From the Bronx to the World: European Book Tour for Pawn Takes Rook

From the Bronx to the World: The Literacy Lab Goes Global

Opening Entry — Atlanta, Georgia

There’s a certain energy that builds before a journey like this—one part anticipation, one part responsibility, and one part reflection. Today, that energy begins in Atlanta.

Join me this month as I travel to London, Leeds, Liverpool, and Lisbon, Portugal for a tour exploring Hip Hop’s global impact while discussing my new book, Pawn Takes Rook. Along the way, I’ll be documenting the experience here—through writing, video, images, and the ideas that emerge in real time.

But this journey doesn’t start in Europe.

It starts right here in Georgia.

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The First Stop: Macon

Before crossing the Atlantic, I’ll be heading to Macon for a book signing on Saturday, April 4th at Barnes & Noble. There’s something meaningful about beginning this international tour in the South—grounded in community, conversation, and the very people who shaped my journey as an educator and writer.

From there, it’s back to Atlanta to prepare for departure.

London awaits.

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Why This Journey Matters

This trip is not just about travel. It’s about documentation, storytelling, and pedagogy.

As a 5th grade reading and writing teacher in Gwinnett County, I want my students to see that writing is not confined to a classroom or a worksheet. Writing is alive. It moves. It captures experience.

I’ll be documenting this journey for them—intentionally.

• How do you translate a moment into language?
• How do images and video deepen a story?
• How do you bring the reader along for the ride?

This blog is, in many ways, a live demonstration of the Literacy Laboratory in motion—a global extension of the work we do every day in class.

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Across the Atlantic

This will be my second time in London, a city layered with culture, sound, and history. But it will be my first time in Leeds and Liverpool—two cities I’m looking forward to experiencing through the lens of music, education, and community.

Traveling by train across the UK adds another dimension to the journey. There’s something about moving through space—watching landscapes shift—that creates room for reflection, for writing, for ideas to take shape between destinations.

After the UK, I’ll spend a day in Lisbon before returning to the United States.

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The Return Journey

But even the return isn’t simple.

Before coming back to Atlanta, I’ll make a brief stop in New York City to reconnect with the team at The Hip Hop Museum—a place that continues to shape the vision of this work.

From there, I’ll head to Washington, D.C. for the International Conference on Education, where I’ll continue conversations about Hip Hop, literacy, and global education.

Then—and only then—will the journey circle back to Atlanta.

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An Invitation

This is an open invitation.

To educators.
To students.
To artists.
To anyone interested in how culture, movement, and learning intersect.

Walk with me through airports, classrooms, train stations, and cities. Through conversations, performances, and quiet moments of reflection.

This is what it looks like when the classroom expands beyond four walls. This is what it means to take the Literacy Lab global.

And this is just the beginning.