with what i discovered in my many years of mediating high trauma cases where, sitting with pedophiles and with the parents whose children had been abused and tortured, even murdered with quadriplegics, 16 year olds, and the drunk drivers who injured them with employees who had been gross discriminated against and employers who felt not only innocent, but often virtuous. Peace between the parties was rarely reached through forming a consensus on the external object. Facts. When i was mediator and i thought it when i started mediating, thought it would settle cases, but my persuasive. But i quickly learned that the outcome would invariably come down not to my words but to my state of being how i was holding each individual before me at level of my heart. And whenever i found myself wondering why why is that person being so . Why are they being such a jerk . You know, it was if i stopped and i made myself look inward that the flaw was in them. But in my state of being. I was processing them not as a human, but as a problem to be overcome to achieve my objective, which was a settlement. No wonder, they were resisting me. Yet when i managed and believe me, i often did not. But when i did manage to open my heart fully to them. Which means to love them, to appreciate them, and some. To keep quiet, way the shift in them was often immediate and startling. There would be tremendous softening. We know when we seen. We know when we. Have met someone at the level. Of our hearts. I open talk with the mother of the murdered football after. I mediated a case involving that murder. Spent some time getting to know her. I thought it would be like getting to know a saint, but it turns out that she was in fact a very normal person. Well, she often found her way to grace. She often did not. But that never stopped from trying again. She did this for the simple reason that she felt better when she freed her heart from the pain. A bitterness she taught me that no matter what horrors or traumas or losses the universe throws at us, there is one way in which life is endlessly generous and always gives us one more moment to reach with love toward whatever and whoever is before us in this moment. And if we fail this moment, we have the next moment. And we have the next until we die. This is what, i hope, readers take away from what comes after that piece starts in our own hearts. It with our willingness to face our ignorance and our constrictions of love. Not in judgment or blame, but as a doorway to. A new way of being. Peace starts by forgiving others and our son and herself of past failings and, thanking life for giving us yet one more chance to try. One more chance to remember that we know each other at the level of our deepest hearts. We are already one. Thank you. Just. Just getting to know these authors little bit. Is it any surprise to anyone that their work so profound. Alexander starritt first novel, the beast, a loving satire of britains tabloid, was published in 2017. The spectator, named it as the book of the year calling. It erases tibble. While the sunday times said, quote, he proves that he is not a very funny writer but possesses the ruthless, unsentimental totality of the finest satirists. His second novel, we germans a story of german soldiers in the second world war, was published in 2020. The New York Times starts daring work challenged us to lay bare our histories, to seek answers from the past and, to be open to perspective, starkly from our own. While Kirkus Reviews calls it a small masterpiece, we germans has been translated into several languages. Start has also translated works by franz kafka, stefan zweig Arthur Schnitzler and others into english in particular. He made a selection and translation of kafkas best short stories titled the unhappiness of being a single man. Start born in the northeast of scotland. He has lived in italy where he worked the Santa MaddalenaLiterary Foundation in germany. He now lives in london with his family. Alex is the 2021 dayton literary peace prize winner in fiction. We germans please alexander starritt. Good evening everybody and. Congratulations to honoree Fanonne Jeffers for winning years Fiction Prize for her novel. The love songs of w. E. B. Dubois and in some, i felt a little nervous about what i was going to say about this book because its, you know, i am a foreigner. Ultimately, even though i do speak some american and honore is novel to me, reads as a new origin story for america, for who havent read it already. It begins in the 18th century with the first big elements in the melting indigenous people. A young black whose mother was brought from africa in chains, and a young scotsman come to the new to seek his fortune. Unfortunately for me, the scotsman turns out to be a villain. But we move on and these three bloodlines fuzed in the of a child. The first character we meet a boy has a greek mother, a scottish father and an african grandfather. The novel tells the story. This boys relatives, both black and, white through to the present day and to a young black girl called ali garfield at toggles. Back and forth between alis experiences and those of the generations that came before her in the it reads, the phenomena of alis life today in terms of her family inheritance and her father is a physician, someone whose moved north for education and professional opportunity. Her mothers an intelligent woman who got pregnant college and spends too much time looking. Her husband and her daughters. Ali has one sister at yale. She has another sister whos addicted to crack. She has a grandmother who down on alis mother. Because the grandmother more money and can pass for white. At one stage, alis sleeping with a black classmate who treats her differently from his whites. Other woman with the white gown adds respectability and an attempt to be accepted by her parents with ali. Its tv and red hot casual sex and its of innumerable closely observed characters and moments like andre in stitching together tapestry rich broad enough to encompass a subject as large as the black experience in the American South there is much in it. Theres a lot of joy in it. Theres devotion to church violence, the chain gang home training, the black panthers, the Southern Comfort food that goes through the generations and sends alis father to an early grave sex. In particular stands out. In honor of his novel, the pulitzer of sex. With that is that its rawest and most revealing with people fall in love with the people. Whether people the same sex people from a different ethnicity we see the bitter legacy of black americans descended white slave owners who raped their slaves and we see the resulting children who are considered not legally legitimate children who are sent away whose fathers dont recognize them. We also see how even the most racist clan down in rural georgia, a family of sheriffs and lynchings is related to alis family. In this view, america, the victims and the perpetrators are all bound together by. And weve had other origins wars before the pilgrims the Boston Tea Party all of that. But i think we can see now that theres the stories of america as essentially a white peoples country. That has black People Living in it. And what i think has done is tell an origin story for the multiracial democracy that america has become since then. So please honoree Fanonne Jeffers winner of this years prize for fiction. The good evening. Good evening. Thats what you do when you black black. First. As always. I give unashamed and praise to my mighty god and my indigenous and africa ancestors for carrying through. Id to thank my living dr. Lily James Jeffries for giving me culture like to thank my oldest the late vows John Jeffries for teaching how to read and opening up a world that i couldnt imagine would. Give me such joy. Id like to thank my mothers brothers and sisters for giving me story telling. Id like to thank my literary agent, sarah burns, and my former editor wicks, for they are encouraged me and theyre seeing my vision. Id like to thank the peace prize. Sharon robb, nick raines, trustee fran robbins and the other trustee members. Id like to thank the kind who made financial award possible. Id like to thank the first readers of the prize the kind fiction judges. Ms. Lisa page page. The wonderful lisa page. Mr. John petit. Id like to thank acknowledge the amazing here former winners Jordan Ritter, connor soothing susan stutter suffered im sure im so sorry. Alexander starritt and fixture of runner up joanne tompkins. Nonfiction clint smith who. I see as my brother and my luck charm. This is our third award together. Nonfiction runner Andrea Elliott and wil haygood. The whole book award recipient. So as i sometimes say to, my students, when im informing them that their papers are not yet graded. Im going keep it real. Your. I only found out last night that i had to prepare these remarks. And when i thought about it. I was i was real nervous and then i decided a black woman from the south, i would speak plainly. Some of yall are old enough to remember the comedian flip wilson used to say. What you see is what you get. So no matter where i am, i always try to be myself. And so evening, my spoken remark will hopefully reflect that. I will speak a word tonight and word is speaking. Your piece. When i was young girl of 14, i was always afraid. I know now it was because i was black in a female body that the world was not a comfortable for someone like me. It wasnt meant to be. And that was the point. But everywhere i turned in real life or in the books i read, there was a black looking out for me. And around this time i started a phrase that black women would say. They would say, im gonna speak my piece. And it would confuse me, because whenever they began to speak their piece, they would get angry and passionate and they would rise and rise, rise on that emotion. But then finally would calm down. And everything seemed to be all right. And i remember when my mother who before she was dr. Jeffers, when she had from my father and she had gone to graduate, she would talk about many of the things that had happened her, how she had lost an eye at the age of four to a butcher knife and spent two years out of school. But when she returned and she kept on with, she graduated as the valedictorian of her class and she would talk about some of the racism that she had experienced in eatonton, georgia, growing up. But she would always repeat something that her daddy, papa charlie, had told to her things aint always gonna be this way. And thats how my mama would speak up. And i remember. When i went to graduate school at university of alabama in the masters of fine arts program, and there were only two black people there and both of us were women and were given a very, very hard time. There was a lot of racism and a lot of questioning about our subject matter. For me in particular, my poems, because i had to a historically black, which was considered to be beneath contempt while the fiction writer had attended yale and in the building i took my classes. There was an older black woman and cant remember her name. I wish i had written it down and. She worked as a custodian and some days when i would get really upset i would follow her around while. She cleaned the building and i would be complaining and she would be listening and she would nod her head. But one day when i was complaining, she stopped her work and she turned to me and she told me, baby, i dont care how mean these white folks, these you go ahead and you get your degree because you dont ever want to work this whole white. Ive worked so hard baby and every day i be so. I was stunned. Not only lee by her words, but by fact that id only seen myself my hardships, my fears of mis stepping in the privilege aged white world. I so eagerly courted. I heard the first oration in her voice and i thought she had spoken her piece. And then there was the great poet lucille clifton, who is now gone, but who still visits my dreams. And it was another day of complaint when i was a poet of some success. But i had an urge white academia and i being given a hard on my journey to tenure. And she had come out to oklahoma to give a reading. And i was so upset and i flung myself off at her feet before she went on stage to give her reading. And i said, miss lucille, white people are to destroy black women. I was very mad it back then, and she told me, she said, auntie white have been trying to destroy black since we stepped off slave ship. So you better get yourself together. And then later on, she stopped in the middle of this glorious. And she shocked me when she said, what you need to understand is, im not here to make white people comfortable. Miss lucille had spoken her piece and. So when my book was except for publication, my first novel, my sixth book and my first novel, and i was very afraid because for so long, my two decade aids as an author i had to dance and i had lied to white people to try to make them accept me and feel comfortable with. The uncomfortable truth that i was telling and many times when i. Finish these readings, i would go back my room and i would be so afraid, so ashamed, because thought what was the point in telling about black history, about White Supremacy, about what had happened to my if all i was doing was sucking up to white people and so then there that moment where i in Media Training and we were going through what it was that i was going to say and we kept moving around, you know what i the book was about. But i was very very afraid. And we had our little canned speech that i was supposed to give. And then it was about 5 minutes before i was due to appear. Cbs this morning when i prayed to my god, as the song says, god of are we origis god of our style lint tears. And i didnt want to keep saying things just to be successful just to make white comfortable. I wanted to tell the truth. And that truth was i had written my book for African American women. All those women who shored me up the living ones and, those gone to glory even before i was born, even before i was thought of these women had prayed for me. They had prayed a place for me and i needed to speak on them. And so i did. I opened up my mouth and i told the truth. And now i am here this stage for and because of black women who spoke their peace no matter the consequence thats what it extraordinarily beings. I am honored to call my sisters and my kindred kindred. Though i will continue to live in this field place that we call america. I will continue to speak my piece. And i will hope for best. Thank you all so. God bless. Clarence page, 1989 Pulitzer Prize winner for commentary, is a columnist syndicated nationally Tribune Media services and member of the chicago tribunes editorial board. Page is also a regular of essays to the newshour, with jim lehrer and has been a regular on the mclaughlin group. Nbcs the Chris Matthews show, Abcs Nightline and bets lead story news panel programs. Born in dayton, ohio clarence grew up in middletown. He began his journalism career as a freelance and photographer for the middletown journal and cincinnati enquirer. At the age of. He graduate from Ohio University with a bachelors of science in journalism. In 1969. He also has received honorary degrees from the columbia in chicago, lake forest, the Chicago Theological Seminary and the John Marshall school of law, among others. Page was a reporter and assistant city editor for the chicago tribune, during which he participated in 1972 Task Force Series on voter fraud, which won a Pulitzer Prize pages. Other awards include a 1980 illinois upi awards Community Service for the investigative series titled the black tax and the Edwards Scott beck award for overseas reporting in 1976. Lifetime Achievement Awards from the national of newspaper columnists, Chicago Headline Club and the National Association of black journalists. In 1992, he inducted into the chicago journalism hall of fame. His book, showing my color impolite essays on race and identity, was published in 1996 by harpercollins, presenting the 2022 dayton literary peace prize. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke distinguished Achievement Award. Please welcome Clarence Page page. Who said fresh air. I was sitting over there saying, boy, that sounds like a terrific introduction. Whos he talking about . And i said, oh, my god, its me. Thank. Good evening. You learned your lesson. Well, congratulations. Now i know im home. What would a sandburg have said . Homeless where you go and they got to take you in as i feel like i spent a long time but then did other boring up the road here at the county and i was then a what driven on down to middletown and finished my Public Schooling and i went to William Howard taft grade and we got robert taft here tonight. I tell you i feel like i feel like my daddy used to say my my familys from alabama. My daddy used to say dont walk in and tall cotton. Now. So i indeed am doubly honored to here with you. And i thank you especially happy to be called upon to help honor my dear friend wil haygood had a fantastic journalist. And i must without embarrassment one of my role models. Even though im older than he is, i believe it doesnt matter. This a good job of it. For more than three decades, wil haygood journalism and authorship have brought us a long march of engage ing and inspiring real life characters, engaged in various quests, peace and answers to the always timely question what i call the king question. Not dr. Rodney king. Can we all get along a big question in pursuit of answers to that question, haygood is travel the world writing about war, peace and political activism for pittsburgh postgazette, the boston and the Washington Post. Born and raised in columbus, ohio. Graduated at Miami University. Welcome home, will. He has written nine books covered zones in nigeria and covered apartheid. South africa was taken hostage. Somali rebels. You you havent lived to have been taken hostage by somali rebels. Want to tell you. I mean, whats up with the war correspondents before and witnessed the of Nelson Mandela. Amandla he has covered in los angeles. Interview with soul singer james brown in and spent more than a month in louisiana covering hurricane katrina. Everywhere he is shown a skull ability to bridge racial divides and other divides, to foster greater understanding among people and bring us closer to a peaceful and just society. Among his many other works, hes widely known for his 28 article, a butler. By this election, a Washington Post piece about eugene allen, who eight president s at the white house as white house butler. It became a very successful book, the butler a witness to history and an winning film starring force and oprah winfrey. Paul cotton. Three years ago, another of his books, the 2018 tiger land. 1968 a 1969 a city, a nation torn apart and a magical season of healing takes us back to. It was it was up for the 2019 dayton literary peace prize for nonfiction followed it followed black High School Athlete as they captured two state titles in columbus, ohio in the turbulent late 1960s, like tiger and the butler, his nine books here an underlying theme americans in pursuit of peace, fairness and racial justice. He shares this theme in his various profiles of unusual americans like adam Clayton Powell. Back in 1993, when that was published. Adam Clayton Powell, for your youngsters out here, helped to pass Lyndon Johnsons landmark antipoverty legislation, including the upward Bound Program that i worked in at Ohio University. And that that will familiar with sammy jr. A major financial backer of Martin Luther king and on on selma, a behind the scenes figure in that score. But as important to the Civil Rights Movement as Booker T Washington was to w. E. B. Dubois civil rights. Youll hear about that. All the time, because people who are the quiet contributors you may not hear about their impact can be even greater than you imagined. Sugar ray robinson, who worked to secure financial rights fighters and the historic contentious 1967 battle for the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall first black justice on the u. S. Supreme court. That book showdown also with a literary peace prize finalist. Im glad you made it. Will to have been a finalist all the time, you know. But its own family. In 1997, the haygood of columbus, a family memoir. Its a wonderful idea. Like a do it myself. I could ever write a family memoir and be able to face my family again. That takes courage. His most recent book, colorization takes a century long look at decades of hollywoods handling of the dreams of black actors, actresses, writers and directors like haygood himself. Its subject use his particular talent to bring us closer to justice and peace. And hes been a widely recognized for social contributions as alma mater miami, a street on campus. Been named wil haygood lane. It happens to be where the freedom summer volunteers before they headed south to mississippi. I knew them well, by the way, one family stayed with us at our house in middletown. That was my first brush with history as it. But that was what the Civil Movement was composed of in its heyday. It was ordinary folks stepping forward and saying we shall overcome. And indeed, i dont know if i ever bumped into chaney, Andrew Goodman and michael schwerner, but i do know i heard in the headlines a few days later, after they left middletown after left oxford after they left ohio, when they disappeared, they were found as we all know, now murdered by klansmen in the night while they were in mississippi, trying to black folks to vote. Bledsoes rights. I thought i would make. At 19. Well became a writer residence for the roger brown residency and. Social justice writing and sport at the university of dayton. Three years ago. Tiger came came along and was runner up for the literary peace and as i say, he shares his themes in profile profiles unusual, groundbreaking american stories like haygood himself. Each story uses particular talents to bring him closer to justice and peace. Bring us closer to justice and peace and we are 20, 19. Excuse. As will himself said, race is the story of our times. We overlook race at our own peril. I think people are growing more, more interested and intrigued with how writers can pull back the curtains beat. In rwanda or liberia or bosnia or america to show the reality of on the ground. Through his writings and lectures at the intersection, politics, history and race across racial, cultural and various media as a way to open eyes to the need of reflection. For reflection dialog and change. He brings enlightened to us all. And so its my honor to present the dayton literary peace, the 2022 Ambassador Richard c holbrooke distinguished Achievement Award to a journalist bestselling, author, cultural historian, peacemaker, brilliant storyteller and a heck of a nice guy for his lifelong quest for justice and relentless struggle for peace. Wil haygood. Thank you. Thank you very much, clarence. Yeah. For those warm hearted, soulful words that you to bring me to the stage. I want to thank you also on behalf of all of the writers for for this session at the Victoria Theater that you might have rated in gilbert moderate. It. From what i heard many people across the Community Enjoy that very much. I know youve had a long career at the chicago tribune. I would like you to know that before my journalism career caught a foothold, i applied for a job at the tribune, and no one ever wrote me back. I know the application might still be floating around the newsroom. All i know is somewhere out there there. Let me salute the. Winners and finalists. Then the nominees of this years is books. You chose your path. You didnt want to write the. 80th book when that man who was in the white house from 2016 to 2020, you chose your own path. You looked at hell and you conquered it. Your reviews made a lot of noise, as we say on the streets. You blew the roof off the sucker. You all should be very, very, very proud of the work that you have produced. I myself stand here because of the vanishing legacy of ambassador holbrooke. He went to lands that were dripping in blood. He crawled into tents at midnight to. Talk to warring factions. The two twos and the hutus and tutsis. And the hutus. He went to liberia and to bosnia. He went into after leaders had been assassinate. It because world seemingly since civil war has never been at peace. I have been able to travel some of the same landscape that mr. Traveled. Id go into these dangerous war and id wonder how much my newspaper loved me. But a foreign correspond too does not have the luxury to back out of an assignment. You simply must go. So i think the holbrooke committee. For bestowing this honor upon me. Sharon rabb, you are a force of nature. I was that the whole foods when i got a phone call from her telling me about this award award, i told her i was busy and that id be home in about an hour. And to call me dan. Which she did. What a moment. No, man or woman is. Is an island. We write in quiet rooms, and were often alone in the past three years have made it seem lonelier than that. My first big city newspaper. Was at the pittsburgh postgazette. My best on that paper, and i used to walk down to murray avenue in squirrel hill. Waiting on the union. To screech around the corner and drop. The next morning newspapers off. Me and my best friend dreamed about books and about literature. We would grab copy of the paper and we would read aloud. Our lyrical needs, our lyrical first or two paragraphs, at least to us, were lyrical. We would read them aloud to each other in the moonlight or murray avenue in pittsburgh. That best friend of mine, he went on himself to become author. He works for cbs news in pittsburgh. His name is andrew. She hand and he has here to be with me today. And i would like him and his wife stand up. Andrew and abby. You. Are familiar with the horrific tulsa race massacre. From 1921. I met a lady in boston years ago. She amongst the first filmmaker to make a documentary film about the tulsa massacre. I have stayed in touch with her through years. She also is an author and actress. She has come here to be with me today. Carmen fields, a film. There is a lady who has been traveling around to texas as a lawyer with the fire and the ferociousness that Thurgood Marshall had to bring justice. Those who need it. She invited to texas when my books was published. And i went there talk to a large group of attorneys about necessary way to Thurgood Marshall. She has come here today. Be with me from texas. Karen burgess. I went to Miami University in oxford, ohio, right down the road. It was the only college i applied to, and i know why. I didnt have a lot of money to be applying to five or six colleges because it costs like dollars to apply. I start hearing i started hearing that. Other people in columbus had gotten letters of acceptance to miami. And i didnt my. And i started getting nervous. And i home one day and i pulled out a piece of paper. And a pen. And i wrote to the dean of admissions at miami. And i said, dear sir, i have applied to Miami University. And perhaps i am on your. Because i havent gotten a letter that tells im going to be refused admission or that i am going to be admitted. But i want to come to Miami University bad that i make this promise to you if i am admitted to miami, i will someday do something to make you proud. I. I have no. That letter played a role in. Me being admitted to miami. But two weeks later, my letter of admission arrived. Gregory crawford is the president. Miami university. He and his. Renata crawford have come here to be with me. I would like to understand. Im a visiting writer. My. Alma mater. Which is quite something i graduated with, like a 2. 2, which is some are lucky. Sometimes i run into former professors of mine and they say, if i would have known how your life was going to turn out, im sure i would have given you much better grades. But i tell them, dont dont feel sorry for my College Transfer tips because i rode that 2. 2 to glory. I mean, i rode across campus like i was on the back of a stallion, you know, and i got to see that means i didnt a d or f im not at a bis. Im still here here. Christopher mack or ralph, the dean of the college of arts and and a very dear friend. He and his wife, patricia are here. I would like them to up. I was summoned to dayton a day early. Theres a gentleman at St Clair College wanted me to moderate the movie till about 14 year old emmett till, who, as we know was in mississippi. This took me into his office. And he had all of my books, even the book about, the trip down the mississippi river, which you cant even get on ebay. Hes here, my man michael carter. Sherry and ray pepper, rocky are two journalists, friends from columbus and are here. Where are they at . Can you stand up . Okay. There you are right there. And Dear High School buddy of mine, hes a military veteran. Happy veterans. He has here to be with me. Jack winchester. I once spent spent five years on writing a biography of the entertainer sammy davis jr. I was looking for his father and mothers mothers obituaries. I found the fathers obit. He easy enough. I couldnt. The mothers obit. Sammy had passed away by the time i started doing the book. I called a friend of mine, new york. He put me in somebody. He put me in touch with somebody else. And they said, well, the reason you cant find the obituary of davis juniors mother is very simple. Shes still. And they say shes 93 years old and shes quite spry. So got the phone number and i immediately called her and told her that im working on book about sammy davis jr. That i would love to come up to new york and talk to about her son sammy. She invited me to new york city. I set her apartment for about 5 hours. It was wonderful session. And i said, mrs. Davis, id like to come back and id even love to take you out to dinner. And she said well, then thatd be great, but i really dont want to go out to dinner. Lets go out. Out. And i said, oh, okay. Like where . She said, well, lets go dancing dancing. So i said, you know, is there anything that youd like to. On broadway and . She said, oh, yes im interested in seeing that play ragtime. So two weeks later, i was back in new york, went to pick davis up and we drive the theater a taxi. And on the way, she says, hey, i hope you didnt tell that im sammy davis mother because i dont like name dropping. I said, no, no, no. Mrs. Davis. I havent told anybody anything. I mean, i got the two tickets, which bit my book advance deeply deeply. At. Anyway, we get to the theater and we watch the and. Were leaving now. She shes enjoyed it so much that she wants meet the star of the play he was brian stokes mitchell. We get outside she wants to go me to take her to the stage door and. I say, oh, mrs. Davis, look at that. That line is too deep. Well never get in. Well never get in to see stokes mitchell. She a walking stick. She raised it up and she said, im the mother of davis jr. Get out of the way, please. Get out of the way. She had a cane up and then when she brought it down, she poked a man in the rear end and. The man turned around and looked at me. I say, hey. Tell 10 minutes later im down of the theater, face to face with stokes mitchell and mrs. Davis introduced me and said, this is roy. And then the great brian stokes. Mitchell said, hello, roy. The only reason i mention that is because, like like Sammy Davis Jrs mother. Im not into name dropping. But i know my friends oprah and forest whitaker. Would just love to see this audience and salute all of these writers who are here tonight. So i just wanted to tell you that. The people who have written about. Adam clayton, sugar ray, Thurgood Marshall, eugene allen. The five starting basketball players on the east high east High Basketball Team in the baseball players, the history of blacks, cinema, these been ferocious characters who ive tried to stitch. Into the american flag. Then its all ive tried to do. Sometimes. People ask. Is it hard to write about these who have lived through segregation and jim crow . Uh. And if gets me down and i think the that keeps going is that the people who i have about have all also had a ferocious wit a ferocious wit wit. Adam Clayton Powell jr. He was a minister for and before he got to the new york city or to the u. S. Congress. He would travel to churches all around the country when he was 30 years old. He in north carolina, he was at a train station. He was a black man. But as you can see in the picture on, the wall, he was very light of skin to the oountry and i he might look white. But he had such pride pride in bravado. Somebody at this train. Told the conductor. Hey, i think i saw a black man man walking into the first class compartment. Its a 1930. He wasnt supposed to be in the first class compartment. The person went and got a train official. Adam Clayton Powell was he was comfortably seated. In the first class compartment. The train official and a Police Officer dash in to the dash into the first class compartment and say, hey. We think there might. A black man in here someplace. Has anybody seen. Adam Clayton Powell pops up out of his seat. Turns to the Police Officer and said, you better find him. What the hell kind of training are you running around here . Get him out of here. That kind of wit keeps you going when you come across. A story like that. It puts a smile in your heart heart. He defeated defeated the meanness that was out there. To to wrap up. In 1991, i was in south africa. Nelson mandela was still in prison. There were places i could not go because of the color of my skin. I couldnt but think about america in history, apartheid. In south africa. I met a guy named jovial. He was a reporter. He was black. He spent months jail when he was. 12 years old during the soweto uprisings. Me and jovial started hanging out every you would go out on the story. Large tanks would come to wherever in the teenagers happened to have been marching marching. It was a tough assignment. Jovial thankfully knew all of these all of these rogue that were off the path. One day joe jovial told me that he couldnt see me. The following day. He said he had to take his mother to the hospital. He said he had catch three jitney busses. To a township hospital all. That was 114 miles away. I said jovial. I have a rental car. Take my car to take your mother to the hospital. He refused to take the car. I ran down to the hallway, said jovial. Take your mother mother to the hospital. Take the rental. He took it. He kept it overnight, and he called me the next day and said he was coming to the hotel and that his mother had been admitted. But she was going to be okay. It seemed a simple gesture for me. Simple. About three nights later, theres a banging my hotel room door. I dont know. Im about to be. Kicked out of the country for story that i wrote that appeared in newspaper. It in one that the censors south africa didnt like. Just to safe. I put to checkers up against the door because i wasnt going to let anybody in. It was late at night. I asked who it was. First there was silence. Then all said in a small voice. We all. Its jovial. So i opened the door and said, hey, man, how you doing . Hows your mother . And said, in a south african accent. He said, hey, good to you. Must get to dress right away. I said, why . He said just get dressed right away. So i dressed. We went down and got in my car and we went to soweto. Anybody could be arrested and stopped at any time. We took the back roads. I said, julia, where are we going . He said, just, just wait. He parks the car and we walked through some words. Then we walk up to a hill. When we get to the top of the hill, its lack of football field area in this candle candle, its schoolchild trying. And jovial say. It. Every week. All once a week. The children of. Meet in this field. As their protest. And they seem we love you Nelson Mandela. We love you, Nelson Mandela. He said its their defiance against the tanks that they know that they will see in the morning. So the world turns. Thats who we must be. The children with the candles. In the valley. They brought Nelson Mandela home. Let us bring home under the banner of peace who need to be brought. God bless you and thank you you. Just want to say, like i mentioned earlier, ive been coming here for ten years. Ive had the absolute to sit on the stage and watch. Some people i heroes of mine speak brian minchin, andrew solomon, louise erdrich. Now wil haygood and theyve all been unbelievable speeches. But i have to say in this particular evening never been here when all four of the winners just absolutely knocked it out of the park and reached deep into their soul. No speeches. Incredible. And will add the presenters former winners did the same thing and it was really a privilege to sit this table and watch this tonight. Thank you all. That really concludes our