Memory Lane
Memory Lane: What Los Angeles Has To Offer was written by students at Helen Bernstein High School with support from 826LA and published in 2020
Introduction
The book you hold in your hand is the results of a partnership between 826LA, Paramount Pictures, and students from schools on the Helen Bernstein High School Campus. 826LA was invited to partner with Paramount Pictures Kindergarten-to-Cap & Gown mentorship program. Paramount’s Kindergarten to Cap & Gown program has mentored more than 500 inner-city students these past ten years. In fact, Kindergarten to Cap & Gown has provided more than 10,000 employee mentoring hours to students at Helen Bernstein High School; Le Conte Junior High School; Santa Monica Blvd. Community Charter School and STEM Academy. The Kindergarten to Cap & Gown program mentors through storytelling, helping students share in the joy of story; encouraging young people to discover the power of their voice and strengthening each student’s ability to express ideas effectively, creatively and confidently.
The goal of this partnership was to give the students the opportunity to reflect on the forces that have shaped their current identities, and an outlet to tell their stories - of the moments, and people, that have made them who they are.
Over the course of nine sessions, student and mentor pairs worked together to write the stories you are about to read. Some pairs had been working together for several years prior to this project, and others were brand new to each other, with this project being the first time they met. Many of our early sessions were spent reflecting on connections – between pairs, among us as a group, and with other important people in our lives.
These connections have found their way into the students’ stories, sometimes in unexpected ways. Our theme was “no person is an island,” one that became increasingly significant to the current moment as the project evolved to respond to events happening in our city and across our country.
It would be a disservice to the authors of these stories to not share the circumstances under which they created this book. As of this writing, Los Angeles is in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and under curfew due to protests and rioting in response to the murder of George Floyd and other black people by the police. Yet despite the chaos that surrounded them, these students still consistently showed up to do the difficult work of sharing their personal experiences. When LAUSD schools were shuttered, preventing us from meeting together in person, they pivoted to joining online sessions to make sure they finished their writing, and make sure their stories were told. This book is a testament to these students’ resilience.
The subtitle to this book is “What Los Angeles Has to Offer.” Within, you will find the answer: Through stories of family fallouts and reunions, of setbacks and growth, and of mistakes made and lessons learned, you will discover the next generation of this city’s storytellers and their experiences that need to be heard, especially in this moment.
—Mike Dunbar, July 24, 2020