Emanuel Washington took a distinct and different journey toward literacy.
This week, while sitting in the living room of his Dinsmore home, he quipped that his poor experience during his educational career left him "dumb as a rock."
To ensure others are not ensnared by a similar situation, he created a nonprofit this year designed to promote literacy through reader’s theaters, a literacy tactic that combines literature with oral traditions.
Washington Cultural Arts and Services will hold reader’s theaters throughout Jacksonville over the next three Saturdays.
The first will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Jessie Ball DuPont Center. The I’m A Star Community Center in Northwest Jacksonville will host the second at 1 p.m. April 22. The T.A. Lang Community Center in Springfield will host the final theater at 11 a.m. April 29
The events are geared for middle- and high school-age boys, but all are welcome.
“As I was growing in my readership as an adult, I was like ‘Man, we as adults need to become more interested in reading, so that our children can become interested in reading,’” Washington said. “Especially for communities of color.”
Washington admits he did not become a reader until adulthood. That’s when he was introduced to “read-alouds,” a teaching technique in which storytellers use pitch, pace, pauses and more to engage emerging readers.
Reader’s theaters are like that — but with more drama.
Washington has spent the last six years holding theaters throughout Jacksonville.
He chose Phil Knight’s 2016 book "Shoe Dog: A memoir by the Creator of Nike” because even the athletically agnostic have heard of the Oregon-based apparel brand. Knight borrowed $50 from his father in 1962 and turned it into a multibillion-dollar corporation.
“If you take literacy as your companion on the journey to adulthood, there could be some really amazing things that can come out,” Washington said. “And that fact of the matter is that through reading books like Phil Knight’s biography, or anybody’s biography, you can then get a quicker role into how to bring ideas to life.”
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 45% of Duval County residents can read at a level at which they can navigate dense, lengthy or complex texts. That figure is below the 46% of people nationwide, but above the statewide level of 42%.
“That’s one of the great benefits of reader theater is that it introduces you — whether you’re a young reader or a mature reader — it introduces you to new words and new pronunciations,” Washington said. “And, by doing that, what it does is it, obviously, increases your vocabulary and increases your intellect.”
Washington found literacy through reader’s theaters. Now, the native Jaxon is ensuring others have an opportunity to get lost in a book.