'Reading Rainbow' comes to the East Side

“Reading Rainbow” came Thursday to San Antonio, with a little bit of inspiration from Mister Rogers.

Seated before about 20 students in the library of Bowden Elementary School on the East Side, LeVar Burton, host of the long-running children’s show, read his book “The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm.” The children listened silently as Burton narrated the story of a rhinoceros dealing with a storm that wiped out everything he loved.

Burton, also famous for his roles on “Roots” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” said he thought of his friend Fred Rogers while developing the plot.

“Mister Rogers was that adult who always addressed, at an age-appropriate manner to that audience of children, how to navigate a world that is dominated by decisions made by adults,” said Burton, 58. “In a world where we have not just natural disasters but man-made disasters — mass shootings in public places, on school campuses — it seemed to me that somebody needed to address with children how to deal with these incidences that are sometimes very disruptive in our lives.”

The reading was a component of the semiannual President’s Lecture Series at St. Philip’s College, where Burton spoke later on the power of storytelling. Lecture series speakers typically visit classrooms at St. Philip’s, but instead, organizers suggested Burton read to children at the partner school named after the community college’s founding president.

Burton was selected to speak at St. Philip’s after Nina McGrath, director of the college’s fine arts academy and co-chair of the lecture series, made a personal donation to a Kickstarter campaign to expand access to Reading Rainbow’s interactive books and “video field trips.” The donation entitled McGrath to a 10-minute phone conversation with Burton, so she got Adena Williams Loston, the president of St. Philip’s, on the call to invite Burton to the college.

“It’s humbling and emotional that a donation I made would benefit so many people,” McGrath said.

St. Philip’s is the only college in the United States federally designated as both a historically black and Hispanic-serving institution. The President’s Lecture Series features one speaker during Black History Month and one during Hispanic Heritage Month.

When Burton was still in college, he landed a starring role on “Roots,” a 1977 miniseries credited with teaching mainstream America about the cruelty of slavery. Before Burton began reading at Bowden Elementary, representatives from St. Philip’s explained the story of Artemisia Bowden, the first president of the college, which began in 1898 as a school for emancipated slaves.

Burton is visiting about 30 schools nationwide as a reward for Kickstarter donations. Bowden Elementary is the only South Texas school in the tour, Burton said.

“Reading Rainbow” has been off the air since 2009, but a new package of episodes debuted less than a year ago on Netflix, and a second package is coming out soon, Burton said.

“Now that we are introducing ‘Reading Rainbow’ to a whole new generation of Americans, the cycle starts all over again,” he said. “I believe that it’s impossible to reach your full potential in life unless you can read.”

amalik@express-news.net

Twitter: @AliaAtSAEN