"You can’t AI your way into soul."
The joy that radiates from Darius Daughtry as he reflects on his life of words — poet, playwright, educator, role model — began in silence and sorrow.
He was an 8-year-old at Dillard Elementary School, quiet and withdrawn, when a teacher took notice. In his solitude and his manner, she saw an unspoken sadness. She offered him a notebook to put his feelings on paper.
“I was sad. Things happened at home, dad wasn’t around, so I was dealing with some things that an 8-year-old probably shouldn’t be thinking about,” Daughtry says. “She would see me sitting by myself, away from other kids — I wish … I can’t remember her name, for the life of me — but she was kind enough and insightful enough to give me this opportunity to find myself.”
It was a life-changing intervention, and Daughtry has spent the next 40 years trying to pay it forward.
The latest expression of that effort is the third annual Our Voices: Festival of Words, three days of events that begin Thursday and culminate with a free gathering on Saturday at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center and neighboring Samuel Delevoe Memorial Park in Fort Lauderdale.
Read more at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel