NEVADA CITY – Are you homeless or formerly homeless? If so, you know what it looks like from the bottom up because everybody was looking down on you – maybe even including yourself.
You have stories, real-life experiences – the quiet desperation of having no place to go to the bathroom; resentment at being woken up at 3 a.m. in the morning with a policeman’s flashlight in your face; the gnawing hunger of waiting for that free lunch on Thursday.
Sierra Roots has been awarded a Humanities for All Quick Grant from California Humanities. The $4,800 grant is for the Sierra Roots’ Write On! Project to teach people with homeless experience how to write and tell their real-life stories.
Sierra Roots (sierra-roots.org) is a Nevada City-based nonprofit dedicated to serving our homeless and at-risk people who live in their cars, on the streets, in the camps or anywhere they can find.
WriteOn! Project will accept up to seven candidates to participate in a writers-and-storytellers creative crew. Participants will gather one evening a week at the Madelyn Helling Library in Nevada City beginning Monday, June 2, at 7 p.m. As a team, they will share, encourage and learn from each other. Each member will also receive individual coaching during the week as needed for the duration of the project.
The project goals are to produce a small book of polished stories and to present at least one public storytelling event modeled after The Moth, the award-winning storytelling program on National Public Radio.
Pros from Dover
The WriteOn! Project team will be led by Tom Durkin, a professional writer, and Mike Mahaljevich, a credentialed English teacher. Both men have lived the experience of homelessness.
Durkin is the creative director of the Sierra Roots/No Place To Go Project, a homeless/housing advocacy campaign. As a professional writer, he’s worked in many genres – screenwriting, marketing, journalism, legal/legislative analysis and high-tech editing. He has written a dozen stories for invisiblepeople.tv, a homeless advocacy website. Currently, he writes an op-ed column for The Union and YubaNet. He is a graduate of UCLA with a B.A. in psychology and an M.F.A. in TV/film writing and production.
Mike Mihaljevich, also a UCLA grad with a B.A. in history, is a former Peace Corps volunteer, community activist, publisher and credentialed English teacher who has taught everything from inner city grade schools in Los Angeles to high school in San Diego to college English in Mexico. He has published essays, satire and poetry in print or online. In between his travels in Central America and Mexico, he has lived in the Grass Valley/Nevada City area over a span of nearly 25 years.
Myth busting
“We’re looking for real people with the passion to tell their true stories about living without a home – and who want to work together as a creative crew to write and tell the truth about homelessness,” Durkin said.
“We want honest stories, and we are here to support one another. Come and speak your truth in a safe environment,” Mihaljevich said. “Learn to speak with a mic and view videos to help you improve your speaking skills.”
In addition to having lived experience of homelessness, WriteOn! candidates must be basically computer literate – know or be willing to learn how to type on a computer (hunt & peck is okay), send and receive email and files, and participate in Zoom calls.
The project can loan Chromebook laptops to two participants who don’t have computers. If the participants write at least one publishable story and tell at least one coherent story at a public event, the Chromebooks will be theirs to keep.
“We will help with writing skills including spelling, grammar, style & structure,” Mihaljevich said. “You will have the opportunity to revise and improve without criticism working with a professional English teacher and working writer. We will ease your way through this with respect, humor and encouragement.”
On Monday, June 2, at 7 p.m., there will be an organizational meeting for candidates to learn whether this project is for them. “We’ll ask people to sign a nonbinding contract promising to work and support each other – and to contribute written and spoken stories for the project and storytelling event,” Durkin said.
For more information and to apply for the free writing/storytelling program, write to tomdurkin@sierra-roots.org “”Please tell us a little about your homeless experience and why you want to tell your stories. Include your phone number and the best time for us to call you,” Durkin said.
Humanities for all
The following is a prepared statement from California Humanities.
The Humanities For All Quick Grant is a competitive grant program of California Humanities that supports locally-initiated public humanities projects that respond to the needs and interests of Californians, encourage greater public participation in humanities programming, particularly by new and/or underserved audiences, and promotes understanding and empathy among all our state’s peoples in order to cultivate a thriving democracy.
A complete list of all Humanities For All Quick Grants can be found on the calhum.org website.
California Humanities, a nonprofit partner of the National Endowment of the Humanities, promotes the humanities – focused on ideas, conversation and learning – as relevant, meaningful ways to understand the human condition and connect us to each other in order to help strengthen California.
California Humanities has provided grants and programs across the state since 1975. To learn more, visit calhum.org, or like and follow on Facebook, X, and Instagram.