New Words New Visions

New program for 08 - info coming soon!

2007-11-07T12:41:00.000-08:00

Our summer program was a big success - you can still check out student art work at the Pasadena Public Library throughout the month of November! A big thanks to all of our supporters and wonderful students who took part in the program.

We've got an exciting new program set to launch in early 2008, working with students in the Northwest Pasadena area - check back for updates, or contact us for more information.

Summer Institute featured in the Pasadena Weekly!

2007-07-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

Check out the article here, and don't forget to register to join us this summer!

More about Jervey Tervalon

2007-06-27T23:12:00.000-07:00

Jervey Tervalon is one of the instructors in the Summer Institute. He is an African-American novelist and journalist born and raised in New Orleans as well as in South Central Los Angeles. Tervalon is the author of five novels including Understand This for which he won the Quality Paper Book Club’s New Voice’s Award. He studied writing at UC Irvine with Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler’s List. He was awarded the Key to the City of New Orleans for his best-selling novel, Dead Above Ground set in New Orleans. He was selected as a Disney Screenwriting fellow, and commissioned to adapt a novel and short story for the South Coast Repertory Theater. He currently teaches Race and Media at UCLA and Creative Writing at USC. Recently he has written a series of columns for the L.A. Weekly about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath based on first-hand emails and phone calls from his family who are now scattered throughout the South.

Students studying with Jervey in the summer institute will develop in a fast paced workshop and auto-biograhical piece focusing on family community and family life using using words and photography.

More about Ibarionex Perello

2007-06-27T23:07:00.000-07:00

Ibarionex Perello is a writer, photographer and educator with over 15 years of professional experience. He is the former associate editor for Outdoor Photographer, PC Photo and Digital Photo Pro Magazines and was a technical support engineer for Nikon Inc. for six years. He photographic projects including a documentary series on Downtown Los Angeles and he is currently working on a long-term portrait series on Southern California poets and writers.

In his photography class, students will get to:

* the fundamentals of digital photography: focus, composition, exposure
* learn basic skills for cropping and enhancing their images
* discover how tell a story visual with a single or multiple images
* create a comic-book style story using Comic Life software
* learn how to tell a personal story with still images using cinematic techniques

Remember, this is a great opportunity that is free to students in Northwest Pasadena, but you have to register to get involved! Space is limited, sign up soon!

Welcome to New Words New Visions!

2007-06-18T23:01:00.000-07:00

New Words New Visions: the Summer Institute is a unique college prep level class being offered to youth in Northwest Pasadena. This is an amazing opportunity to engage in creative writing and photography that will also provide students with a chance to build a portfolio of quality work that will help them as they apply to colleges and other programs.

This unique opportunity is open and free to students aged 13 – 19 whom live in Northwest Pasadena or to those whom attend John Muir High School. Books and equipment will be provided – you need to bring only yourself, an open mind and a willingness to learn and grow!

To enroll in the workshop, call 626-826-7445, or send us an email

You can still enroll even though the class has started - contact us asap for more info!

July 11 – August 9

Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3pm to 6pm
Location: John Muir High School/NEY Lab

Field trips, guest speakers and more!

The Summer Institute is a project of California Living Histories. Novelist and essayist Jervey Tervalon and photographer Ibarionex Perello will teach an intensive five week summer writing and photography workshop, New Words New Visions, beginning July 11th in a Northwest Pasadena high tech computer community center. The work created by students will be judged and curated by a panel of peers and the final work will be presented in a community exhibition and public forum at the Jackie Robinson center on October 7th. Novelist Michelle Huneven and this year’s Pulitzer Prize winning author Jonathan Gold will be members of the panel. The exhibition will stay a the Jackie Robison center for the entire month of October, and it will move in November to the Pasadena Central Library. Awards will be given for outstanding work, and all students will receive a certificate of completion. The workshop is open to students from the John Muir High School community, and all of those whom live in Northwest Pasadena.