Flaunt Magazine
CLASS ACTION
By Tami Mnoian
© Flaunt, April 2005

Community is not dead in Los Angeles — it’s thriving. Case in point: the volunteer rush to help McSweeney’s publisher Dave Eggers renovate 826LA, the third installment of his creative writing think tank for kids.

San Francisco, 2002: Eggers opens a tutoring center for kids that fulfills an overlooked need in America’s education system. He calls it 826 Valencia, same as its address. Donations and grants primarily fund this not-for-profit undertaking that is chiefly staffed by volunteers. Their mission? Provide one-on-one attention to improve kids’ writing skills. Free drop-in tutoring is offered for basics like spelling tests, (college entrance) essays, and book reports, along with a packed schedule of workshops on subjects like playwriting, comic book writing, and songwriting.

826 is a hit. During the fall 2004 academic quarter, a staggering 7,000 student-tutor connections are made between 826’s Valencia campus and its local school outreach program. The numbers continue to swell.

“This model has worked so well in San Francisco and is working well in New York, so we’re just going to try and bring it here to see one more group operating,” says Pilar Perez, director of 826LA. Well versed in letters and publishing, she is the ideal candidate to run such an organization. “I’m always the person behind the scenes,” she offers. Some would argue that she’s the driving force behind such institutions.

Perez grew up in Long Beach, California, and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. She studied literature, art history, and political science at UC Irvine, then went on to earn her masters in museum studies at California State University, Long Beach. Eggers first met Perez at Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica during her tenure as exhibition programmer. Track 16 is where she also met Viggo Mortensen (she curated his first exhibition of photography and painting at the gallery), who, one day, approached her with an interesting proposition. “Why don’t we start a press?”

Under her reign, Perceval Press was formed and, in keeping with its original loose-format vision, recent book subjects include the political situation in Iraq, artist Yoshitomo Nara, Los Angeles-based writer Mike Davis’ venture into fiction, and figurative artist Eric White (forthcoming). “We’d just be open to anything that came along,” she says.

For Perez, leaving Perceval to helm 826LA is a logical step in her life. She nurtures projects by bringing them to their full potential. One of the first books that 826LA will publish is a collaboration between students from Animo Inglewood Charter School and former Lakers coach Phil Jackson. In addition to responsibilities at 826, Perez lends her expertise to McSweeney’s, the publishing house and no-ad literary journal of the same name started by Eggers (she is now working on David Byrne’s latest title).

“I like feeling involved in community and working with the arts,” she says. “This is a way of being able to continue to do incredible projects, work on books and art and all these things that also bring in community.”

Because of the varied and unique sprawl of the City of Angels, the 826LA campus will differ slightly from its sibling sites. All those in search of tutoring at 826 Valencia must first pass through a “storefront,” a leasing requirement for this location. Here, pirate supplies are up for sale: glass eyeballs, skull-and-crossbone flags, treasure maps, and anything else a proper ocean bandit should need. Filled with oddities, customers are encouraged to snoop around, pillage drawers, or hang out in one of the theater seats in front of the velvet-curtained fish tank.

Similarly, the storefront for 826NYC in Brooklyn is a supply haven for superheroes, with items like deflector bracelets on hand. The “secret” entrance to the large classroom is located behind a shelving unit. 826LA’s supply store, however, is still in the works. The right location for such a place — in this instance, a shop for time travelers — remains yet to be discovered. Even so, it’s proving to be a popular hub. Last month, during its inaugural weekend, one noteworthy name was out offering his time. On opening day, director Spike Jonze led the first workshop on skate videography. And surprisingly, even before 826LA was up and running, a list of more than 200 volunteers had materialized.

“All these writers and all these people that I haven’t seen since the Track 16 days,” says Perez, “they were all excited. You know, we want to come and either do a workshop, or we want to do a reading or some event, some way we can help out. And that was a great thing to have that community of creative people come together.”

826LA makes its home in the haven of artist-friendly Venice, California, on the second floor of the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC). Inside the art deco concrete block that once served as police headquarters, the holding cells on the first floor have now been converted into exhibition areas. On the floor above, in 826’s classroom, Perez sits amid newly painted blue chairs and large desks.

Just two months ago, leagues of volunteers renovated this space, tearing down walls, putting in new floors, and painting. Perez and Eggers were on hand directing progress. The ever trustworthy Eggers even sent folks to Ikea with his credit card for more supplies. Everyone seemed to know that they weren’t just constructing a classroom, they were building a community.

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