Memory LAne: What Los Angeles Has To Offer is the result of a partnership between 826LA, Paramount Pictures, and students on the Helen Bernstein High School Campus. 826LA was invited to partner with Paramount Pictures Kindergarten-to-Cap & Gown mentorship program. 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.
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.
