CityLit Project is pleased to announce a special event to honor poet, educator and New York Times bestselling children's author Kwame Alexander with the Dambach Award for Service to the Literary Arts. Alexander will receive the award at CityLit SWING on Thursday, September 13, 2018, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Motor House, 120 W. North Avenue in Baltimore. The evening fundraiser will feature lite fare, jazz and entertainment, including a reading by Alexander. Tickets are available to the public on a sliding scale, from $15 to $100, and can be purchased through Eventbrite.

Six years ago, the 2018 NEA Read Across America Ambassador Kwame Alexander struggled to convince twenty-two publishers to take a chance on his novel in verse, “The Crossover,” about twin brothers who starred on their junior high school basketball team. The belief was girls weren’t interested in basketball and boys held no interest in verse. When Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published the book, it became an instant success winning Alexander the Newbery Medal for the Most Distinguished Contribution to American Literature for Children. The New York Times called this work, a “beautifully measured novel of life and lines.” Now the author of over 28 books, including “Solo” and “Rebound,” and the forthcoming “Swing,” is called a visionary, spreading his love of literature around the world. A regular contributor to NPR's Morning Edition, Kwame is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including The Coretta Scott King Author Honor and three NAACP Image Award Nominations.

“CityLit Swing is an opportunity to celebrate the growing literary arts scene in Baltimore,” says CityLit Project executive director Carla Du Pree. “It’s a privilege to fete Kwame in this way, but we also aim to create a new dynamic at the Motor House for poets and writers across the region. Anyone remotely engaged in the literary creative scene should be there.”

Alexander believes poetry can change the world, and he uses it to inspire and empower young people through The Write Thing, his K-12 Writing Workshop. He’s the host and producer of the literary variety/talk show, Bookish. He built the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic, as a part of Leap for Ghana, an international literacy program he co-founded. Poised to have an even larger impact this spring, he’ll have his own imprint at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers, called Versify, for risky, unconventional books. The extraordinary trailblazer Alexander follows Enoch Pratt Library’s Judy Cooper, the 2017 recipient of this award.

The Dambach Award for Service to the Literary Arts is named in honor of CityLit Founding Board Chair Charles (Chic) Dambach, whose wide-ranging career includes serving as President of the Alliance for Peacebuilding and leading Operation Respect with Peter Yarrow. This annual award honors a person, people or organization that has significantly elevated the profile of the literary arts and that nurtures the culture of literature in Baltimore and throughout Maryland, and in the case of Alexander, worldwide. Among his connections to Baltimore, Alexander is a past board member of CityLit Project.

Attendees who purchase tickets at the $100 level will receive a signed copy of “Swing,” a young adult novel in verse written by Alexander and co-author Mary Rand Hess about hope, courage and love that will speak to anyone who’s struggled to find their voice. Quantities are limited. All proceeds benefit CityLit Project, a 501(c)(3) literary non-profit organization based in Baltimore.