The Curious Secrets of Ms. Walker 

By Isla Salgado 

There are many aspects of life at HHS that we take for granted, and Ms. Walker’s contributions are one of them. When asked about her go-to genres or simply underrated genres, Walker expounds her love for historical fiction. While Walker loves books, she enjoys so many other forms of media, most notably plays. Additionally, Walker’s role extends outside of being a high school librarian by being a leader for her state union California Teachers Association. I went to chat with Walker about some of her most loved novels, the joys of being a librarian, and her great efforts as a union leader and chair of two statewide committees. Spoiler alert: You’re about to find a treasure trove of new books to indulge in.

Salgado: What are your go-to genres or what book genres do you think are underrated? 

Walker: Ooh genres I think are underrated are historical fiction. I love historical fiction. I think that it’s a great way to learn about the experience of history and not just the facts of what occurred, I also like something called the nonfiction novel. Which is something [that occurred] but the writing style matches more like a fiction even though it is not. I like poetry prose, which is like a standard, paragraph essay but the way that it’s written reminds people of poetry. I both love reading that genre as well as writing it myself. Most students check out fiction for pleasure reading…but I feel like there’s a lot of other genres that are fun to read, particularly poetry. Even what we call companion books. A companion book is when you have two books on the same topic with different genres. For instance, if a student reads a historical fiction [on the] Great Depression then the student would read a nonfiction set in the Great Depression. But it can be as simple as a student reading a book where all the characters are Filipino American and then they find a non-fiction book about Filipino Americans.

I also love plays. I think that it’s really exciting  to read a play or even read it with some friends almost acting it out. We have such a wonderful theater program at Hayward High and [talented instructor] Mr. Kammet. But I don’t see students check out plays as much as I like. 

Salgado: You mentioned prose poetry, how is that different from other kinds of poetry? 

Walker: So when you’re reading aloud, it’s not different. But when you’re reading it on the page it’s different…reading it on a page, it looks like an essay. So, if you weren’t reading the words and noticing how they’re written, it feels like a poem. If you’re just looking at the page, maybe from a distance, you’d think it was a novel. It just has that standard paragraph format. 

Salgado: Interesting. What was your favorite book to read in high school? 

Walker:  Oh, my favorite book to read in high school is so hard, because I was a library kid. I hung out at my school library everyday; I went to the library in my neighborhood which was the Weekes Branch library in South Hayward. […picking a book] feels like picking a favorite child, maybe I’ll just share the books that I’ve read over and over again…There was a book called Escape from Egypt by Sonia Levitin; it [is] a historical fiction based on Exodus and the Bible. It creates a story about young adults in that period who fall in love[…]I like the aspect of two people falling in love who are from totally different identities and the issues that creates. Another book that I read was called Mama’s Girl by Veronica Chambers. It is a memoir by an Afro-Latina about her life in New York growing up and then later her life in Los Angeles when her family moved there. I just love the way she writes and also was very taken with her story and with her experiences as an Afro-Latina and also her experiences matched mine as an African American and some of them were very different, because her family’s country of origin is very different from my family that is from the United States…

In terms of the book of short stories, I really read over and over again: Woman Hollering Creek and Other Short Stories by Sandra Cisneros, which was a collection of stories about really focusing on women who were either Mexican or Chicana and I really love that book. and then the other book of short stories read over and over again is called Arranged Marriage by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Those books of short stories were either set in India and/or the United States and the ones that were set here were in the Bay[…] I found them really fascinating. She was a writer that one of my teachers recommended to me and (actually)  the teacher had one of [Duvakaruni’s] stories as part of our class work and just fell in love with her writing. And my last one is The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou. I also write poetry and was named after Maya Angelou so I would definitely read her over and over again.

Salgado: When would you say your passion for poetry really began?  

Walker: Well, I think it’s one thing to be named after someone who is known as a very famous poet and for people who aren’t familiar, Maya Angelou was both a poet, she wrote memoirs, she wrote fiction, she was a speaker, she was a dancer, she was a performer–I means she’s even the first black woman cable car  driver in San Francisco. She was an activist, produced television and acted and all kinds of amazing things and most people back then knew her as a poet and I think there is something to be said [regarding it] as soon as I was I was old enough to learn who I was named after [ I learned that] I was named after a famous poet. My love for poetry probably started around  2nd grade when I had to memorize poems to recite in front of audiences-and then my own writing of poetry in a formal way probably started around Bret Harte Middle School when I was a 7th grader and I had an assignment to write poetry and I just really enjoyed it and my teacher though that one of the poems I wrote was excellent and she entered it into Hayward Arts Council contest and I won first prize. It was published in our city newspaper [with my picture in it] and yeah my love just really took off from there. When I was a teenager, I was really involved in slam poetry and the spoken word scene as well as throughout college. 

Salgado: That’s pretty awesome! What is a tip that you would give to students that are aspiring to write whether poetry or a novel? 

Walker: Read! Reading poems or novels written by others can be a great source of inspiration. I also encourage students to dedicate some time every week to write, even if their schedule only allows a brief period of time for this endeavor. If you can write every day, even better!

Salgado: What books do you feel English classes should teach? 

Walker: I think some of the books that our English teachers are teaching are phenomenal. I know that we have at least two teachers that taught Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. I know multiple teachers have taught The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, I think that is an extraordinary novel in verse (or novel written like a poem). I know we’ve had teachers teach Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah. I think that’s a wonderful memoir and a great way  to bring in the story of someone who is biracial but is born in a country outside of the US. I know we’ve had teachers teach The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and as you heard in the interview I am in love with Cisneros’ collection of  short stories that I read over and over again when I was a high schooler. […] I think a lot of the books that teachers are teaching are amazing and I am really excited sometimes to hear from both the students and teachers’ experiences of teaching those texts. 

Salgado: So you feel as though students can get a lot from these books and you do not have any recommendations for teachers to teach? 

Walker: I don’t have any recommendations for teachers to teach, because as someone who has worked in a classroom setting, not at Hayward High but elsewhere, teaching works best when the teacher knows how to do good practices, the teachers know what content to teach and how to do it, and the teacher knows how to make it engaging and part of what can make a book engaging is the teacher’s own excitement about it. So, I don’t think that it’s up to me to recommend books to a teacher unless they would come to me–and that has happened– and ask that question and we would have a conversation about what they are looking for and their aim to teach and we would come up with some ideas […] I am not the teacher and I trust their judgement and I trust that they know who is in each of their classes…and they know what might be an enjoyable text to teach. By the way, I only named a few of the books English teachers are teaching. I think a lot of them are really exciting. I just named some that I could see myself teaching to if I was an English teacher. 

Salgado: Deviating from the previous topic, would you think is the best movie adaptation of a book? 

Walker: A movie adaptation of a book is such a great question, because mostly I am completely disappointed. I usually try to make sure that before I watch [an adapted] TV show or movie I read the book first. I think that’s helpful because when you’re reading the book you’re picturing the show and I want to create the world with my own imagination before it’s colored by what the filmmaker thought it should look like. Most of the time I don’t feel like novels on the screen are done as well as they could be. I think that they leave some things they shouldn’t leave out. Sometimes things are changed that shouldn’t be changed. So that’s a really difficult question […] Oh! I got one depiction that I think is perfect–it’s not a movie but it’s a miniseries: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. The miniseries is excellent and here is why: they’ve updated some of the themes in the book. It was still set in the 90’s but they did it in a modern way. They changed something that was central to the story but in a way that made you feel like you were watching a unique story. I didn’t know exactly what was going to happen even though I had read the book. I was excited to be on a journey to see the things that were changed. Also, one of the changes they made added a different racial component that was of interest to me. That was a perfect depiction because it wasn’t just like the book, it stood alone as its own piece of art but it was still a strong piece of art on its own.

Salgado: So you feel as though adaptations should not exactly be based on the book but find their own form of storytelling.? 

Walker: If you do it exactly how the story is written, film is a different medium than literature […] if you’re trying to do the exact same thing even if the book is one of the best books of the world you’re not going to create the best film, because it’s a different experience. You’re seeing visuals, you’re hearing music, and dialogue is different in film. You’re going to have a totally different experience. Whereas with reading a book you have the experience to see inside of a character’s head, you might not need as much dialogue, but you need longer descriptions of what is happening, because you’re not seeing it. A perfect film does not do the story exactly the same, [so filmmakers] have to find a unique way to tell it that’s [determined by] the medium and maybe even the moment. 

I would say that an example would be The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. We know that it was made into a movie that came out many years ago and it is currently a TV series. There are aspects of the series that are true to the book but modernized elements of the story but also just like Little Fires Everywhere changed the racial identity of certain characters to add different racial dynamics. So yeah, I think you would have to do it that way. 

Salgado: So speaking of adaptations, and I know earlier you have mentioned plays, what book would you want the theater class to adapt into a play? 

Walker: I love theater, so that’s also a hard question. I probably would have to pick my favorite play of all time which is The Raisin in the Sun [by Lorraine Hansberry].  I should preface  this by saying the same thing as what I said about English teachers and other teachers teaching a book, it stands for theater as well. I trust Mr. Kammet, he’s an excellent teacher, he has great relationships with students–I trust that the plays he is picking are both the best plays from his discipline […] and the best plays for the students he has. My recommendation is not “Mr. Kammet should do this!” it’s more like ‘that’s my favorite play, and I love to see my students performing it.’  But I go to a lot of the drama productions and am always impressed with them even when the play would not be my favorite play but I love what both the acting students and the stagecraft students bring to the theater.  

Salgado: What is The Raisin in the Sun about? 

Walker: It is set during an era when we are starting to come out of segregation as a country and it depicts an African American family as they are making a plan to buy a home in a white neighborhood, because that is economically advantageous for them, and it has three generations of the family depicted. One of the young adults that is depicted is in a relationship with a man that is an African immigrant […] my description doesn’t do it justice but its really amazing it was a play that has been performed many times, it has been made into movies and so I really encourage people to check it out if they are into plays.  

Salgado: What would you say are the best parts of being a librarian? 

Walker: Ah that’s such a hard question, because I really do love all aspects of my work here so maybe instead of saying the best parts I’ll give you some highlights from the last couple of weeks. So I had a student–and this is something that happens of all the time– who really wanted to read a new book and had very specific things about the book, she had the type of genre she wanted, not just fiction but specific types of fiction, she wanted the story to have either romance or adventure elements, she wanted it to be humorous, she  wanted it to be light without it being too heavy, something that is happening today and not in history, she hoped that maybe the characters would share her ethnicity and gender…I just love those kinds of conversations, because she gave me information and I made recommendations and I might have to look up on my computer a little bit and then come up with some more she would say “Well, I don’t want it to have ‘this’ in it,” and I’m like, “okay, so not that book, let’s try this,”[…] we’ve talked for about 20 minutes and I think we ended up with her checking out a couple of books that I think she may like. You know, if she doesn’t, I told her:  ‘just bring it back and now that I know what you like,  it just helps me with making a future recommendation.’  

Another highlight I love was that a student was waiting for a while for a book that he really wanted to read. I think I mentioned that his teacher recommended it and the student that had it checked out here was late with their book so I made a request to Mt. Eden and they sent it over and I got to deliver it to him and he was just excited to get and I just love that and I hope that he loves the book and I was just able to share with his teacher on how excited he had been about the book and the teacher was like “oh well I hope that it lives up to my recommendation.” 

During the student walkouts I was fortunate enough to go inside classrooms and present the history of student walkouts, student’s rights, and about immigration since that is the focus of the [recent] walkouts. I just love sharing history, especially local history and I love sharing with people their rights whether it’s students or staff members. I am a proud union leader. I do a bit of work in our state union, the California Teachers Association and so I love just letting people know what their rights and responsibilities are so that they can feel empowered. Whether it is a student, or a student’s parent or teacher, I love that. I also had to do some presentations in some classrooms that are about to start reading a new novel and those novels are banned from other places so I went into some presentations on some banned books. That’s just very enjoyable. 

I was also working with some students that were doing spoken word  at the Black History More than a Month Assembly that occurred in the [HUSD] Performing Arts Center for the high schools in our district. So, we had a few Hayward High students perform some spoken word. I was just helping them while they were practicing. That’s just a really enjoyable experience. There were two students who were working on an assignment on banned books after I had done the presentation [… ] They were doing the assignment outside of class and so I was able to help them and they were able to figure out what banned books they wanted to focus on based on their own interest and we went through the assignment together. That’s very enjoyable. I thought Black History month was exciting when we had the Black to School event which brought families of black students onto campus. I was able to present to the families about the African American Student Achievement Initiate which is an award in our district for the parents and caregivers of Black students. I was also able to present to them about what books by or about Black people are being taught in some of our English classrooms as well as present to them about some of the content in some of our history classrooms by and about African Americans or people from across the diaspora. That  was really a great moment. A parent from a past meeting had requested for that to be included in our Black to School. I’ve had a great time talking to our English and social science teachers; gathering that information and then sharing it with the families. 

I think a lot of wonderful stuff happens at Hayward High but people don’t always know about it. Each day is different. It’s hard to tell you what is the best moment. It differs from day to day or even different times of the year. Sometimes it’s just connecting with students. I had a student the other day who was having a rough time personally, and so we had a discussion about it and I hope that I gave her some helpful things that maybe could make her life go a little better. That is something I like. I like providing advice to students and adults. 

Salgado: You’ve done so much! And I just heard that you are part of the teacher’s union… 

Walker: So, I’m actually in a separate union. So there’s the Hayward Education Association (HEA), teachers, counselors, they’re in that union. I’m  in what’s called the Association of Office, Educational and Technical Employees (AEOTE). They are different unions. AEOTE represents educational and technical workers, like secretaries or the people that work in offices, people who do tech work, educational workers like the library and college and career center[…] We are two separate unions in Hayward but we are part of California Teachers Association and we’re both part of the same national union which is the National Educational Association. I’ve also done a lot of work there.  

Salgado: What was the most challenging part of being part of AEOTE or maybe the most positive contributions you’ve made? 

Walker: I would say that one of the most challenging things is what is going on right now. I’m sure you heard about the budget cuts. We are in a budget crisis in the district and budget cuts had to be made. In the last school board meeting, the school board had to vote on cuts and there were a lot of cuts to AEOTE members. And so, after that happened, a lot of people knew that they were losing hours or they wouldn’t have a job any more. [So I have been] talking to people about that, what their rights are, how this happens or how their next school year would look like, because we know now that it is happening. Hopefully things will change before next school year […] That’s just really hard. People put a lot of work into helping students and families and staff members no matter what role they have on campus or in the district. People really care about what they do. People often spend a lot of their own money on students or their school or volunteer their time beyond their paid time. That is just really common among educational workers. To tell somebody to put their heart and soul, blood, sweat and tears into a job that they are not going to have or that some of their hours will be cut […] that’s really heart- wrenching. There’s often tears, often anger. 

All I can do is tell them their rights and what might happen. All I can do is tell them their rights or what kind of circumstances might change for this not to happen. I’m glad that I am able to be there for people. People have been really appreciative of that but it is not fun […] Middle school libraries took a cut so for Bret Harte, Winton, (etc.) Instead of being open all the time during school hours, they are going to be open half as often and [the workers] will lose 50% of their pay. I came and spoke about that; I thought about myself as a Bret Harte student and how I have been in the library every day and how it was a safe space for me, and the librarian had been so kind to me…and I actually started bawling. I was able to get through my speech, fortunately I had it in writing but it was just very emotional. If it was that emotional for me, imagine how emotional it is for the person who might be losing their job or losing hours or figuring out how they are going to be able to support themselves or their families. That’s the hardest part. 

The part that I love about being part of AEOTE is that we respond. If something is happening to one of our members, we go to them, we talk to their boss, we go to meetings with them. If it is something that is happening to multiple people, our leadership addresses it with the district. If people are in danger of getting laid off, we show our support, we put our signs up. You’ll see some people putting  their turquoise AEOTE signs up. We wear our AEOTE shirts, There’s people from Hayward High that go to the AEOTE meetings. We really stand up for each other. We really stand up for the rights of students and their families and staff and have the best possible schools that can happen. Not just for the adults but for the kids, because you guys are why we’re here. Even if someone’s job doesn’t work directly with kids all the time, whatever they do impacts students and teachers. That’s the part I really love about AEOTE.

Salgado: Yeah, I can really see that you are passionate about this with being a librarian. You really seem like a great librarian. I’ve learned so much from this. 

Walker: Aww thank you–can I give you one more thing about the union? 

Salgado: Of course. 

Walker: Since I have mentioned the California Teachers Association, I just wanted to tell you what I do there. So I am the chair of two (currently, I’ve had about 30 roles in our state union one time or another) statewide committees. One of the committees oversees union members across the state who volunteer to do training on racial and social justice. I am not one of the trainers but I am part of a committee that oversees the trainers, selects the trainers; make sure that they have the support they need to do their work. So I really love that, because it’s so exciting to see teachers and educational workers across the state so on fire about racial and social justice, that they are going to [train other employees on racial and social justice] despite having a very busy life […] The other committee that I am also at the state level that I am a chair at is the racial and social justice committee. We really just try to make racial and social justice part of every aspect of our state union work. I really love that work as well, because I don’t think racial and social justice can be just this thing we do on the side. Just this “side” class, this “side” club, this “side” program. It has to be integrated into everything that we do and I love being in charge of leading a group of wonderful leaders who make sure that’s what happens. 

Salgado: That’s practically all that I wanted to talk about, but for a round-up question: what is something that you want people to know about you? 

Walker: Me as a person or me as a librarian? 

Salgado: All together. 

Walker: I’m what you call, “Made in Hayward” and raised in Hayward. I only briefly lived away from Hayward when I was living in San Francisco and attending San Francisco State but part of my time there I was commuting so  I just really love this city. I love this school. I think we just have an amazing city and an amazing school. I’m just fortunate enough to live here, vote here, be an educator here, and get involved with the community here. That is [a bit] about me. If you have any questions about Hayward or our school.  I welcome anyone, student or staff to come by. Let people know–I know that it was featured in [a past article] that we do have a Hayward High museum in the back of my office–if any staff or students are interested in the history of our wonderful school that’s been in existence since 1892–shoot me an email to come visit or maybe just stop by! 

Salgado: Thank you so much for your time today. 

 If you’re interested in exploring the library or looking to discover new content, here are some of Ms. Walker’s favorite works to start off with: 

Fiction

Café con Lychee, by Emery Lee

Short Story Collection

Ab(solutely) Normal; Short Stories That Smash Mental Health Stereotypes (multiple writers)

Poetry

Inheritance: A Visual Poem, by Elizabeth Acevedo

Novio Boy, by Gary Soto 

Memoir

Americanized: Rebel Without A Green Card, by Sara Saedi 

Non-Fiction

Carry On Tradition, by Tyson Amir