“Storytelling has always provided for us a context of who we are,” Emmy Award winning actor, producer and education advocate LeVar Burton told the audience during his talk Wednesday at Saint Louis University’s Marvin and Harlene Wool Center.
Burton made a point to illustrate the important link between storytelling and learning for his contribution to the speaker series presented by SLU Great Issues Committee and the Department of English.
He is perhaps best known for his starring role in Roots and as host of Reading Rainbow, a show which ran for 26 years – and is the fourth longest running show in PBS history. Burton recollected how the creators of Reading Rainbow and he used television the to steer kids in the direction of literature.
Since the show ended in 2009, Burton has redirected his focus towards a newer generation of children with the Reading Rainbow App (http://apple.co/2k7v6sr). Burton credits this app as part of the future platform of solving the crisis of literacy and education. He believes that the technology in place now can give kids more of an interactive learning experience.
“People ask me all the time, printed or digital books. I don’t care I just want kids to read,” Burton said.
The foundation for his love of literature and arts stems from his mother Erma Gene Christian.
“She really is the first of whom I consider to be my storytelling mentor,” Burton said in an interview with EDTech magazine (http://bit.ly/2iPiH7J).
He also stressed the importance of diversity in media platforms to create healthy self-images. Burton cited creator of Star Trek Gene Roddenberry as someone who inspired him at an early age to realize there was a place for him and other minorities on TV. His childhood fantasy came to reality when he played Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge, in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
“I share 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,” Burton said. “Television was hardly better in terms of reflecting a world as racial diverse as the one I lived in every day. It was rare to see lead actors like Clarence Williams III. Seeing ‘Star Trek’ on TV was huge for me growing. Having seen Nichelle Nichols on TV. What Gene was saying is that when the future came there was a place for me.”
During the Q&A session of the lecture, Burton was asked to share his thoughts on the current state of politics, in particular the recent confirmation of Betsy Devos as Secretary of Education under the Trump administration.
“Rise the [f-word expletive] up,” Burton said. “We need to fund the soldiers in ourselves, rise together, and make our voices heard. We must be loud enough and long enough until the listening begins.”
Burton recalled the time he joined Fred Rogers (best known for his PBS show Mr. Rogers) and network executives to meet with then President Bill Clinton and his staff on the topic of the effect of television on children.
“When it was his time to speak, he (Fred Rogers) did something simple,” Rogers said. “He asked everyone to close their eyes and think about someone who helped them reach their potential in life if that be teacher or whoever.”
He then reminded the crowd to remember no one can succeed life alone.
“We need to find the soldiers in ourselves, rise together, and make our voices heard,” Burton said. “We must be loud enough and long enough until the listening begins.”
