The first item's importance to a writer was not too difficult to discern. But the piece of footwear's relevance beyond its traditional use was less obvious.
Pinkney then explained: One day, during her daily 5 a.m. swim at her neighborhood YMCA in Brooklyn, N.Y., she came up with a great idea. But there was one problem: She had left her notebook at home.
Desperate to capture the thought before it floated out of her mind, she improvised. Thus, her flip flop became a makeshift notebook, and that idea that she scrawled on the flip flop's heel gave her the "footing" to write "Seven Candles for Kwanzaa."
"The myth of genius is that you have to be some kind of genius to be an author, and that is not true," Pinkney told the GA middle-schoolers. "Go to a pool, write it on your hand, your bathing suit, flip flop, whatever it takes to get down -- a notebook. But the main thing is that you all write."
Greenwich Academy students are already familiar with much of the writing that has emerged from Pinkney's early morning brainstorming. In recent weeks, middle-schoolers have read Pinkney books in their advisory groups, while the school's library staff has introduced lower-school pupils to her work.
Pinkney's writings include novels and picture books, with many of them focusing on the civil rights movement and transformative sociopolitical and cultural figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Alvin Ailey and Sojourner Truth.
While discussing "Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down," Pinkney said the "Greensboro Four" of North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University who launched the sit-in movement in 1960 were not much older than the middle-schoolers whom she addressed. She then asked them to picture themselves in the same situation.
"You leave Greenwich Academy," she said. "You go to a place to eat. You sit down quietly. It's been a long day. You sit down, and now the tables are turned, now you are not being served. You are being discriminated against.
"Not only that, but those beautiful (Greenwich Academy) sweatshirts, someone comes up to you and squirts ketchup on them, and they put some pepper in their hands, and they flick that pepper in your eyes, which really burns. And, all of a sudden, somebody comes up out of nowhere, and they spit in your face because they don't want you there. What would you do in that situation?"
Pinkney also discussed the importance of her family. One member of her household is particularly involved with her work; her go-to illustrator is her husband, Brian Pinkney.
She explained how her husband, as a visual artist, works with the same dedication to historical accuracy as she does, using as an example a scene at Carnegie Hall from "Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra."
"Even the artist has to make sure all his facts are correct," she said. "The clothing must be correct for that evening. The car -- fenders, hubcaps, wheels change every year -- is the correct car for that night. The façade of Carnegie Hall is correct. Even the flag must have 50 stars and 13 stripes on it."
Students said they enjoyed Pinkney's presentation, praising her for her dynamic speaking style. They noted, for instance, how she opened her talk with the civil-rights anthem "This Little Light of Mine."
"I thought it was really interesting how she talked about her books, but also told us about her life, and it was great to see the books with the covers and everything together," said eighth-grader Isabelle Weiss. "It was really nice to see how she brainstorms and what she does to make the books as great as they are."
Greenwich Academy administrators Pinkney gave high marks.
"I thought she beautifully interwove history with her personal narrative," said Nina Hanlon, assistant head of middle school. "We could all connect with her message. She did a great job of engaging with all of us."
Pinkney said she looks forward to interacting with students during her school visits.
"I get ideas for books," she told Greenwich Time. "I like to hear what they're reading, what inspires them, and I like to hear what they would like to read about. And I also like to get a sense of things that they don't know about.
"It seems like ancient history to them, but it's not that long ago that African-American and white students couldn't be together. It did exist."
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