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acehotel · 7 years ago

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INTERVIEW: 826CHI Writer-of-the-month

We like 826CHI. An organization dedicated to providing one-on-one attention to students to help and encourage their writing skills, 826CHI leads by example, helping more than 2,500 students a year find the power inherent in their own voices.

Below you’ll find the transcript of one of their most recent featured Writers of The Month, Ivanova A (Agent Name: JW Penguin). Her wisdom is relayed in both English and Spanish and is an inspiration to all of us to listen to our inner truths.

Writers of the Month are among the fold of 826CHI's top, most elite secret agents. They're recruited for their enthusiasm, originality, and determination in all things literary. To celebrate their achievements, 826CHI holds an interview at a covert location wherein they are asked important questions about their work.

You can support 826CHI by volunteering or, when you book a room at Ace Hotel Chicago, a portion of your rate goes directly to them, along with community partners Young Chicago Authors and Little Black Pearl. We’re so close to reaching our $25,000 goal we can almost taste it. Help us get there why don’t you.

Agent Name: JW Penguin

Real Name: Ivanova A

What’s your favorite book and who is your favorite author? I guess I like the book, Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson. It’s part of a series of books. It’s about slavery and a love kind of thing too. It’s also about war too. It’s kind of action. I also liked Malala’s book [I Am Malala]. I think it’s crazy that they try to restrict girls. She says that they celebrate when boys are born but not when girls are born. Boys have got certain privileges.

Do you have any special hobbies or talents? I like sports, roller skating, skateboarding, football, soccer.

What is your favorite thing about writing? It’s a way to express yourself, even if you’re mad. If I have a lot of emotions, it’s a kinder way to do it.

What’s your favorite memory of 826CHI? I think it was actually recent, when the lawyer came in. She seemed very humble. She seemed really smart to me and I really enjoyed her company.

What inspired you to write “What Makes Us?” My mom, mainly. My mom is always there for me and I admire her a lot, and how she sacrifices so much to do for us. And I thought about how everyone else sacrifices so much for me.

I like the part where you talk about siblings. It’s funny! “Siblings. Mm-hmm … siblings. Although they can be irritating—trust me, I know—they can be nice, protecting, and, even sometimes, your best friend.” What were you thinking about when you wrote this? Like how my sister can be irritating and do things that are crazy, and mess with me. The other day, I took all the strawberries in secret from my dad’s fridge and she told everyone, “She’s taking the strawberries!”

There’s a line about parents that’s really beautiful. “They are the ones who help us become better. The ones who shape us to be the people we are today.” How do parents help us become better people? Not specifically, but in general, how when you make a mistake they try to help you figure out what’s wrong. And I like how they even help you by sharing mistakes that they made years ago. I really admire the fact that they don’t want us to mess up as much as they did.

Do you have writing advice for other students? I would just say to write from your heart and to write things that you care about -- things that you admire and are important to you. If you don’t write from your heart, the writing won’t be as quality, and you won’t appreciate it.

We’ve talked a lot about admiration in this interview. Who do you admire? My mom. I admire the strength she has. She’s a bank person, and it’s stressful. She’s brave. In my friends I admire their personality, in how they’re really welcoming and understand.

What do you want to do when you’re an adult? A zoologist, a doctor, or chemist, where you blow up stuff and make things. I wouldn’t want to be with wildlife animals. I’m not sure. [I’d want to study] maybe a sea creature, like a dolphin.

What’s something else you want the world to know about you? I’m an adventurous person. I would like to travel the world and see different places and cultures, and what they eat and do, and what they do for fun. And I would like to see stuff in person like the Statue of Liberty.

If you could go anywhere tomorrow, where would you go? Out of North America, maybe Germany. Someplace that has to do with The Holocaust. I would see museums about it.

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¿Cuál es tu libro favorito y quién es tu autor favorito? Supongo me gusta el libro, Chains, por Laurie Halse Anderson. Es una parte de un serie. Se trata de la esclavitud y me interesa mucho este tipo de cosa. Tambien se trata de guerra. Es en el estilo de acción. Tambien me gustaba el libro de Malala [Yo soy Malala]. Creo que es loco cuando ellos tratan de restrictar las niñas. Ella dice que se festejan cuando los ninos nacen pero no cuando nacen las ninas. Los ninos tienen tipos de privelegios.

¿Tienes pasatiempos especiales o talentos? Me gusta los deportes, roller skating, el skateboaring, el fútbol, y el fútbol americano.

¿Cuál es tu cosa favorita a cerca de la escritura? Es una manera de expresarse, aun estas enojado. Si tengo muchas emociones, es un manera más amable de expresarme.

¿Cuál es tu recuerdo favorito de 826CHI? Creo que fue últimamente, cuando vino la abogado. Ella pareció muy humilde. Pareció muy inteligente a mi y disfruté su compañía.

A que te inspira, “What Makes Us?” Mi mama, por la mayor parte. Mi mama siempre esta alli para mi y la admiro mucho, y como ella sacrifica mucho para nosotros. También pensé como todos en mi familia sacrifican mucho para mi.

Me encanta la parte cuando hablas de sus hermanos. ¡Es chistoso! “Hermanos. Mm-hmm..Hermanos. Aunque están fastidiosos -- confere en mi, yo sé -- ellos pueden estar simpáticos, protectores, y a veces, su mejor amigo.” ¿Qué estabas pensando cuando escribiste esto? Como mi hermana puede estar fastidiosa y hacer cosas locas, y molestarme. El otro día, yo tomé todas las fresas en secreto de la nevera de mi papá y ella dijo a todos, “Ella está robando las fresas!”

Hay una frase sobre los papás que es muy bonito. “Ellos son los que nos ayudan a estar mejores. Ellos son los que nos forman a ser la gente que somos hoy.” Como nos ayudan los papás a ser gente mejor? No es expresamente, pero por lo general, ellos nos ayudan cuando te equivocas y ellos tratan de resolver el error. Y me gusta como ellos nos ayudan por compartir sus errores que hicieron hace años. Admiro mucho que ellos no quieren que nosotros equivoquemos tanto como ellos se equivocaron.

¿Tienes consejos de escritura para los otros alumnos? Diría que escribes de su corazón y escribe sobre las cosa que te importan -- cosas que te admiras y que te importa. Si no escribes de su corazón, la escritura no será de una calidad alta, y no la apreciarás.

Hablamos mucho de la admiración en esta entrevista. ¿Quien te admiras? Mi mamá. La admiro la fuerza que tiene. Ella trabaja en un banco, y es un ambiente estresado. Ella es orgullosa. Admiro el carácter de mis amigos, como ellos son amigables y me entiende.

¿Que quieres hacer cuando seas grande? Un zoologista, un doctor, o un chemista, cuando puedes explotar cosas y hacer cosas. No quisiera ser zoologista con los animales silvestres. No estoy segura. [Me gustaría estudiar] una criatura del mar, como un delfín.

¿Que es otra cosa quieres que el mundo sepa de ti? Soy una persona aventurada. Me gustaría viajar el mundo y ver lugares diferentes y culturas, y que comen y que hacen, y que hacen para divertirse. Y me gustaria ver cosas en persona como la estatua de libertad.

¿Si podrías a cualquier parte del mundo mañana, donde irias? A fuera de Norteamerica, tal vez Alemania. Algún lugar que se trata del holocausto. Vería los museos del holocausto.

#yes #community partners #Ace Hotel Chicago #young writers #826Chicago #bilingual #interview #chicago #chi #writing #826chi

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arianaantonelli-blog · 7 years ago

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826Chicago & Writing As A Career: A Profile Feature of Waringa Hunja

It was 5:45 PM on a Tuesday night and I was waiting for Waringa Hunja in the Red Beard Café in Wicker Park. Neither of us had been here before, but it was recommended to Waringa by a friend. It was a quaint coffee-house perfect for conversation with an extensive menu. I sat at a two seated table wedged between many others and pulled out my laptop when Waringa came in through the door.

I waved her over and she met me at the table with a smile. Waringa is a friendly, young black woman with long purple and black braids that happened to match her sweater. After introductions and shared comments on the cozy atmosphere, Waringa dived into her story.

Waringa is a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as well as the publications coordinator for 826Chicago, the Wicker Park based chapter of a nationwide non-profit organization that offers free after-school tutoring as well as creative writing workshops for public school students ages 6-18. 826Chicago was the fifth 826National chapter to open (2005), and today there are seven chapters each with a unique-themed storefront whose profits help maintain the creativity centers in back. 826Chicago’s storefront is fully equipped as a “Secret Agent Supply Co.” with the essentials ranging from fake moustaches to invisible ink. The theme is carried all the way to the back of the center where you can find secret (volunteer) agents that work with spies in training to document their adventures and a morse code bookshelf that expands the back wall. The stories that result from the writing workshops are compiled into various books of ranging themes throughout the year that are published and sold in their respective 826 storefronts. While Waringa supervised and assisted the writing for these books as an intern, she now publishes them as staff.

Waringa started her work with 826CHI as an intern last spring. She worked alongside students tutoring them with their homework as well as personal and creative writing. She left for New York over the summer to intern with Hachette Book Group where she networked and gained publishing experience that she was able to bring back to Chicago. When she returned, the publications coordinator position at 826CHI was open. Waringa joined the staff last September and has been publishing students’ voices ever since.

Publications coordinator is not a very clear title, and Waringa acknowledges this. “Whenever I tell people what I do, they think that I am single-handedly publishing all of the books that come from 826Chicago,” Waringa said with a laugh, “that’s not the case. I’m in charge of the publishing team of interns who compile everything and then send it to me.” Having been an intern at 826Chicago just last year, Waringa admits to feeling a bit awkward being in charge of them all.

“I’m a student as well,” Waringa said, “it’s weird being in charge of the same people who I interned alongside last year.”

Waringa aspires to stay within the publication community and design book covers after completing her studies, but this was not always the plan.

Waringa started her studies in England at the University of Nottingham. Here she pursued media and communications as a result of a process of elimination and she hated it. She spent more time focusing on having fun than her academics and moved back home after a year when she realized it was time to figure out what she wanted to do.

Upon returning home, Waringa attended community college and accidentally got involved in design.

“Well, actually,” Waringa interrupted herself with a laugh, “my mom made me put together a scrapbook for my grandparents because they were coming to visit us and I thought ‘hey, this is really fun’ and realized maybe I like designing things.”

Waringa enrolled in a few graphic design classes while at community college and finally felt passionate about what she was doing in school. After realizing that this was what she wanted to do as a career, she transferred to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she currently studies writing and graphic design.

“I’m happy with my choice, but it was definitely a journey,” said Waringa, looking away distractedly, “no one else in my family are artists. They are lawyers or accountants or in fields such as those.”

Although her family is not involved in art-based careers, they have always been very supportive of her career path, something that 826Chicago has made Waringa notice is not very common.

“People discount [the arts] as not a valid path because of the stereotype of the starving artist,” Waringa threw her hands out from under her chin pointedly, “by giving students 20 minutes before starting their homework dedicated only to writing, 826 Chicago shows them that writing is a valid activity.”

When students come to 826CHI, they are offered not only a space to recieve help with their academic writing, but they are given time to work on creative writing and support from interested readers as well.

“When you are taught that writing is something to be done just for a teacher, you lose interest in it,” said Waringa.

When students come in to 826CHI, they are not entering an environment looking only to “fix” their work to please another, but an environment aimed at encouraging students to write about whatever they want.

“Students are always worried about who wants to read their work and why [they are] writing, but even if it isn’t an original idea, they are still writing about important topics that someone else can relate to,” Waringa pointed out. “They are writing about the first time they fell in love or about what it is like living in their neighborhood, and these are important stories to tell. We try to leave their work their own as much as possible.”

826CHI strives to re-introduce students to writing; this time not as a task they are being forced to do but as a form of self expression. Students may come in for help with school work, but are given more than just time to look at their homework. 826CHI conducts writing workshops, field trips, group activities- all aimed at showing students that their personal writing is just as important to the world as their academic writing.

“The students get excited when we publish them,” Waringa smiled. “We throw a party and they each get copies of the book, and they see that this isn’t just being handed to a teacher who will then give it back along with criticism, but that [their writing] is actually going somewhere.”

Students often arrive at 826Chicago with the mindset of writing being exclusive to school. Similar to Waringa, there are a lot of talented writers that come in to 826Chicago never expecting that they would one day not be a lawyer like their parents, but instead pursue a career in a subject they never knew could be so fun. If it weren’t for organizations like 826Chicago or happy accidents like with Waringa’s scrapbook that led to her love for design, there would not be as many people aware of their interests or how to market them as a career.

“Before we end, I do have one last question,” I said to Waringa as we were wrapping up.

“Do you think everyone should be forced to put together a scrapbook?” I asked playfully.

“Oh yeah,” she laughed, “definitely.”

#writingsamples

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