Community Literacy Journal

“Under the watchful eye of Ross Winterowd, a retired USC writing professor, the small group slowly opened up. A word became a sentence, which then blossomed into a paragraph. One day they just started telling each other stories that hadn’t been told in a long, long time.

“Anna Pinter wrote about the first house her father built on a 5-acre plot in rural Indiana, with fiberboard and cinder blocks. Art Weiland described the many hats his late wife wore – literally. Robert Barany decided to take a light-hearted look back
at his boyhood years in a coal camp in West Virginia.

If you’re a storyteller, you’re a storyteller.”

Read the rest of the OC Register article.

From the Arizona Daily Star: 110 Degrees: Tucson’s Youth Tell Tucson’s Stories is an annual magazine produced by youths between 14 and 21 years old. It uncovers untold stories of people of all ages, backgrounds, colors and experiences. To tell these stories, youth are mentored in research, interviewing, writing and photography by professional writers and photographers. 110 Degrees is a project of Voices: Community Stories Past and Present Inc., a Tucson-based nonprofit organization that works to document community stories and inspire individuals to explore their own stories and their connections to their communities.

The newest title from the Neighborhood Story Project is available from Soft Skull Press: The Nine Times Social and Pleasure Club. From the book’s description: Beginning with their own childhoods in the Desire Housing Project, Nine Times take the reader on a journey through their world: Motown Sound at Carver games, DJ’s in the courts, and sandlot football.

It continues as the Housing Authority of New Orleans begins to demolish the Desire, and Nine Times begins to parade in the Ninth Ward. Written by the members duing the year after Katrina, Nine Times writes about their lives, their parades, the storm and the rebuilding process. Through interviews, photographs, and writing, Nine Times brings readers into their world of second lines, brass bands, Magee’s Lounge, and the ties that bind.