I would not be the person/writer/artist/lawyer/organizer I am today if not for Professor Kenan.
He was one of the many instructors I had as a student in UNC’s Creative Writing Program whose encouragement, guidance and support were creative sanctuary for me as an undergraduate. Even years after graduation, when we spoke during a reading and book-signing in Boston, he asked, “What are you working on?” and when I had my first essay published in 2013, he was one of the people I shared the news with. He introduced me to James Baldwin, Studs Terkel, the practice of oral history and fanned a flame that would eventually lead me into the vocation of documentary.
I’m grateful for his light.