"I'll Fight You For The Library" performed by Taylor Mali as part of the Page Meets Stage Series at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City on April 29, 2009
The school I teach at has shut down the library for the last seven weeks of the year for standardized testing. I think of this video daily when I look at the closed sign.
"With all due respect, I don't think you actually DO understand my "frustration" or else you would not have used that word. You see I am not, in fact, frustrated. The correct word would be OUTRAGED." Favorite line of the whole poem. Well done, Taylor.
The most amazing, articulate individual I have ever come across. As a teacher I cannot express the depth of truth behind his words. Wonderful, something all teachers, students and future teachers should hear.
This, and I mean almost exactly this, happened to me today. My teacher booked a conference room for several of us to use to practice presentations. Administrators were in there and they refused to leave because they "weren't quite finished" and "didn't want to move." So we got shoved in a different, much less convenient room. After one of the kids pointed out to the librarian that schools are for the benefit of the students, we went back to our class and told our teacher. He showed us this.
Complete agreement as a student of a school that I'm pretty sure doesn't know how to use it's resources well enough. I know how it feels to not be able to find a computer for an in class project. I had to search 20 minutes around the building not only for a working computer, but for a computer that should have BEEN IN THAT CLASS ROOM. You would think a cart of laptops would have enough for a full class room but apparently not. Apparently that's ridiculous to think I deserve my in class laptop.
Met him at a conference and heard this performed along with several other of his poems, and loved the passion he exudes in his poetry. Super nice, intelligent, down to earth guy. This is a favorite!
I LOVE this poem. So far, I haven't had to defend keeping my school library open to the students, instead of closed for a meeting. . . . but if I do. . . I'm probably going to play this for whatever crazy person tries to close it.
Anybody else a little scared of this guy? Who wants to bet he's one of those teachers who doesn't have to ASK the kids to sit down and be quiet? Just. WOW. We need more teachers who really care about their kids.
This is a shame because the library is no longer a place of card catalogs (electronic or paper) and books. This day in age, the library has been replaced with an iPad and a small "study room". I still like having 10 books spread on a table over 1 search box and a list of 10 highest-matching paragraphs.
2:40 i do no care if the library is the only place in the school big enough to accomidate your meeting, it's also the only place in the school WITH BOOKS!!! thats my favorite part :D
I, as a young librarian, actually said no to an administrator and watched him melt down at me for having the audacity of wanting the library available for people who had work to do there. I finally told him that even my parents never spoke to me as rudely as he was doing. He shut up and left. He never asked for something like that again. I wasn't fired....although I spent a few hours wondering whether I would be. Thanks for all who keep libraries open for learning.
Love to hear his thoughts on the instruction received during the pandemic and the very significant fall in test scores (while they’re not the only measurement of education, they are a major measurement of it).
This is unbearably dated at this point-though admittedly most well-meaning, idealistic stuff from the late 90s/early 00s is at this point. If you haven’t been to a library in a bit, for many this should be titled “I’ll fight you in the library”. Fighting between adult patrons, visitors verbally or physically attacking staff, just a general sense of unease as libraries become the personal living rooms of the homeless and addicted or those who simply shrug away work and any social or personal responsibility. When you have to work in this environment every day, like I do, your sympathy is worn thin by the demands of adult babysitting and the neglect of managers and administrators. The ideals of this video warm the hearts of people who, by their financial and social position in society, manage to avoid the daily grind of dealing with other people’s constant problems and threats.
I was fortunate to have mostly passionate English teachers who really gave me a love of writing. My grade 12 music teacher was also very passionate and is still a good friend to this day.
i love that cristin o'keefe aptowicz just happens to be concluding the act. because, you know, she's got nothing better to do?? and by "she's got nothing better to do," i mean "i kneel at your feet, unworthy, in awe of your most splendorous works, my lady, my goddess, my shining, jiggling queen."
@hazelgreenxoxo I could see what you mean, how he seems kind of full of himself, but at the end of the day it's the words, not the person, that you're listening to, and Taylor's got some great and wise words to share.
Favorite line: I would be the first to apologize for "editorializing through your secretary" if I thought that the statement "academic instruction" takes precedence over administrative meetings were a matter of opinion and not, in fact, a matter of fact, and not one I thought I would have to explain TO THE DEAN OF INSTRUCTION.
Hear hear! Regular teachers have meetings after school, during lunch, and/or before school. Why should administrators be any different? GIVE THE KIDS THE LIBRARY BACK!!!
My comments do not describe my own situation -- I love my colleagues and my "bosses" -- but many teachers would be PETRIFIED to even consider WRITING, much less publicly PERFORMING, pieces like this. But I will promise you: many of them would like to. And they would slay, just like Taylor Mali did here. Unfortunately, there are too many districts in which free exchange of ideas is stifled, bureaucracy trumps reason, and adversarial relations between "staff" and "management" keeps topics in people's heads, or in hushed tones in the staff room, or in the parking lot. Facilities management -- we're seeing that all over the SW with 100 degree classrooms -- or non-existent supplies, or technology promises from the district that are MADE but not KEPT.... the list goes on. There are a LOT of teachers like Taylor. I know several. They are smart, passionate, and fierce. I'm lucky, because in my district (a little town in Oregon) we are encouraged to talk and share and gripe and question and dream. Sadly... that doesn't happen everywhere.
I just got an email informing me that after spending millions of dollars on technology, the district could no longer afford $3200 to utilize that technology. I thought of this video.
Heh, it easy to see how one might make that mistake given the confusion, eh? In "one of my classes is," the subject is "one" and "my classes" is the object of the preposition "of." So, for subject-verb agreement, it would be "one of my classes is." You wouldn't say "one of my friends are a guy," or "one of my books are green." All that sentence diagramming you hated had a purpose, no?
Blame Apple. Stupid MacBooks have the worst speakers ever. Still, the levels here could stand some normalization. It's not really necessary to have his yelling 50dB louder than the base talking. ;-) Fantastic Writing and performance, as always from Taylor! :-)
@hazelgreenxoxo What's wrong with being cocky? It's much more tolerable than the lack of self-confidence that so many people in society exhibit today. When you're passionate about something, and you are good at it, you SHOULD be cocky.
No, one is the subject. Objects of the preposition can not be subjects of a sentence. Of is, in fact, a preposition. Following that, classes is the object of the preposition. Therefore, classes can not be the subject. One is therefore the subject.
You do realize, that half of the poem's humor is in the fact that he yelled out half the words. If this were actually read as a letter, it would not be nearly as funny.
