LeVar Burton’s Keynote

♪ ♪ I believe that literacy is the birthright of every single one of us, no exceptions. I believe that it is difficult, if not impossible to reach one's full potential without being able to read in at least one language. You might be able to get by or even become successful beyond your wildest dreams, but you will not have reached your most full potential, the highest possible outcome for your life. Further, I believe that literacy paves the way to becoming a lifelong learner. And an individual who becomes a lifelong learner is what I consider to be a dangerous individual, indeed. In fact, my whole life has been about encouraging dangerous individuals: people who love the written word, people who have the power to self-educate long after formal schooling is over, people who don't have to take anybody's word for it -- least of all, my own.

It has been a significant part of my mission in life to help turn children who can read into readers for life, knowing that we're fulfilling one's highest potential is concerned, literacy is indeed the key. I believe it is important to recognize that in this digital age, in which we find ourselves, that the definition of literacy must continue to evolve. Now, these days, literacy is not only defined as fluency in reading and writing, but it also implies a fluency in critical thinking, to be able to communicate complex ideas in a simple form. And to that end, and in the service of educating our children, we have rapidly embraced the value of teaching STEM to our kids, and STEAM. Now, including the arts in this mix is a no-brainer to me because now we're talking about a much more well-rounded approach to how we educate our children.

So given the world in which we are living and the speed at which our world is changing, making sure that our children are literate in science, technology, engineering, art, and math makes perfect sense to me. However, I believe we need to take STEAM one step further. Why not STREAM? Hmm? Because with the inclusion of the indispensible R for Reading, now we've got a system that builds on the premise of a balanced program that teaches across curriculum, and a system that values the whole student, the physical, emotional, social, and cognitive aspects of our children. Based on my personal experience, there is no doubt in my mind that reading is the single most important activity in which we can engage for building knowledge. I'm a firm believer in the idea that every single one of us has to live out a specific purpose with our lives.

We are here, I believe, to contribute to humanity's on-going efforts to rise above our human limitations and deliver what I consider to be our gift to the world, our destiny, if you will. Now it might surprise you to find out that I had a completely different idea of my own destiny when I was growing up. At the ripe old age of 8, I decided that I was going to become a Catholic priest, after all priests were -- in my life -- the most positive male role models that I had, plus, priests didn't pay taxes, even at 8 I was aware of the inherent bias in the United States tax code. These days I self-identify as a storyteller, that is how I see myself -- as an actor, a director, writer, producer, podcaster. I genuinely believe that storytelling has the power to fuel all aspects of our children's higher-mind development and learning potential.

Storytelling, and a child's robust exposure to storytelling is an essential cornerstone is developing in the human being a connection which makes us the most unique animal in our solar system, at least as far as we know, and that is our power to imagine. You see, our imaginative power, our ability to project ourselves into a past, a present, or a future moment outside of, apart from this now moment of experience. That is our superpower as human beings. No other species can do that. It is our imagination that causes us to be able to conceptualize, devise, and design every manner of invention or idea that has ever propelled us forward on our human journey.

Now, I am huge fan of science fiction literature, and I think that it's because in science fiction it invites us to contemplate what I believe to be are two of the most powerful words in combination in language: What. . . if? And by accepting that invitation to contemplate the "what if?", we literally unleash our superpower on the very nature of reality, the very nature of possibility in this realm, often times, resulting in the seemingly miraculous. If there are any Star Trek fans in the audience, you will understand me, and here's my point.

I am convinced that some fan of the original Star Trek, who was continuously exposed to those images of William Shatner, as Captain Kirk, reaching back to that secret Velcroed place on his hip, because there are no pockets in the future, I know, because I've been there. That person -- accustomed to seeing Kirk flip open his communicator and call the Enterprise, "Scotty, beam me up!" Well, that person grew up to become a scientist, perhaps an engineer, and designed a product that at one time was more prolific on this planet than a toaster. By a show of hands, how many of you have used or seen someone use a flip cell phone? Hmm? The link between what we imagine and what we create is inexorable. They cannot be separated. They are, in fact, interconnected aspects of the same power of creation that we all possess.

Some of the examples of how this principle has played out in the Star Trek universe alone are literally life changing. Uhura's ear piece has become the ubiquitous Bluetooth device. We carried iPads around on the Enterprise before they were invented. You think Steve Jobs wasn't a Star Trek fan? I believe Apple owes me money. And right now there are companies working on a method of maximizing computing power in real time called Geosynchronous Systems Architecture, that will one day soon help us realize Star Trek's Holodeck.

There are prototypes for technology that can bring sight to the blind that are modeled on the visor that my character Geordi La Forge wore. Therein lies our superpower. That, upon which we focus our imagination, is what we tend to manifest in this realm. And the very nature of our ability to create is connected to our facile ability to imagine. And it is our imagination that connects us to our birthright as storytellers.

You see, we are in fact a species designed to be creators as storytellers, it's in our DNA. We are part of an ancient storytelling continuum, continuously evolving from oral tradition, through the written word, to the predominantly visual storytelling idioms of the modern age. It is through the stories that we tell each other that we literally create the world as a reflection of who we are. It is our stories that have always provided us with a context for who we are, why we're here, where we're going, and even more importantly, what will my particular contribution be in the service of achieving our uniquely human destination? Now, from the very beginning it seems that my life was destined to revolve around storytelling, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that my destiny placed me on a path that put me in relationship with those who became my storytelling mentors. Gene Roddenberry was an amazing visionary, and I've already shared with you my love for science fiction literature.

And when I was growing up, it was certainly rare for me to see depictions in the pages of those novels of heroes who looked like me. Television was hardly any better in terms of reflecting a world that was as racially diverse as the one I lived in every day. Outside of the Vietnam War, where the majority of our armed forces were young black men, it was rare for me on TV to see people who looked like me. It was rare to see lead actors like Clarence Williams III in his glorious afro as Lincoln Haze on The Mod Squad, right? In this age of Carrie Washington in Scandal and Viola Davis as the star of How to Get Away with Murder, and Donald Glover in absolutely anything he wants to be in, it is difficult -- perhaps -- for you to imagine how rare it was for Diane Carroll to star in her own television series, Julia on NBC in 1968. So Star Trek on TV was huge for me growing up.

Seeing Nichelle Nichols on the bridge of the Enterprise meant the world to me because what Gene was saying to me as a storyteller was that there was a place for me and people who looked like me in the future. I cannot impress upon you enough just how important it is to see ourselves represented in the popular culture in order for a healthy self-image to be formed and developed. That's why I believe so strongly in the issue of representation on film, on television, and in books. It's so important for us all to understand because, absent exposure to healthy reflections of one's self in popular culture, a child is sent a very powerful message, a message that says: You are not important enough to have your story told. The message that says: You do not matter, and that is not okay with me.

Further, I believe we are personally responsible for the stories that we put out there through our thoughts, our words, and our actions. Human beings are constantly in storytelling mode with our very lives as the medium of communication. We are storytelling itself, personified in physical form. The truth about being human is that consciously or unconsciously we are constantly in storyteller mode, going through life introducing ourselves to one and other, and hearing one and other's stories. In my childhood it was my mother who first introduced me to the magical properties of storytelling.

It is from her that I have inherited my passion for stories and storytelling, because you see my mother was a voracious reader. She always had two or three books at a time, sometimes more for her personal enjoyment. So in addition to reading to me as I was growing up, I was always saw my mother reading. She always had a book in her hand. And so my childhood was steeped in the understanding that reading is as important to the survival of the human being as is breathing.

We took delivery of two daily papers when I was a kid. Anyone old enough to remember that? Anyone old enough to remember newspapers? Whenever I have the opportunity to speak my mother's name in public, I do. Erma Gene Christian -- that was my mother's name. My mother passed a couple of years ago now, and although I miss her every single day, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am the man that I am because she was the woman she was. I could easily have been one of those statistics with which we are all too familiar: black male child, raised in a single parent household.

I was a latchkey kid because my mom worked 9 to 5. But, you see, Erma Gene was a powerful human being. And she was determined that I would reach my full potential in life, even if that meant she had to kill me. Of course I'm kidding, mm, sort of. My mother was four-foot ten, weighed about a buck and a quarter, and even as a grown man I was still afraid of that woman.

Seriously. The truth is that my mother had standards and there were consequences if you failed to meet them. My mother had hopes for me and expectations. My mother had dreams for me. And because my mother knew fully-well the value of being educated, it was paramount in our family.

Erma Gene's first degree in English language and literature was from Philander Smith, a historically black college in Little Rock, Arkansas. After two years of higher education at Kansas University, she transferred to Philander in 1954, and graduated at the age of 19. She was the first person in her family to go to college. Her second career was in the field of social work. And after earning her MSW, a master's degree in social work from night school while working a full time job as a social worker during the day, and raising three children by herself.

My mother made it her priority to instill in me one of the most important values a human being can pass one to another. My mother taught me that there are no limits to what I could accomplish in life, with the exception of those limits that I might self impose. She instilled in me the importance of education because she knew that in America, a quality education is education is the proverbial ultimate leveler of the playing field. My mother knew that I would grow up, and would one day inherit a world that sometimes would be hostile to my presence simply because of the color of my skin. And she knew that the best thing she could do for me, as my mother, was to -- in this world full of inequality -- give me the self-confidence with which I could compete on a more level playing field with my more melanin challenged peers.

She didn't sugarcoat it either. My made me understand that because of my color my journey in life was not going to be an easy one. She told me that as a black male in America, my life would be fraught with injustice and rage at the unfairness of that injustice, and Erma Gene was right. She told me that my journey might even at times be life threatening, and Erma Gene was right. She informed me that I would need to adopt a process that enabled me to survive any encounter with law enforcement, and Erma Gene was right.

But she assured me that -- that I had the wherewithal to persevere through all of it. She told me -- and the story that I embraced as my own was that I was capable of triumph over any adversity, and that it was my right to define my destiny for myself. Now, some stories have the power to impact us, not only as individuals, but it can influence the trajectory of entire societies, as well. In January of 1977, another of my storytelling mentors, Alex Haley's family story Roots was told through the eyes of his ancestors, and it literally shifted the consciousness of this nation over eight consecutive nightly television installments, and it really served to reset our national frame of reference around slavery in America. Roots gave us the unvarnished truth about the brutal, inhumane, shameful cruelty of our slaveholding past, and the irreparable damage that was systematically inflicted on an entire race of people.

There was an America before Roots and there was an America after Roots. Before Roots, America was able to tell itself that slavery was a justified, even necessary mechanism that enabled this nation to rise to become the economic power that it is. After Roots, it became impossible to even think of slavery without visualizing its impact on the African people, who were so unjustly enslaved, and all of that was accomplished with one family's story. A story of Kunta Kinte, his daughter Kizzy, and her son Chicken George, and on and on down through the generations, all brilliantly brought to life in our living rooms via the technology of television. [cries in pain] James.

. . Your name is Toby. I want to hear you say it. Your name is Toby.

You're going to learn to say your name. Let me hear you say it. What's your name? Kunta, Kunta Kinte. [cries in pain] When the master gives you something you take it. He gave you a name.

It's a nice name. It's Toby and it's going to be yours until the day you die. Now I know you understand me, and I want to hear it. Again! [whip] [cries in pain] I want to hear you say your name. Your name is Toby.

What's your name? [gasps for air] Kunta. . . [heavy gasps] [cries in pain] Lord God, help that boy. They're going to whip him dead.

[whip] What's your name? Say it! Toby, who are ya? Say your name. [whip] [cries in pain] What's your name? Toby. Ay, say it again. Say it louder so they all can hear you! What's your name?! [gasping] Toby. My name is Toby.

Ay, that's a good nigger. Cut him down. ♪ ♪ [heavy gasping] ♪ ♪ Shh. . .

Don't you care what that white man call you. Make you say Toby, what you care? You know who you be. Kunta, that's who you always be. Kunta Kinte. They're going to be another day.

You hear me? They're going to be another day. ♪ ♪ Roots, like so many other family stories, is a powerful example of the idea that we, all of us truly stand on the shoulders of those who have come before us. And in my case, those who were willing to sacrifice and sweat, and shed blood, and even give that ultimate measure of their lives to ensure that their children and their children's children might live in a world that values an individual, not as property, or a commodity to be bought and sold for labor, but acknowledged as a human being worthy of dignity and respect that any human being deserves. And recent events should inform us all that the urgent need to make structural systemic changes in this country around the intersection of race and equality is essential. And if we fail to take advantage of this moment and make these changes, God help us all.

That clip from Roots is also a powerful example of the use of technology in the service of storytelling, the technology of moving pictures and sound. Regardless of your individual learning strategy, whether you're a visual and auditory or a kinesthetic learner, in a storytelling experience involving moving pictures and sound, we're capable of accessing multiple layers of storytelling events simultaneously. The color of that woman's dress on the screen, the musical score in the background, the conversations that the actors are having, we're taking in information all of the time, and mostly it's unconscious consumption. Moving pictures combined with sound. For a human being, there is hardly a more effective method of communication.

Our senses, our antenna as human beings are remarkably open to moving pictures and sound. We are naturally predisposed to storytelling that combines these two communications modalities. In short, storytelling in the digital age is very probably the most advanced system for learning in the history of civilization. Think about it, almost every aspect of our lives has already been transformed by technology, yet we are really just beginning to understand how it can help to transform education. Today's students are growing up with an abundance of media sources and digital devices.

And they assume that smartphones, e-books, tablets, and gaming consoles will be available for instant access to their content anytime, anywhere. That's why several years ago I reimagined Reading Rainbow for today's generation of tech-savvy kids. You see, television was simply the technology that we used back in the day to meet children where they were and then take them where we wanted them to go. If you want the attention of this next generation of learners, you need to be in the digital realm with your content. And my message today is the same as it was over three decades ago, when we give kids access to a rich library of books and other media that resonates with them, we provide opportunities for learning that are so much deeper, much more personal, and most importantly student driven.

I believe that we need to harness the incredible engagement factor that technology affords us, and press it into the service of educating our kids. Engaging, well designed, carefully curated content delivered directly to the student device agnostic is what I'm talking about. Now, before I go any further, let me address the elephant in the room, the real books versus digital books elephant. Now I think you know how I feel about books, I love them. But here's the thing, I firmly believe that sooner or later we will come to the conclusion that it is no longer a sustainable practice to make books out of trees.

So a lot of our reading, in fact most of our reading will be done on a digital device. We will still print books, however we will print far fewer of them. Now I don't want to hear on the internet later today that LeVar said we won't print books anymore, that's not what LeVar said. We will still print books. In fact, I believe the category of books that we will always print is children's books because that experience of sitting in the lap, that first exposure to literature and the power of the written word is an integral experience for the human being.

Folks ask me all the time, printed books or digital books for my kids? And I tell them I don't care. I simply want our kids to read. And by the way, back in the day, the fear was that television was going to be the death of education. The fear was that TV would rot the brains of our children, making them unfit to engage in any meaningful learning at all. Well, that is kind of what happened, but allow me to say this.

I believe all television is educational. The question is, what are we teaching? With Reading Rainbow, because of its ability to engage in audience with quality content using moving pictures and sound, we were able to deliver our message, the importance of literacy, and the power that it has to change lives. So, we began using the medium of television to get kids to read more. I genuinely believe that in smartphones and tablets we literally hold in our hands a technology that can help us revolutionize the way we educate our children, and here's how. Every culture on this planet has a tradition of storytelling.

Now, what if -- mm? What if we take whatever information or subject matter we choose, history, science, language, whatever, embed that information in storytelling, using the cultural storytelling idioms native to that child, put those interactive stories on devices, maybe throw in some gaming mechanics, some leveling up, a rewards system, and we can -- for this current generation and beyond -- seal one of the largest gaps that stands in the way of our children reaching their highest potential. There is one more of my storytelling mentors that I have yet to mention, and that is my friend Fred Rogers. Now, many of you may know him as Mr. Rogers. I was once at the White House with Fred and it was a room full of heavy hitters: President Bill Clinton and Vice President Gore were there, their wives -- Hillary and Tipper were in attendance, and the table was just packed with movie and television executives, a lot of type A personalities that -- let's say -- felt themselves to be the most important person in the room.

But when it came time for Fred to speak, he conducted an amazing experiment, which I will share with you in a moment, he asked the audience to close their eyes and focus on a teacher, someone who had seen their potential in life and encouraged them towards it. You see Fred believed that none of us do this thing called life alone, that we all have help, guidance, assistance, and it is those teachers and mentors that identify our talents and help light that spark and fan it into flame, that we all need to reach our full potential. So he asked everybody in attendance to close their eyes and think of that teacher, and he said I will keep track of a time, and let's do it for thirty seconds, and as on that day I will ask you to do the very same thing: close your eyes, and think of that person, that teacher that saw who you were and encouraged you to rise, and I'll keep the time. How did that feel? None of us get through this thing called life without somebody recognizing who we are and encouraging us on our destiny path. And one final note before I go.

Music, of course plays an incredibly important role in our lives and we have all been subject to the powerful effects of storytelling and song. And one of my favorite recording artists is the jazz singer Diane Reeves. And over the years her song called "Testify" has become something of an anthem for me. In the song Diane says, "Sometimes we won't understand why life is the way it is. Things don't always go the way we planned them.

" "But I believe," she says that, "God and time are synonymous. " "And through time, God reveals all things. " "Be still," she says, "stand in love and pay attention. " Well, what that means to me, and I contemplate it every time I recite those words in my head or aloud, be still because otherwise we will never hear that small voice within guiding us along our way. Stand in love because, well, I believe that standing in love is the only sane response to being human.

We think that we protect ourselves by closing our heart, but in fact it is exactly the opposite. It is the open heart that is always safe. And pay attention, well, that's easy because unless we're paying attention we might miss someone or something that has the story that will help us achieve our most high potential in this world, our destiny. You've all been a wonderful audience. Thank you very, very much for your time, for your energy, for your attention. I will see you next time, but you don't have to take my word for it.