Yesterday’s Brooke Jackman Foundation Read-a-thon was fantastic. There were so many varied and wonderful talents getting kids excited about books and reading. The foundation has given away almost 100,000 books to kids in need throughout New York city since it’s inception in 2001.

It started with a one-hour stage show featuring performances by the popular teen rockers Care Bears on Fire, spoken word poets Justin Long-Moton and Ishmael Islam from Urban Word NYC (see the video? and they’ve agreed to come on the podcast!) and the Bari Koral Family Rock Band, as well as readings by Isaiah Sheffer, founder of Symphony Space, andWNYC’s John Schaefer and Stephanie Calmenson. We also had readings by elected officials, entertainers, and some of the uniformed heroes of 9/11.