Celebrate the Literary Arts
Locavore Lit is a free resource for teachers with a built-in classroom program. We are currently working with John Muir High School, Pasadena High School, and Octavia E. Butler Magnet. Students connect the stories and poetry they study with the creators, engage in dialogue, and develop their own writing skills. Along with story content provided by leading and emerging Los Angeles-area authors and illustrated artwork, teachers are provided with a state-of-the-art curriculum.
This program is primarily funded through a generous grant provided by the Pasadena Community Foundation. If you are interested in supporting the program please visit our donate page.
““I want to thank you for allowing my / our kids to have such a wonderful experience the last two days. I live for the moments where kids feel like anything in their lives is possible, and the last two days, your organization and guest authors have made that possible.” ”
Locavore Lit unites writers, artists, and educators to ignite young minds with a love of reading, writing, and the visual arts. We consider ourselves to be a new kind of beast: part online literary journal, part educator’s resource center, and part community salon. Our goal is to connect youth with an open-source text filled with contemporary works by local writers and artists while simultaneously sharing LA’s rich literary offerings with the world.
Our site features literary journals published each year containing a collection of short fiction and nonfiction, poetry, articles, essays, memoir excerpts, and artwork created for us by writers and artists primarily from the Los Angeles region. Texts and images are paired with tailormade lesson plans, designed to help teachers introduce locally produced writing and artwork into their classrooms so that students may better see themselves and their communities represented in their curriculum. Filling the gap left by expensive, monolithic, and often outdated textbooks, our literature and artwork are selected to resonate with LA-based youth and celebrate the full diversity of Los Angeles, its culture, and its people.
Jessica Lopez, 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 toward empowering young people to express themselves and build pathways to their creative career choices.
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, Artistic Director
Jervey Tervalon, MFA, is the award-winning, Los Angeles Times bestselling author of five books including Understanding This, a novel based on his experiences teaching at Locke High School in Los Angeles, for which he won the Quality Paper Book Club’s New Voice’s Award. Jervey was born in New Orleans and raised in the Jefferson Park neighborhood of Los Angeles where he attended Foshay Junior High. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from UC Irvine and was a Disney Screenwriting fellow and a Shanghai Writers Association Fellow. He is the Founder and Director of Literature for Life. He is also the Co-founder and Literary Director of LitFest Pasadena. Currently he teaches fiction writing and Literature at the College of Creative Studies at U.C. Santa Barbara. His Latest novel is Monster’s Chef published by Amistad/HarperCollins.
Scott Gandell, Art Director
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.
