Every Good Story Needs a Strong Protagonist

   By Beth Dolinar

               Forgive this writing lapse, but let’s begin with a cliché: Gina Catanzarite has a personality as fiery as her red hair. Yes, she has red hair and blue eyes and if I’d written that hackneyed opening phrase in one of her university writing classes she would mark a big red slash through it. And then she would tell me it was a good try anyway.

Luminari Teen Writer! Camp
Director Gina Catanzarite

  And then she would encourage me to keep writing, because words are vibrant and beautiful and, at times, the only true things on this planet.

    If that seems overly dramatic, it’s because Gina finds the drama in her work. As the director of Luminari’s TeenWriter! Fantastic Fiction camp, she coaxes young writers to find the right words. Next summer, Gina will lead the camp for the seventh time, coaxing fresh perspectives from middle and high school students in her writing workshop. Her teaching departs from the typical classroom approach of research, syntax and grammar. She is selling the idea of a sentence as a living, breathing thing.

     “Emily Dickinson said, ‘I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and I look at it, until it begins to shine,’” Gina said, quoting the 19^th century poet.

      ‘When you write from the heart you can see the words shine,” Gina said, adding that it is through finding the gleam in a word that a writer finds his or her own, unique voice.

    Her love of language has filled her career. Her work as a writer and producer for both commercial and public television have earned her eight Emmy awards and countless other accolades. As a contributing producer for WQED-TV, she has tackled topics as widely varied as human trafficking, the gender pay gap and efforts to save Pennsylvania’s bats. She is the author of non-fiction books and has written for newspapers and magazines.

     A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Gina has taught journalism and broadcast courses at Robert Morris University and, currently, Point Park University. Her students are simultaneously frightened and awed by her dynamic and inspirational classroom style.

     “We had a hash tag of #wwgcd while we were there,” said Claire Gysegem, a student in Gina’s class at Point Park in 2012. “It meant, What would Gina Catanzarite do? She had a way of making an impression that would stick.”

    Gysegem, now a graduate student in public media at Ohio University, credits Gina with igniting her love of television production and writing. “She is upfront and honest and blunt, but probably the most encouraging person you’ll ever meet.”

     Gina is known for her intense, demanding teaching style—suffering no foolishness, laziness or phonies.

    “She expects you to be authentic and be yourself,” said Gysegem. “She taught us that your voice is your own, and when you write, you have to claim it as your own voice.”

     That conviction is evident in the way Gina leads Luminari’s Teen Writer! camp. Last summer, she took students on a field trip to Phipps Conservatory. It was the hottest week of July, and the students stood perspiring in the humid hothouse jungle.

   “Describe what it feels like!” Gina shouted. “If you’re uncomfortable because it’s hot, find the words to say it.”

     That direct and inspirational style was evident to Danny Allman, another Point Park student who served as Gina’s teaching assistant for the Luminari writing camp in 2009.

    “Those students learn from the best,” said Allman, now a news assignments editor at a TV station in Baltimore. “Gina puts so much energy and exuberance into making sure her students enjoy writing, and that they succeed.”

    Gina says enjoys teaching teenagers, because of how they view the world.

    “The kids that age believe they can do anything, “ she said. “There is a lot of life ahead of them, and they tend to be thrill seeking—they enjoy the exhilarating feeling of putting their thoughts down on paper.”

    Gina likens her role of teacher to that of a mother falcon.

    “She carries her babies up high and then throws them off,” she said. “They learn to fly in the free fall. The magic is in the free fall.” It’s a take on life with which she is well acquainted: Gina and her husband Howard Shapiro are the parents of twin teenage sons.

     Her home life feeds her personal writing. She has journaled every day since she was a child, a habit that has left her home littered with “stacks of notebooks everywhere.” They are the words of a woman whose mind travels many miles a minute. To converse with Gina is to be welcomed into a tornado of smart ideas.

     I chose to write this piece in the first person, because Gina is my friend. Our occasional coffee chats are always the liveliest and most inspirational few hours of whatever week I’m in. When Gina talks, you can see all the wheels turning, the eruption of ideas firing along the synapses, all the shining words rolling out. She is aware of how all that energy affects people. She is a lot.

    “My tombstone will read She Meant Well,” she said, laughing.

     This article about Gina began with a cliché. Do I dare insert another?

     What, I ask, is her philosophy of life and teaching?

    “Like me or dislike me; I’ll at least make enough of an impression that students will react to it, “ she says.

    “Do something to let people know you were here.”

2015 Luminari Award (Teen Writer) Winning Entry

Written by Charis Allen

Merriam-Webster defines diversity as “the state of having people who are different races or who have different cultures in a group or organization.” Although, Webster dictionaries have been highly accredited, this definition is not entirely accurate. In this century, the word diversity has become synonymous with the word “ethnic” and therefore people associate the word diversity with racial differences. However, I would argue that diversity is not limited to race. Rather, diversity is differences in language, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, community origin, or any other entity in which people can be different in.  With this definition of diversity, it is clear to see why diverse perspectives are significant in public creative writing. Diversity in opinions and ideas are important because they can raise awareness about an issue, shape public opinion, and expose people to other perspectives. I would like my writing to do all of these things.

Poetry, one of my favorite art forms, is often used creatively to communicate a political or social issue. In a poem submitted anonymously to the Dare2Care Poetry Competition, the poet tackles the issue of parents accepting their children for who they are. The poem titled “With Roses in Hand” talks about the emotional difficulty of telling your parents, who has assumed you were straight, that you are not. This creative writing exposes readers, like me, to the perspective and experiences of another individual. This poem has given me a deeper empathy for gay teens, who may be dealing with this. Also, the view expressed in this poem is different than my experiences and of the experiences of other authors that I have read. The diverse opinion expressed is significant for multiple reasons. Specifically, for me, this poem had the power to evoke within me a new feeling, educate me on the issues faced by other people, and has made me more sensitive.

2015 Teen Writer! Fantastic Fiction

After the Civil War, former slaves were emancipated and tensions arose between white supremacists, who sought to maintain a hierarchy, and African Americans who wanted to reclaim their rights. In efforts to make white supremacy felt, lynching was used to kill African Americans. This national phenomenon was written about by authors who condemned lynching.  For example, Ida B. Wells, born in Holly Springs Mississippi, was a strong advocate against lynching. Her books On Lynchings and The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States sent reverberations through the nation.  It informed the national audience about lynching, the hatred that caused it, and how often black Americans were murdered for exercising their rights.  It caused people to think critically about the social consequences of white supremacy and made them reevaluate what the phrase “all men are created equal” meant, for all citizens. In this way, Wells was able to shape public opinion about lynching. With this book she was also able to expose Americans who were not aware of lynching, to the issue. “Her assessments of facts on lynching were then interpreted by a national audience and they then were able to craft their opinion, around her writings.  Her diverse opinion was a significant contribution to the anti-lynching movement. Ida B. Wells had a different opinion on lynching, than the majority population of Mississippi. Her creative yet factual portrayals of lynching were a potent shaper of Walter Francis White’s position on lynching, who later was a strong voice in the Brown v. Board of Education Case. I want my writing to have same influence on American history and opinion that Wells had.

I would like my readers to have the same kind of emotional response that I had, when I read “With Roses In Hand”. Not only did the poem make me more aware about the struggles other people face, but it also caused me to reflect on my role in that issue and what I can do to help. I want my works to evoke emotions and make the reader feel an obligation to the issue and the people affected by it. Similar to Ida B. Wells, I want my historical writings to be factual, yet present information in a creative way that engages the reader. Both of these authors were luminary individuals who had honest convictions about what they were writing about and had profoundly distinct writing styles. In order to have the same power that their writing yielded, I need to find out what makes me a luminary.

Tossing that first pebble

by Beth Dolinar

I was sitting in my car on a side road on Squirrel Hill, having just listened to Luminari founder Hilda Fu talk about our summer camps in an interview with KDKA radio, when the phone rang.

“I heard about what you are doing for young people and it brought tears,” the woman said from the other end of the call.

Her name was Carla, and she had just heard the interview. Mrs. Fu gave an eloquent and heartfelt description of the camps, and spoke of the philosophy of “everyday diplomacy” and understanding that shape her worldview and inspired her to start Luminari.

Carla called to say she was touched by what she’d heard on the radio. She doesn’t have children, but she understands that we’re all in this together, and that a peaceful future rests in the hands of all our young people.

“I think it’s wonderful that something like this is there for our kids,” Carla said.

I hear a lot of comments like Carla’s.

I’m new to Luminari, having joined the team as Administrative Coordinator in late April. In that role, I’m doing some paperwork, some writing, some research and mostly, now, recruiting students for our four summer camps. It’s been a sharp learning curve for me. As a college writing professor and producer of documentaries for WQED-TV, I have spent many years preparing classes, writing and conducting research. The work with Luminari calls on those skills that I already had, but has required me to learn some new ones.  Recruiting and helping to register students for the camps is taxing the memory and detail areas of my brain that had been snoozing since my college days. If it’s true that learning something new will help fend off cognitive decline and dementia, then I should be good to go until I’m 104.

I enjoy talking about Luminari and its camps. I’ve never been a salesperson, but selling the idea and mission of the camps to the school community has been satisfying. Parents want their teens to have experiences that open up their worlds. Our camps do that, and then some.

I’m able to speak with personal experience about the Teen Writer camp. My daughter Grace attended the camp last year. She’s not crazy about writing, and to be honest, I was looking for a way to keep her productive and busy during some of the dog days of summer. My co-worker and producer extraordinaire Gina Catanzarite leads the camp. I knew Grace would have a good week.

Teen Writers working on creative writing exercises.

And she did. She met students from other schools and from other walks of life. Going in, Grace had feared this would be like school English class, but she was wrong. Gina had the students exploring and interacting and conjuring in ways you don’t always get in English class. One day, Gina gave each student a five-dollar bill and took them on a walking tour of Oakland, telling them to spend the money in an interesting way. Grace gave hers to a homeless person and wrote about it.

What 15 year old doesn’t need that kind of experience? Ever since Grace and her brother were toddlers, I’ve tried to instill empathy. I don’t know if that can even be taught. Maybe it will turn out that empathy is a notch on the DNA strand, innate and cemented like eye color or height. But if it’s teachable, then it’s our job as parents and teachers to teach it.

Middle school and high school tend to be closed universes, with each school day beginning and ending with interactions with the same teachers, the same students, the same curricula. Large or small, schools present a whirlpool of experience that reaches only as far as the walls.

Luminari presents students with a new pool in which to swim, with new faces, new teachers, and new ideas. I like the pool metaphor, but it’s Mrs. Fu’s to tell. She created the camps to foster a “ripple effect” among the students. Open one mind and the waves touch many others.

Her goal with Luminari is to encourage young people to put themselves into the shoes of other people, to reach across barriers of race or background or language and find the common ground we share.      

For many high school students, May is prom time. My Grace was excited to be asked to go this year. The day before the prom, the shoes she ordered arrived at the door. They were high and they were pink and let’s just say they weren’t exactly as comfortable as her bedroom slippers. A bit of complaining ensued.

“First-world problem,” I told her. “There are people in Nepal right now who are searching for their next drink of water because an earthquake wiped out their village. Your shoes are a little bit tight.”

Those are hard lessons for kids to learn. We can talk to them every day about being grateful for what they have, about how we all have the same desires and fears; how reaching across our perceived differences will change the people on both sides. Talking about it is one thing. Luminari camps put that into practice.

Luminari Founder Hilda Pang Fu (pictured right)
helps an Ambassador Camp teen write in Chinese.  

During her radio interview, Mrs. Fu talked about the “I Want to be an Ambassador Camp”, which travels to Washington, D.C. for two days of visits to the State Department, the embassies and the memorial and monuments.

“If we had true diplomacy, there wouldn’t be a need for those monuments,” she said. I thought about that for a while. She’s right. Profound and important as they are, the Vietnam Memorial, the WW2 Memorial, and the Korean War memorial wouldn’t have been carved had problems been resolved through diplomacy.

Spaces for the Ambassador camp are filling up. Equally popular is Camp Delicious—five days in the kitchen with UPMC nutritionist Leslie Bonci, who shows the campers that 13 or 17 is never too young to learn to cook a really good meal--and that food is a way to connect with people, too. I’m hoping my work assignment that week takes me to the kitchen, and that one of our students asks me to sample her work. Or his.

Having raised one teenager—my son, a college junior—and still raising my daughter, I know a thing or two about how these young minds work. Teenagers don’t always know what they need or would enjoy until we show them the possibilities. Some kids will gobble all the kale the first time you put it on their plate, and others—probably most—will need some encouragement. In my house the rule has been you have to take a few bites of everything. Often, that’s all it took. Both my kids hated Brussels sprout hash the first time I cooked it, but now they’ll eat it.

Camp Delicious! Teens visit Whole Foods Market. 

It’s all about opening their minds to the possibilities. Try a new food and learn how to cook it yourself. Try a different approach to writing your story. Get to know someone you thought could never be your friend. Find out about him. Walk in his shoes; his probably feel a little tight, too.

I’ve helped to register a young man and his sister for Ambassador camp. Their family came here from Iraq, with a brief stopover in Turkey, to escape the war. I haven’t met them yet, but I am guessing their stories and their worldview will make for interesting discussions at camp. As a chaperone of the D.C. trip, I will have the opportunity to get to know the two of them. I’d like to know what they think of the United States, and Pittsburgh. I hope I’ll get a chance to ask them.

I suspect we’ll find we share some common ground. As Carla told me on the phone, we all have to learn how to get along with each other, make life better for one another.

     

And that’s why Luminari is here.

***

Luminari is excited to introduce the newest member of our team, Beth Dolinar. In her new role as Luminari Coordinator, Beth will be sharing her unique skills and a wealth of experience to help us better engage the Pittsburgh community while growing our core programs and strengthening our mission of broadening minds.

Beth brings her talents and experience as a writer, Emmy-award producer, public speaker and deadline driven multi-tasker to our team. She writes a popular column for the Washington "Observer-Reporter." She is a contributing producer of documentary length programming for WQED-TV on a wide range of topics and currently teaches as an adjunct faculty member at Robert Morris University. Beth has a son and a daughter. She is an avid yoga devotee, cyclist and reader. Beth says she types like lightning but reads slowly -- because she likes a really good sentence.

Luminari: Call for Writers

Luminari is seeking writers with an interest in sharing their knowledge and expertise in a variety of topics including current events, diplomacy, economics, politics, journalism, cooking/nutrition, creative writing or environmental issues. A writer for this series should have an interest in providing clear and useful information to the public in a fun and informal manner (previous writing experience is helpful).

This is your opportunity to submit educational, informative and encouraging content that promotes growth in all aspects of life from business to personal development. Submissions may be published both in the Luminari eNewsletter “LUMOS!” and the Luminari Blog.

Luminari eNewsletter

Luminari Blog

How to Participate...
Once Luminari receives your initial article, you will be invited to participate as a regular contributing author to the Luminari eNewsletter and Blog. 

Acceptable Article Format:
WORD COUNT: Entries may range in length from 500 to 1,200 words.

Submission Requirements

COPYRIGHT: If you have used any reference material to help prepare your article, it is vital that you include the proper credits along with your article. Without this you may be found liable for copyright infringement. If Luminari feels that an article does not display the proper copyright credit, we have full authority to refuse your article without notice.

How to Submit Finished Article

1. E-MAIL SUBJECT: LUMOS! SUBMISSION
2. Submissions may be provided by e-mail in the body of the message in plain text format or as a Word attachment.
3. Article Title
4. End Article with 35-50 Word Biography of the author; include Full Name, and Title)
5. PICTURE: Luminari will accept/publish photography and artwork with any submission. Please submit with your entry a FULL COLOR digital photo as an attachment to pilardesigns@aol.com in one of the following formats: PDF; JPEG; TIFF

PLEASE NOTE: 

1. EDITING. All articles may be edited for content and space at the full discretion of the editors.
2. At the present time, Luminari does not pay for submissions. This is a labor of love that is an indirect way to promote yourself or subject dear to you. Even though the content does not endorse you or your business in any way, you are introduced through the biography at the end of your article where you can tell the readers who you are, where you can be reached and display your Web site information. Be creative, this is in essence your advertisement for yourself.

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