Q & A with Nancy Johnson, San Diego Writers Festival Director of Teen Programmer
SDWF: Tell us a little bit about the teen programming.
NJ: Teen programming will be added at the San Diego Writers Festival this year, and we are so excited! Here is a sample:
TECHNOLOGY:
- Podcast Panel: Moderated by Nick Burmeister, featuring John Gennaro, Executive Producer of Make the Padres Great Again Podcast, Nate John, Digital Manager at Voice of San Diego Podcast, Ellen Towers, Director of the Academy of Information & Technology at Hoover High School, and teens who are recent submitters to the KPBS Podcast Competition, who will share their experience and expertise creating a podcast and building an audience.
- Workshop in the Digital Lab: Create your own podcast in 4 easy steps
SOCIAL JUSTICE:
- Panel: Beyond the March – What Teens Can Do to Change the World. Teens from Hoover High School Social Justice Academy will talk about making a difference in the San Diego community through photography and art.
- Workshop: Protecting Mother Earth Through Poetry. Teens will have the opportunity to write and share poems focused on climate change and its impact on our world with Border Voices poets and a Native American drummer.
SDWF: What can teens expect that show up that day?
NJ: After deciding whether to hit the tech events or the social justice events, teens will hang out together for the morning panels and workshops. We’ll break for lunch, walk around the Coronado HS campus, and check out the teen displays. Then we’ll get back together for the afternoon panels and workshops.
- Teen displays will include LAPS Wall Image Project, Museum of Contemporary Art Project, and Outside the Lens projects which include the Pledge of Allegiance and San Diego Refugee Project installations. All projects were created by teens with the help of their teachers and the organizations listed.
SDWF: Tell us about the teens you have been working with, and what have they shared with you about their experience?NJ: Oh, wow, what a great question! I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve worked with over one hundred teens in the last year as they’ve struggled with ideas to put into projects, essays, and poems. They care so much about freedom and equality and making our world a better place. They have shared their stories with me about social media targeting, gender, sexuality, relationship abuse, stress, addiction, and more. One young woman shared the experience of watching her parents being taken away from their home by ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement). Teens are the bravest, smartest people I know.
SDWF: If a teen wants to get involved, what should they do?
NJ:
- Just show up at Coronado Library on Saturday, April 4th at 9 a.m. for opening day events. We’ll give you a schedule and help you get to the panels and workshops of your choice. Everything’s free and we’ll even provide free lunch so your stomachs don’t growl during the activities ☺
- If you’re coming from Hoover High School, be at Hoover Saturday morning at 8 a.m. The bus will take you back to Hoover after the last teen program in the afternoon. (Check in with Principal Babineau as the time gets closer to confirm bus schedules.)
SDWF: Given endless money and supplies, what do you want the teen program to look like eventually?
NJ: I’d love to bring a teen youtuber to the festival next year. What teen has your favorite youtube channel? If I had the money, I’d get that person here next year! I’d also love to bring a teen author that has really knocked your socks off. What is your favorite genre? What books have you read lately that rocked your world? If I had a gazillion dollars, I’d also love to bring a musical, theater, or film writer and/or performer that especially resonates with teens and young adults. Not too much to ask, right? Let’s dream big!
SDWF: What are you writing? Can you share a little bit about your book?
NJ: I have just finished a book called Things My Mama Never Told Me. It’s a funny and sometimes serious guide for teen girls and their mamas (or fathers or mentors or adults they care about). It’s also for the teen inside all women, no matter what age. My teen self and I wrote it together on 24 different topics from body image to hair to LGBTQIA issues to relationship violence to sex and birth control to addiction. I interviewed teens currently in high school to hear the stories of what kinds of issues are important to them now. You can read their stories and hear the strategies they are using to survive being a teen. I ended the book with the things that saved my teen self and I: setting boundaries, self-care, and forgiveness. I’m looking for a publisher and hope the book will be available soon!
SDWF: Thank you Nancy! We look forward to the Teen Program this year.
