Moore students had the rare opportunity to learn from and work with folks up to five times their age during a project to create a zine.
First-year students in the Writing 101 class met three times over a couple of weeks in November with residents of the Atria Center City assisted living facility to share stories, family photographs, interests and obsessions.
“Working with the seniors at Atria provided a chance to listen to stories they might not otherwise hear, encounter surprising connections, and share memories, ranging from the relationship between math and music, a favorite painting, the seemingly unchanging dynamics between and among siblings, to tales of the places we have lived,” said Director of Writing and Assistant Professor Maya Pindyck. “At the same time, there is an inevitable gap between generations—a gap that perhaps makes a project that can involve sharing histories more significant than we might imagine.”
Two sections of the Writing 101 class began the project with a workshop by Carolyn Chernoff, a Graduate Program faculty member at Moore and an inaugural fellow at The Soapbox Community Print Shop & Zine Library in Philadelphia. A zine is a self-published booklet, often created by cutting paper and gluing images and text inside, then folded and stapled.
“It’s a piece of paper, but it’s also a book, and they transformed this piece of paper,” she said. Chernoff said zines have always been popular—they just haven’t had mainstream attention until fairly recently.
“I think for folks who are in their teens to middle age now, in the ‘90s the rise of Riot Grrrl zines and the way that coincided with media representation put it in a lot of people’s heads,” she said. "With the rise of the internet and social media, we have more and more people making and sharing zines.”
GETTING TO KNOW YOU
Moore students were matched up with several residents, and as they talked, asked questions and got to know each other, points of connection were made and ideas for the zines were formed.
Using folded paper, photographs, paint, markers and other art supplies, the students illustrated commonalities and differences, with themes including family history, siblings, political issues like climate change and immigration, and color.
“We’ve got all these stories that are just kind of hidden here in this building nestled in this beautiful city that people are missing out on,” said Kimberly Baker, engaged life director at Atria. “I think it’s a way to bridge that gap between the old and the new.”
Atria residents shared memories and experiences that included one man seeing the Hindenburg fly over Manhattan a short time before its horrific crash, a woman mathematician who worked at NASA and helped send an astronaut to the moon, and a Presbyterian minister who has advocated for LGBTQ rights for more than 50 years.
CLOSING THE GAP
A second group of writing students engaged in the zine project a different way. They interviewed family members, teachers and friends across generations. Their zines spanned personal histories of immigration, reflections on the various ways misogyny manifests in our society, and haiku poems about personal conflicts.
The zines were presented December 5 in readings during a celebration of the collaboration at the Parkway Central branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia.
“It’s really important to see other people’s sides of things, especially in the generational gap to see how different it was that Nancy had nine siblings,” said Ruby Franke. “I couldn’t even imagine having that many siblings.”
“Even though there was the generational gap, it’s still very similar,” said Ashlyn Ringenary. “We found a way to connect to them.”
Atria resident Richard summed up his experience with the students in a poem that was published in a zine.
Your time is not my time.
My space is not your space.
My time is the present
and is wrapped in memories.
You live in the present
and have lost history.
History is all we have.
It is what has made us.
Baker said the project interconnects writing, creativity and biographical works with art and design, and puts a spotlight on the collective history of the Atria residents.
“As our population is going to be shifting into greater representation of seniors, it’s important that people understand the value that they have in our society,” Baker said.
The zines will be on display at Atria December 16 to January 15, and at Moore from January 16 – 31. They will also be on display at the Free Library in early 2020.
