Locavore Lit is an online literary journal, curriculum resource and classroom presenter designed to spark a love of reading and writing among underserved public school students of Pasadena and Los Angeles. It brings forward contemporary stories that are relatable to all ages, depicting a variety of life experiences in our local communities. Through our program, young people are directly connected to an open source text filled with a variety of works that include fiction, nonfiction, essays, articles, short stories, poetry, memoirs and original illustrations from Pasadena and the great Los Angeles area’s rich literary and artistic communities.
“We believe relevant contemporary writing and artworks will inspire young people who may better see themselves and their communities represented in their own reading. Inspiring an investment in reading and writing will lay a foundation for their life-long learning and personal achievements.”
Locavore Lit brings its stories to life by introducing our diverse contributing authors into the classroom for student-writer conversations. The writers also serve as role model mentors, leading interactive career development discussion sessions with aspiring young writers, while helping them to workshop and hone their creative writing skills. Along the way, students are encouraged to contribute their own written works to the online publication. In this way, the program becomes a growing, inter-generational library that finds its roots in the neighborhoods and communities that surround us.
Jessica Lopez, Locavore Lit Program Manager
Jessica Lopez earned her Bachelor of Arts in Human Development and Psychology as a first-generation Latina student. Her background is primarily in education and has worked as a behavioral interventionist with students with special needs. As the Program Manager of Light Bringer Project, she continues to devote her energy towards holistic teaching and learning, inclusive education through Locavore Lit, a program that fosters a community within the classroom, between authors, artists, teachers, and students, and creates a student-driven space that celebrates reading and writing in Pasadena and the greater Los Angeles area.
Ciena Valenzuela-Peterson, Literary Arts Coordinator
As the Literary Arts Coordinator for Light Bringer Project, Ciena facilitates literary programs including Locavore Lit, bringing published authors to the classroom to work directly with aspiring young writers. She also leads Omega Sci-Fi Project, the only free sci-fi writing program for high schoolers in Los Angeles, teaching the power of science fiction to address the most pressing dilemmas of our time.
In her spare time, Ciena is a writer and visual artist. Her work has been published in F(r)iction Log, and Systems Change Alliance, and she recently received a mini-grant from the City of Pasadena for her art installation at ArtNight Pasadena, entitled “¿Dónde Está el Paletero?” Ciena graduated from USC with a Master’s degree in Literary Editing and Publishing and Bachelor’s in Creative Writing and Political Science. She is passionate about the role of art and literature in expressing our social and political realities, particularly in uncanny, speculative ways.
Natalie Lydick, Project Developer
Natalie oversees the production of Light Bringer Project’s free and public events, including LitFest in the Dena, an annual spring literary conference engaging in a variety of literary, lifestyle, and cultural topics. She also manages other special projects under development.
Natalie is a graduate student in English at Cal Poly Pomona with a focus in Rhetoric & Composition and a former slush reader for Uncharted Magazine. She is a writer of speculative short fiction and poetry, saxophone player, and horror lover. Her writing has made appearances in Worlds of Possibility, Eye To The Telescope, and Third Estate Art. She is the 2024 recipient for the Ted Pugh Poetry Award.
Jervey Tervalon, novelist and founder of Locavore Lit
I’ve been involved with education my entire life. I was educated in what many would consider tough inner city schools and I taught high school at a tough inner school. What I learned early on is that teachers and students are given the dregs to work with—expensive dregs designed as textbooks that function as profit centers for multinational corporations. Kids of color rarely see themselves in these textbooks and they get no idea of the cultural immensity of California and how it came to be. What we are doing with Locavore Lit is to correct that profit-driven nonsense with contemporary literature that reflects the diversity of California through the work of talented writers from here or who speak to where we came from so that students can readily engage with the text.
Our mission is to celebrate our diverse indigenous literary culture of California and to give our children the kind of literary engagement they so deserve.
Scott Gandell, Art Curator
Scott Gandell wears many hats. He descends from a long line of creatives and business professionals. His experience is as diverse as the subjects he illustrates. You may want to visit Pop Secret Gallery where he has made a home for The Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles of which he is a Board Member. His network is vast and he is a proud alumnus of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.
Locavore Lit emanated from a discernible need to fill the language arts gap for underserved students of our community. The program, formerly known as Literature for Life, was conceived several years ago with the support of USC’s Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI) in an effort to serve students and teachers in economically disadvantaged areas of our city.
The program then leveraged its presence at the three locations as a field study, to provide feedback from students and educators in order increase effectiveness of the program and enable further expansion. In order to further inform our approach, we formed an advisory board and planning and curriculum committees made up of nonprofit organizers, writers, journalists, educators, curriculum specialists and literary arts supporters. Along with their guidance, we have published multiple online issues, written by over 60 diverse, locally-based writers which include original illustrations created by an equal number of visual artists.
