826LA’s 2017 Young Authors’ Book Project Reflects on LA Riots

Students of Alain LeRoy Locke College Preparatory School in South Los Angeles Release a Collection of Interviews and Essays Inspired by Their Journeys and Their City’s History

 

826LA, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students ages six to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, is celebrating the release of its 2017 Young Authors’ Book Project (YABP), “When the Moon is Up,” on May 19 at Alain Leroy Locke College Preparatory Academy in South Los Angeles. This year’s book features a collection of student essays and interviews that reflect upon the 1992 Los Angeles Uprisings on its 25th anniversary. Héctor Tobar, who received a Pulitzer Prize as part of a news team for their coverage of the uprisings, has written the book’s foreword.

 

Each year, 826LA partners with a local public school to create and design a unique collection of student writings. With 2017 marking the 25th anniversary of the taped beating of Rodney King and the city-wide uprisings that followed, the organization chose to work with three classes of current students at Alain LeRoy Locke College Preparatory Academy as they contemplated their current lives, their community’s past, and its impact on their present.

 

“Our partner teachers worked very closely with staff and volunteers to support students to learn the history of their city,” said Joel Arquillos, executive director at 826LA. “Since many students at Locke are immigrants, it was wonderful to see the writing from those who lived their whole lives in LA alongside their fellow students’ journeys to the city. The resulting publication expands what it means to grow up in South LA today.”

 

In preparation for this year’s Young Authors’ Book Project theme, students in one class studied Anna Deavere Smith’s “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992” while the other two classes read the play “Zoot Suit” by Luis Valdez. In addition, several students interviewed community leaders such as Aqeela Sherrills, writers like Katherine Kim, and art historian Rose Salseda, whose perspectives offered firsthand knowledge surrounding the history that shaped Los Angeles.

 

“Supporting 826LA’s Young Author’s Book Project at Locke High School is about telling LA stories that include everyone,” said J.J. Abrams, whose Katie McGrath & J.J. Abrams Family Foundation funded the project. “We’re thrilled that these young writers are sharing their creative voices with the world.”

 

“When the Moon is Up” will be available for presale beginning April 29 online and at 826LA storefronts in Echo Park and Mar Vista, California. For more information, please visit at http://826la.org/.