What is the Justice-Impacted Writers Project? What is going on with Purple Line accessibility? How did Northwestern celebrate Lunar New Year? The Daily answers these questions and recaps other top stories from the last week.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Justice-Impacted Writers Project brings screen writing to Northwestern’s Prison Education Program.
Evanston residents wait for improvements to accessibility at the local El stations.
And Evanston residents gather to celebrate Lunar New Year with a traditional dragon dance and more.
From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Dov Weinstein Elul.
FINIAN HAZEN: And I’m Finian Hazen. This is The Weekly, a breakdown of the top headlines from the past week.
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DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Northwestern Prison Education Program began a new fellowship in early January called the Justice-Impacted Writers Project, which aims at teaching some students about screenwriting. I spoke to Assistant Social Media Editor Desiree Luo to get an inside look at this project, how it came to be and what it hopes to accomplish.
Your article talks about a story of two men, Sammy Horowitz and Adam Pasen. These two work together on a project called the Justice-Impacted Writers Project, which is a six-month fellowship under the Northwestern Prison Education Program.
To get us started, why don’t you break down what exactly this fellowship does? Where is it taught? What does it really look like?
DESIREE LUO: Yeah, so the fellowship is called the Justice-Impacted Writers Project, and it’s organized by the Northwestern Prison Education Program in conjunction with the Writers Guild, and essentially it’s a series of workshops. They take place either at the Sheridan Correctional Center in Evanston, Illinois, or they take place online. And the primary instructors are screenwriters Sammy Horowitz and Adam Pasen. And the main goal of the fellowship is just to bring screenwriting classes to incarcerated people at the correctional center.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Can you, taking a step back, give us a general overview of the Northwestern Prison Education Program?
DESIREE LUO: It was an initiative founded by Philosophy Prof. Jennifer Lackey, and essentially it teaches college curriculum classes to incarcerated people. The first class in the program graduated last (academic) year, so it’s relatively new.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Getting more to the duo that was the focus of your story, can you tell us a little bit about their backgrounds and experience before they met?
DESIREE LUO: Yeah, they really emphasized that the two of them come from very different backgrounds. So starting with Horowitz, he was incarcerated for nearly a decade in his life, and he spent three of those years at the Stateville Correctional Center, and afterwards, after he got out of prison, he worked in boxing for a bit as a professional boxer, and then he moved into stunt work in Hollywood before going to screenwriting. But he said, really, a lot of his life has been impacted by his experience with gangs, drugs, prison, and so that’s been a really large part of his life.
And then, on the other hand, you have Adam Pasen, who he himself said that he grew up in a very affluent suburb. I remember him telling me during the interview that the most trouble he got into was for breaking curfew once.
But they really emphasized that the two of them, having such different backgrounds works in their writing style, because Horowitz said that he has a lot of unbridled ideas, and then Pasen knows a lot more about structure and writing, how to hone those in to a cohesive story, so they’re really able to collaborate. They both said that their partnership really represents what this fellowship is about, in terms of getting people with different ideas and backgrounds and experiences together.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: So what does the Justice-Impacted Writers Project actually do, like what does the curriculum look like? What are students making?
DESIREE LUO: Yeah, well, I think it’s still a new program, but they’re really tailoring it to their students’ interests. So during the first few meetings, they said that they asked students, what are some ideas that you want to write about? And then one thing that was interesting to me was Horowitz and Pasen said a lot of students wanted to work on drama. It was about half, but then the other half wanted to do comedies, so it’s not really just about writing crime-focused screenplays, but really what the students are interested in. And so they said that they really wanted to gauge that interest and then tailor the project to that. But during the first class, they also said that they basically outlined a basic structure for what a screenplay would look like, and then they’ll build from there.
But then another part of the fellowship for the students is the opportunity to meet industries that Horowitz and Pasen will invite to speak with them, so they’ll have screenwriters, producers, just a lot of people who are in Hollywood that will impart their experiences. That’s a way for members in the class to build their network and eventually set them up for careers after they get out of prison.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: What do Pasen and Horowitz hope to see their project and fellowship accomplish?
DESIREE LUO: Yeah, I think there are two objectives that they really wanted to emphasize. The first one is just getting new voices in Hollywood, because they talked about how, right now in Hollywood, there’s a lot of talk about having authentic lived experiences in screenplays. And I think Horowitz put it really well when he said, I’m kind of paraphrasing, but he said there’s nothing more lived than being in prison. And so the people who are participating in this fellowship, they actually do have authenticity in their writing. It’s not just about using a buzzword, but the second objective, and I think Horowitz especially really emphasized this, was to make a dent in recidivism, which is the tendency for convicted criminals to end up back in prison.
And Horowitz said that from his own personal experience, he knew what it was like to end up in prison time and time again, not really know if there was a lifeline for him when he got out. So he said that this project really hopes to establish a sort of lifeline for the prisoners, so that when they get out, they are able to have a stable footing. And inviting industry professionals and expanding their network is just one of the ways that they’re hoping to do this. But I think for Horowitz, especially, his personal experience really ties into this objective.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Desiree Luo. Thank you so much.
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FINIAN HAZEN: Some Evanston residents have expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of accessibility at local Red and Purple Line Chicago Transit Authority stations. I sat down with Meryl Li to get a better look at the CTA’s Red and Purple Line Modernization Project, the program tasked with addressing this issue, to explain when and where Evanston residents may expect to see changes.
Thank you for being here, Meryl. So, what are some of the accessibility concerns that Evanston residents have about CTA stations?
MERYL LI: Evanston residents are definitely concerned by the fact that on the Purple Line, there’s only three accessible stations that technically meet ADA standards, and of those three stations, Davis is the one that is the most central to Evanston, and the elevators there, I’ve heard from the sources that I interviewed who require elevator use to get up to the station, they aren’t always working, and they aren’t always responsive with the call button. So there’s definitely just some concerns about accessibility of the stations themselves.
FINIAN HAZEN: What has Evanston been doing to make stations more accessible?
MERYL LI: So currently, the city has definitely been pushing the CTA to make stations more accessible, and the CTA has plans to make all stations accessible within a certain range of time. Their current project that they’re working on, which is the Red Purple Line Modernization Project, which is in the article, is currently still on Phase 1. So there is definitely going to be some time before Purple Line stations will be updated and renovated, et cetera.
FINIAN HAZEN: How have residents reacted to these proposed changes?
MERYL LI: Based on my experience talking with the sources and some disabled residents in Evanston, they definitely are wishing that it could be faster. There’s definitely an understanding that the city needs money and time to do these projects, and making stations accessible is not something that can happen immediately. But, as one of my sources said in the article, and this quote really stood out to me, was that, you know, it’s rough on people, and she wishes that the city’s priority would be helping vulnerable populations.
And she does think that the CTA is going to sincerely help people, but she wishes that the first priority would be helping vulnerable populations, and that is, I think, just reflected across a lot of what I learned from speaking to people, just that they understand that the CTA is trying their best and trying to make do with the resources they have, but they wish it could be faster, and they wish that good things could be more accessible now. So, that is the general response.
FINIAN HAZEN: How may the construction of Ryan Field complicate these accessibility efforts?
MERYL LI: Ryan Field’s construction is definitely gonna make Ryan Field a more popular destination and attract more people there, meaning that the closest station, which I believe is Central, is a high priority on a lot of the people working at the city and on their list for making that accessible because, as we said in the article, the Ryan Field venue is going to be a very accessible place. But again, it doesn’t mean anything if the station itself cannot be accessible, and that is how it’s gonna affect things, just making Central a priority in terms of what they want to be accessible first.
FINIAN HAZEN: Meryl, thanks so much.
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DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Finally, I spoke to Christina Lin, who along with Junseo Lee, helped report on Evanston’s Lunar New Year Festival last Sunday.
Why don’t you just start with painting a scene. What was it like there? What kind of sites and activities were going on at the parade?
CHRISTINA LIN: So the celebrations happened on the corner of Dempster Street and Chicago Avenue. And a lot of local storefronts there were open, and there were a lot of activities going on inside, like paper crafts, which were being led by volunteers. And I think there was like a Peppercorn station that was going on.
And we also just had booths with organizations like KAN-WIN, which was a domestic violence outreach group focused on Asian Americans, and they were there raising awareness. So, there was just a lot of going on. There was Mahjong on the side too, which was really fun.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Who organized the event?
CHRISTINA LIN: One of the main organizers was Evanston Asian South Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, also known as ASPA, so that’s an organization in Evanston, and they partnered with a lot of other organizations like Main-Dempster Mile and Evanston Pride and McGaw YMCA to basically put on this event for the Evanston and greater Chicago community.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: So I know they featured a traditional dragon dance for the Lunar New Year. Describe that scene for me.
CHRISTINA LIN: Yeah, I mean, I think the lion dances were put on by students. And so, almost everyone we talked to, they were like we’re looking forward to the lion dances, and we overheard people saying that, too. So it was definitely like the highlight of the event, and it was really cool just seeing everyone, like circling around the dragons and like they were getting the crowd involved too. And so it’s just really fun to watch.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Were you able to speak to any people at the event, what were they saying about some of the feelings that they had?
CHRISTINA LIN: So we talked to some volunteers, we listened to officials talk, and we also talked to some event-goers, and almost everyone emphasized the feeling of community. There’s around 10% of an Asian American population in Evanston, and they were all talking about, this is a great opportunity to just get the community together. We included a quote from Cook County Commissioner (Josina) Morita, and she talked about how education is kind of the best way to raise awareness about a community, and that was definitely one of those events. And yeah, it’s just really fun.
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DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Christina Lin. Thank you so much.
FINIAN HAZEN: Here are the other top headlines from the week:
Evanston’s downtown office vacancy rate hits 18.9% as the city grapples with downturn.
Schill email provides updates and clarity following questions of federal funding freeze.
Northwestern’s Mee-ow comedy show returns with wild ride on ‘The Mee-Owgic School Bus.’
Northwestern Men’s basketball falls 79 to 72 to Rutgers led by NBA bound Ace Bailey.
Fizz builds community, sparks debates over content moderation.
From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Finian Hazen.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: And I’m Dov Weinstein Elul.
Thank you for listening to another episode of The Weekly. This episode was reported by Dov Weinstein Elul and Finian Hazen and produced by Dov Weinstein Elul and Finian Hazen.
The Audio Editor is Anavi Prakash. The Multimedia Managing Editors are Kelley Lu and Jillian Moore. The Editor in Chief is Lily Ogburn.
Our theme music is “Night Owl” by Broke for Free, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License and provided by the Free Music Archive.
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