Staring toward the front of the classroom with bright eyes and mouths wide open, a sixth grade English class is mesmerized by the young man in front of them. Julian David Randall, Parker student intermittently in the early 2000s–and a performance poet, educator, and arts advocate whose work focuses on his personal exploration of ideas regarding social justice, blackness, and love–is reading to a room full of budding poets a poem from his first collection “On the Way Here.”

Randall’s manuscript “Refuse” was recently selected for the 2017 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, for which Randall will receive $1,000, publication by The University of Pittsburgh Press in fall 2018, complimentary copies of the book, and a feature reading in New York City. From the Cave Canem Foundation: “Launched in 1999 with Rita Dove’s selection of Natasha Trethewey’s ‘Domestic Work,’ this first-book award is dedicated to the discovery of exceptional manuscripts by black poets of African descent.”

“This is an autobiographical story about a teenager from Logan Square,” Randall said, “ and how he lives and navigates in world.”

Randall is excited about the prize. “It is very surreal to me,” Randall said. “It is weird that someone calls you on a Tuesday and says you are part of this.” Randall continued, “This is a strange and wonderful feeling.”

Sixth grade English teacher George Drury said that his students enjoyed listening to Randall. “They enjoyed his work very much,” he said. “They could hear a contemporary voice in it, and they understand that he is making art.”

David Fuder, the eighth grade English teacher, remembers Randall well. “I first met Julian the first day of Eighth Grade when he was a new student at Parker,” Fuder said. “We hit it off really well. He is really bright, thoughtful, and friendly, and he was a really interesting kid.”

Randall is in a Master of Fine Arts Program at the University of Mississippi, “and that is a big deal,” Fuder said. “A select few students were admitted into that program.”

Randall returned to Parker three years ago, when he performed some of his poems and spoke about his journey as a poet. The feedback from the Parker community was positive. Drury said, “Julian made a remarkable, effective and moving presentation of his poems at MX.”

“I loved it,” Fuder said. “I loved seeing him on stage. He was still in college, and so for him, writing was new–the idea of working on a book and having something he could claim as his own.”

Randall’s experience at Parker played a critical role in shaping him as a poet. “He was beginning to explore writing poems in my class,” Drury said. “Prior to that, he considered himself more as a writer of stories. It was always clear he could write.”

“The sky is the limit now,” Randall said. “There has been a lot of talk about this term emerging and what that can mean. This is the beginning of something kind of big.”

Parker had an impact on Randall. “Parker is amazing in a lot of ways and challenging in some ways,” Randall said. “I am a creative writing teacher, and being in an environment like Parker where every teacher was incredibly happy to show up at their job and to find new ways to make the syllabus relevant to us has been hugely influential to me and the ways that I could see the world.”

Randall was a student at Parker from senior kindergarten to sixth grade until he moved in the middle of the year. He then came back for eighth and 9th grade at Parker. He moved to Minnesota in the summer of 2008. Randall said, “I had a wonderful experience with all of the teachers.”

Throughout his Parker career, Randall expressed interest in writing, and as a result, his writing developed. After graduating from college Randall decided to take writing more seriously. He went on to receive much recognition for his writing. “When he arrived in sixth grade, Julian had an inventive mind and was a gracious person,” Drury said, “and his writing reflected that.”

Randall’s collection is part of the Middle School English curriculum. “I still chuckle,” Randall said, “and it is wild to me that has happened.”