"BANG! You don't know me."

Young women used their hands to fan themselves in the heat emitted by Daniel Beaty's large performance turnout, Daniel Beaty's performance, and Daniel Beaty himself.

"BANG! You don't know me."

Young men looked up to this man with admiration, wishing they would draw the young women's attention like Daniel Beaty did.

"BANG! You don't know me." The audience of students, teachers, and administrators alike focused in on lines like these, delivered expertly by the one and only Beaty.

Beaty performed a shortened version of his play "Emergence-SEE!" on Feb. 28, one of the only times in Grant history when almost all students rushed toward—not away from—a school assembly. It was demanded that the whole student body be allowed to attend, in protest of the original plan that select English classes have the privilege.

"Emergence-SEE!" tells the story of how people might react if a slave ship arose from the Hudson River. The slave ship is called Remembrance, telling people to embrace who they are by remembering their pasts—no matter how painful. Forty-three characters have roles in the play, and Beaty plays all of them.

How Beaty ended up performing at Grant has its own story, for which former Grant teacher Linda Christensen deserves the credit.

She first saw Beaty perform on HBO's Def Poetry Jam. "I stayed up all night watching Daniel Beaty on Def Poetry Jam," she recalled. From that point on her admiration for him only grew. "I was willing to go anywhere in the U.S. to see the play," she said.

Beaty performing his monologue as Clarissa, a young girl. Photo by Sarah Hunter

Christensen read about Beaty in New York, saw his play in Seattle, and arranged his performance at Grant. "I wanted several audiences to experience Beaty: students, teachers, and community members," Christensen said.

Toni Hunter, Kim Patterson, Grant's English Department, and Leslie Rennie-Hill in the office of PPS High Schools helped Christensen's idea take shape.

Before Beaty's performance captivated the Grant, Roosevelt, Jefferson, and Marshall student audience, he touched the hearts of a smaller group of students lucky enough to attend his poetry workshop called "Write the past/create the future."

Those students quickly learned from Beaty that "write" also means "right."

Beaty instructed them to write a poem that began with a past hardship and transitioned into a dream for the future. Any other environment would find volunteer sharers hard to come by, but Beaty declared the Grant library, the site of his workshop, a "safe space" and for the next half an hour more hardships and dreams passed through the room than anyone else could have inspired out of the same group over many years.

Beaty also shared some pieces of his own life. He talked about his father's heroine addiction and imprisonment, his brother's crack addiction, his mother's sacrifices for her children, and his own ways to cope with the curve balls life sometimes throws. "My saving grace was my relationship to my writing—to my art," said Beaty.

Beaty demonstrates poetry performance to a group of students at his poetry workshop. Photo by Sarah Hunter

Beaty's writing reflects much of his personal experiences. "Some of the poems in particular are autobiographical," he said. As a specific example Beaty cited the poem called "Duality Duel," in which he fights between the "nerd and the nigga in me." Beaty says he ran into this problem when he taught in a New York community that reminded him of the "ghetto" in Dayton, Ohio, where he grew up. "I had to…bring both sides of me together," he said.

The same poem brings up another problem, addressed by one student who asked Beaty's opinion of the n-word. "I don't use the n-word in everyday life," Beaty responded. "I personally feel it's like picking the leaves off the tree when the roots are poisoned." In other words, he feels the issue at hand goes deeper than the debated usage of a single word.

Beaty said his inspiration, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., touched on the deeper issue. "Through his words he was shifting the conscience of the world," said Beaty. Now, Beaty seeks to do the same, to write and right the past, and to create the future without ever letting anyone make him lose sight of his dreams. The 2007 Obie Award for Outstanding Writing and Performance his play received, the standing ovations he received from the audience in the Grant auditorium, and the many fans he made out of the students at his poetry workshop show the extent to which he has aspired and inspired.

Besides his writing, what kept Beaty going was his own advice: "Tomorrow is not a promise. Think big; take chances. Why not?"