TheBurg

Gadsden from a workshop for Harrisburg fifth-graders, when he took them walking along the river and encouraged them to share their stories. "He has a presence with the children that they instantly wanted to hear him speak," says Dalen. "ere's a profoundness in his words that they are eager to listen to more than, perhaps, other voices in their life." She turned to Gadsden. "I think they know you, know who you are," she said. "You're such a presence in the community." Gadsden protests that he's "the old guy now." But Dalen insists that he's respected. "Because it's poetry, you're not lecturing them," she says. "You're not teaching in a linear way but engaging them through an art form." Gadsden concedes to that. "When you get them involved and engaged, it's their words." Former York Poet Laureate Carla Christopher would agree. "Nate makes eye contact with everyone. Nate will reach out and touch everyone," she says. "I don't know how he's still alive. e places he goes, he has put himself at risk so many times." At wordshop meetings, Gadsden "likes to welcome everybody," says Christopher. "He takes the time to personally call each person out by name." Under Gadsden's guidance, Christopher transformed her own writing from issue-based to personal, sharing even the difficult experiences. " ose are the ones I read with people with tears in my eyes," she says. "I have had perfect strangers come up and hug me, and put their heads on my shoulder." MAgIC, WoNDerMeNt A former poet laureate of Harrisburg, Gadsden has written poems for the opening of Whitaker Center and two Steve Reed mayoral inaugurations. He remembers driving while hearing Maya Angelou read her "On the Pulse of Morning" at Bill Clinton's first inaugural and having to pull the car over. Poems commemorate occasions because "they capture our emotions, our fears, our moments of joy." "ey are able to take us into our humanity as well as our imagination, just by crafting our conversation in a different way," says Gadsden. "Poetry is nothing more than a thought, a conversation, a story, but said in a way that brings magic and wonderment to it." At the post-holidays Writers Wordshop, a newcomer named Billy asks if the wordshop is only for poets. Absolutely not, says Gadsden. Because, adds Billy, he writes about "what's happening now." Excellent, says Gadsden. "Stay in your lane, man, if you need to, and just do your thing." Gadsden is also pastor of Imani African Christian Church, co-host with his wife of the CBS21 public affairs show "Life Esteem," and community impact manager at United Way of the Capital Region (yes, through all this, he has a day job). Patricia Gadsden, Nate's wife, is the founder of Life Esteem, a life skills consulting firm that employs Gadsden as a coach. e two, married for 21 years, complement each other with "the same kind of energy," says Gadsden. "Pat's a creator and a builder." Gadsden likes to look at issues from different perspectives, and he is contemplating a book that anthologizes his life's poems, but rewritten and updated. "You mature and grow," he says. "I could leave those poems alone, but I think I'll go back and rework them and see if I have the energy to make them better or make them different or more insightful." As the conversation ends, Gadsden mentions that he serves on the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg board, and you realize that, for a man who's juggling so many positions, he exudes an aura of peace. People have marveled that he has kept the Writers Wordshop thriving for 38 years. He responds, "Yeah, but it didn't feel like labor." "It's felt like love," he says. "It's been a labor of love." To learn more about Nathaniel Gadsden, visit www.nathanielgadsden.com.

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