northwest echo

California Living Histories

Teens Express Life Stories Using Cameras and Words

Inside Bungalow N20 at John Muir High School a group of students crowd around a computer monitor with Ibarionex Perello, a writer and photographer, sitting in the center. Perello is showing them how to import images from their digital cameras as well as teaching them techniques, such as cropping and how to adjust the contrast to improve their photos.

Afterwards, author Jervey Tervalon leads a discussion about one of Shakespeare’s sonnets, asking the class to identify words that evoke a picture. The students’ work is also discussed. They had to write about themselves in the third person. Tervalon reads the essays aloud as students pick out key words that can be illustrated through photography. Students are then sent outside in pairs to take ten pictures of each other that illustrate those words.

The teens from Northwest Pasadena and John Muir High School are learning how to express their own personal stories as part of an intensive writing and photography workshop known as New Words New Visions Summer Institute. The workshop is presented by California Living Histories, a local nonprofit organization founded in 1999. Its mission is to “develop young people’s language and self-expressive skills through visual arts and literacy.”

“We want the students to realize that they have important stories to tell. The program helps them see the value of their own lives,” Executive Director Elizabeth Converse said. “No one asks them to tell their stories, but we are asking them.”

With Tervalon and Perello teaching the class, students have the opportunity to work with professionals. “These are two gentlemen who have found their own voices,” Converse said. She hopes the students will be motivated by their instructors’ successes.

Tervalon has written many novels including: Living for the City (1999), Dead Above Ground (2001), Understand This (2002), and Lita: A Novel (2004). Tervalon is also a lecturer at the University of Southern California. He believes it is important for inner city youth to have the same opportunities as other youth, and one of his goals is to improve the students’ writing abilities.

“If they can express themselves, then they are empowered to question and to demand of themselves and of the world. They will be better able to find their place in the greater community,” Tervalon said.

Perello, a former associate editor for Outdoor Photographer, Digital Photo Pro, and PC Photo magazines, also wants to inspire his students.

“I want them to discover through their writing and photography that their opinions and life experiences matter,” he said. He believes that youth are not as free to express themselves as they should be, and that is why the class is important.

Both Perello and Tervalon joined California Living Histories in 2006. Converse, a freelance writer and artist, knew Tervalon and wanted to work with him. Perello is friends with Tervalon and was the perfect counterpart for the project. Converse believes it is important to have quality instructors for the students.

During one session, students had the opportunity to go on a photo shoot in Old Pasadena. They looked for images that were stimulating and gripping. Tervalon called this field trip a “photographic dialogue with the essence of Old Town.”

Although students were familiar with the area, “it gave them the opportunity to look at the world in a different light,” Perello said.

In the first few days of the program, most students are unsure of the stories they want to tell. But as they work together on projects and read each other’s stories, they will learn about themselves and each other. By the end of the five weeks, they will see photographs in everyday encounters and recognize the connections between words and images. They will develop a talent that may strengthen a passion or inspire career. They will gain a valuable new experience to add to their ongoing life stories.

The digital storytelling classes are funded by The California Council for the Humanities, California Stories Fund, Mustangs on the Move, Flintridge Foundation, Pasadena Community Foundation, Susan Neufeld, Eddie Truman, and LivingHistories.us.

View a selection of the photographs taken by the teens.