Visiting writers at Farrington High School
Last Thursday morning I had the opportunity to read and speak at Farrington High School, as part of the Farrington Library's visiting writers program. The monthly programs are called Author Celebration Events, and they truly are celebrations, complete with Farrington leis, baked goodies from the school's culinary students, photos ops at the end, and, above all, one writer and over a hundred attentive students interacting.
Leonore Higa, who works in the library and has been directing this program for the past two years, brings together local writers and Farrington students (110 to 180 students each month) and their teachers. Since 2008 the library has hosted the following writers:
Chris McKinney (The Tattoo), Lee Cataluna (Folks You Meet in Longs), Ron Nagasawa (Sanity in Paradise), Cedric Yamanaka (In Good Company), Audra Furuichi (Nemu-Nemu), Brenda Kwon (Mother Tongue), Lisa Linn Kanae (who read "The Steersman" from Islands Linked by Ocean), Lois Ann Yamanaka (who shared poetry from Saturday Night at the Pahala Theater), Matthew Ka'opio (Written in the Sky), Patricia Wood (a former Farrington teacher, author of Lottery), and Ron Jacobs (Obamaland).
Stephanie Chang, a former Farrington teacher who has her own design company now (Stephanie Change Design Ink), joined me last week at Farrington to talk about creative inspiration (colors and shapes and images for Stephanie, words and found stories for me) and answer questions. Stephanie talked some about designing books, including my new novel Chasing Cowboys.
I read to the students my short story from the latest Bamboo Ridge collection, "Pickles and Shawnilynn and Me at the Mall." I asked them to use their imaginations and memories because the story is narrated by an 8th grade girl, Anna Baker, who spends a Saturday afternoon at Kahala Mall with her two BFFs, Chelsea Mickleson ("Pickles") and Shawnilynn Hashimoto (whose father is Shawn and whose mother is Lynn; there's also a Davilynn and a Jasonellen in her 8th grade class).
Midway through the story, in the movie theater lobby, Anna runs into Otto, the new classmate from Germany (a boy she likes but he doesn't know it and what's she going to do, and can she smile at him without showing her braces?). Many questions are asked and answered in the course of this 20-minute story.
I always enjoy reading aloud. My friends all know that I'm not shy about telling stories (I believe the word "ham" is tossed around freely). It was good fun to read the "Pickles" story to the Farrington students, who gave me their total attention. My secret, which I'll share, is that I pretend I'm a professional actor reading for Aloha Shorts on Hawaii Public Radio. I solved the problem of Otto's German accent, I hope, by giving him just a slight accent when he spoke. Anna says that his English is better than those who tease him at school.
After over an hour with the students and teachers, enjoying the moment (and the VIP treatment!), we had to return to our routines. A scheduled fire drill began and we all walked out of the library (quite orderly, I'm proud to say). Stephanie and I stayed on the campus a while to talk story with one of the library volunteers. Then we were off to Kenny's for brunch, our fifteen minutes of high school fame at an end, but taking many good memories with us. Thank you, Leonore Higa and Farrington! You folks are awesome! Or, as Anna would say, "super cool!"
