Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: If you really knew me. If you really knew me.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: If you really knew me if you.
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Really knew me, you would know.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: Hey, who are you?
[00:00:09] Speaker A: Who, me? Yeah, you.
[00:00:11] Speaker C: It's Monday.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to if youf Knew Me Mondays, a student powered Park Day inspired podcast that builds belonging by sharing stories and perspectives from the margin of our school and community. Say what?
My name is Shay. And if you really knew me, you know that I love realistic fiction because it creates a whole new world built around the one we live in today. I could just spend hours getting lost in them.
Hi, I'm Noam and I'm in eighth grade. If you really knew me, you know that I love reading realistic fiction like Shay, and I also enjoy historical fiction. They make the most interesting time periods come to life. And I'm Logan, along with Shay and Noam. I'm also in eighth grade. And if you really knew me, you'd know that I'm a huge fan of books about Greek mythology and love imagining myself in the worlds that I read about.
Today we're talking about one of Park Day's most beloved traditions, the Readathon. It's an event that's all about setting big reading goals, raising money for our school, and connecting through stories.
That's right. The Readathon has been around since the very first year at Park Day. And in that time, students have read thousands of books and have inspired their friends and families to raise funds for our literacy program. It's such a beloved tradition for so many reasons. Students and lots of teachers wear PJs and basically read all day long, sometimes with their reading buddies, sometimes in the fourths they make. And there's always the best snacks. And this year, Readathon's as cool as ever. Four amazing authors are visiting Park Day to connect with the students.
Yep, in our lower school, we have Deepa Iyer and Robert Louis Trujillo. And in middle school, we'll meet Ida Salazar and Laura Gao in today's episode. To help you get ready for this year's readathon, we'll meet two of our guests and hear from over 50 students and staff. Let's get started with today's Park Daily question.
Today's question, what do you like about reading? For me, it's all about escaping into another world and seeing through someone else's eyes. Noem. I love how books can surprise me and keep me guessing. What about you, Logan? For me, it's the feeling of discovery, learning something new with every book I pick up. There's a lot to love about Reading. We took this question in our mic around campus and here's what we heard.
My name is Ezekiel and my favorite part about reading is like the words. I like the words. Hi, my name is Cece. That's my. Just my nickname. But I love to. I like the part where you bring stuffies in. I like the reading part.
[00:02:39] Speaker C: My name is Victoria.
What I love about reading is that it takes me into a different world and the imagination is kind of like a way of an escape for reality. And what I like about Readathon at Park Day School is that everybody participates. No matter what level, what age, everybody is reading. And it's a fun filled day for everyone. My name is Scott. I am an assistant teacher in the middle school. And one of the things I like most about reading is being able to visualize what the author has put on the page and sometimes go to a different world. I really love to get lost in a story because sometimes the stories that are in books are so different than my own life that getting lost in someone else's life and hearing that perspective is just something that I really appreciate.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: My name's Jackie.
[00:03:33] Speaker C: My favorite part of reading is painting a picture in my head.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: I'm Karina. My favorite part about reading is it makes my mind muscles have to work really hard to keep track of my storyline.
[00:03:46] Speaker C: Que me gusta leer Paolo Coelo. Me gusta en se de la vida.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: My name's William. I'm in sixth grade. And the thing I like most about reading is that sort of creates a whole new universe for you to dive into, away from all the realities and stuff.
[00:04:14] Speaker C: I'm Hal.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: I love stories. I love a good story. Getting like really invested in a character or development.
[00:04:21] Speaker C: And that can be a fiction book, it could be a historical book or like an essay, an argument that an author is making.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: I just really like feeling kind of.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: Captured by it, reading. Cause like when you read it's like you can connect to the book and then it's fun to read different types of books and see different types of stories and learn different stuff.
[00:04:45] Speaker C: My favorite part about reading is that I really get immersed into a story.
[00:04:51] Speaker B: And I feel like when I get immersed into a story, I'm just kind.
[00:04:56] Speaker C: Of trapped in there until I finish the book. And I really like getting to know the characters and it just feels like.
[00:05:02] Speaker B: I get to be part of a different world for a short time. And I love it.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: My favorite part about reading is probably all the knowledge you gain and the stories because it gets really deep and it's Just fun.
I love how books allow you to take yourself to another world and kind of escape sometimes.
[00:05:24] Speaker C: I like how when I read I can imagine what's going on in the story.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: I like how you can really feel.
[00:05:32] Speaker B: Like you're somewhere else experiencing something else.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: My favorite part about reading is how like books can sometimes feel like they can like end up in life. And I like to imagine how they can actually happen. Ugh, such a good question.
[00:05:50] Speaker C: My favorite part about reading is that.
[00:05:52] Speaker A: I get to meet so many different people that I wouldn't normally get to meet in my day to day. So many different protagonists, antagonists, villains, bullies, people I want to root for.
[00:06:06] Speaker C: You name it.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: I think that's my favorite part.
What is your most favorite part about reading and why?
My most favorite part about reading is you feel like you're in the book when you're reading and it's a way to pass time.
My favorite part about reading is that I just get to chill and basically do nothing.
[00:06:29] Speaker C: My favorite part about reading is using my imagination to picture the people and the places.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: Hi Rocco, we're wondering what's your favorite part about reading and why?
I like reading because it kind of makes me smarter each time I read more books. It makes me better at reading.
[00:06:50] Speaker C: My favorite part about reading is being able to feel like a character in a book and use my imagination to just picture the storyline in my head. And it's really cool how reading just allows you to be transported to another place and being able to share your stories with other people.
[00:07:09] Speaker A: Hey Apollo, what's your favorite part about reading and why? My favorite part about reading is when you get to hear the bits that are scary.
I just say the just like the worlds that come with the books, books and probably just because they're usually really imaginative.
[00:07:31] Speaker C: I love reading because it just helps you understand new things or get a better understanding of something you already know about.
[00:07:39] Speaker A: It also increases your vocabulary and your speaking skills. And depending on what you're reading, it.
[00:07:44] Speaker C: Can be very fun.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: What's your favorite part about reading and why? Eating.
Reading.
[00:07:51] Speaker C: Reading for me is one way to relax.
[00:07:55] Speaker A: I think it's really fun to be able to imagine another world and escape from my everyday life. Because if everything's just like really loud or overwhelming, you can just grab a book and then start reading and you stop focusing on the rest of the world. My favorite part is that I get to explore the stories and I get to live in thousands of different worlds. It just really broadens my imagination.
My favorite part about reading is this.
[00:08:30] Speaker C: Story that I get to make up in my mind.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: I love reading because it's a person's mind and adventures put on paper. I like it gets you sucked into the story and it makes you feel like you're really there.
I like reading because when you're reading about a faraway place, it almost feels like you're there, even if you're sitting in a library or your room. My name's Livia, and some things that I like about reading are like, I really like fiction and also nonfiction. Like learning about birds. Yeah. And I just really like reading overall. And what I like about reading is that it's just like you get teleported to a new dimension and everything's completely different. You can imagine what the characters sound like and look like, and it almost feels like you're right in the story. And I just love that. My name is Laina. And what I like about reading is that there are many adventures in each book.
Oh, okay.
[00:09:47] Speaker C: I'm Sydney.
[00:09:48] Speaker B: And one of the things that I love the most about reading is you can do it at your own pace and you can come up with any.
[00:09:56] Speaker C: Images that you want to in your own head.
[00:09:59] Speaker B: You might have some descriptions, but there's so much room for imagination. I think that's so cool and really important.
[00:10:05] Speaker A: I like reading because you can, like, dive into a story other than your own.
[00:10:09] Speaker C: Muchas cosas me gustan le le comix como ficion.
Pero.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: Gracias, Miguel.
And with that, let's jump into our first interview. We had the chance to talk to lawyer, author and activist Deepa Iyer and learn about what motivates her community work and what inspired her new book, We Are the Builders. Hi, Deepa. Thanks for joining us.
[00:10:45] Speaker C: Hi. It's great to be on the podcast. My name is Deepa Iyer, and if you're really new me, you would know that I love karaoke. So I am a lawyer and an activist and a writer. I'm based in the Washington, D.C. area and I have mainly worked on social justice issues for about 20 years, working on issues of equality and justice and inclusion for communities around the country.
I also am a writer and I've written three books, two nonfiction books and one picture book for children called we are the Builders, which I'm really excited to bring to Park Day and talk to kindergartners, first graders and second graders about during the readathon next week.
[00:11:42] Speaker A: What inspired you to write these books?
[00:11:44] Speaker C: I think that I've always been someone who likes to use words to express my ideas and My thoughts, my feelings and experiences. So ever since I was young, like, probably when I was, like, 10, I remember I grew up in India, and I remember that, you know, writing was one way that I really communicated what I was feeling and what was going on around me. And that practice of writing is something that I've always gone back to when things have been hard or I. I'm curious about something or I'm excited about something. And so it's just been a practice throughout my entire life. And these particular books, what inspired me to write them.
So they're. The books are all about social justice, so they're all about kind of what I've seen, what I've learned. So one of my books is focused on community stories of South Asian, Muslim, Arab, and Sikh immigrants in the United States. I'm South Asian myself, and I realized that a lot of the stories about our communities were written about us, but not bias. And so I wanted to change that by sharing these stories, community stories about people who are usually not heard from, who are usually painted in a really negative way at times.
And so that is one of the books I've written. And another book, the Children's Picture Book, I wrote that because I really wanted to give young children some language that they could identify themselves with as experimenters, visionaries, builders, disruptors, in order to change the communities around them.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: How do you think that books can inspire young people to make a difference in their communities?
[00:13:33] Speaker C: Yeah, I think that. I think that books can do a couple of different things, right? And I think this is across age. So one is, I think that when we see ourselves in books, in the characters or in the stories, it can make us feel connected to something bigger than ourselves, a bigger community. And then that leads us, I think, often to the second piece about books, which is that they can inspire us.
They can expand our worldview. They can give us ideas about things that we didn't think about or learn about people who are doing things that we didn't know about. And so we can get inspired by them. So I think that books, when they're really like, hit us, like, in our hearts, are ones that we feel like, oh, I kind of see a part of myself in this book, and I'm inspired to learn something new. I'm inspired to do something different in order to make a change in the world.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: And you happen to have a favorite childhood book?
[00:14:33] Speaker C: Yeah, that's such a good question. So one of my favorite books when I was growing up is this book called the Outsiders by Essie Hinton. I don't know if you've heard of it or read it. Okay, yeah, yeah, you've read it. Okay. So it's one of my favorite books. I read it when I had. I moved to the United States when I was 12 and I grew up in Kentucky and I always felt like sort of, you know, outside of the norm. I didn't feel like I fit in. And that particular book, the Outsiders, even though it was about an experience, set of experiences that were very different from my life, the themes of that book about community, about fitting in, about friendship, really spoke to me. And the best part was I have a 14 year old son and we had a chance to read that book together a couple of years ago and he loved it too. So it was just like a really nice kind of full circle moment for me.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: Deepa's perspective on books as tools for change is so inspiring. We also spoke with Laura Gao, author of Messy Roots, a graphic memoir about growing up as a queer Chinese American. Here's what she shared. Welcome Laura. Thanks for joining us.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: Hey folks, if you really knew me, you'd know that I learned how to draw by tracing and doodling over Pokemon cards.
My name is Laura Gao. I'm a self proclaimed pictionary champion turned comic artist and author. My two graphic novels, Messy Roots and Kirby's Lessons for Falling in Love, which is coming out in March, actually both draw from my experiences as a queer Chinese American immigrant.
[00:16:07] Speaker A: What motivates you as an author?
[00:16:08] Speaker B: I'm constantly motivated by cool people that I meet and all of their stories. A lot of folks ask how I never run out of ideas and honestly it's because I'm constantly amazed by the world I live in to where I'm inspired to pay tribute to it in a comic or story.
I've lived in several countries around the world and I've met people who have biked across entire continents. You know, I've met queer activists and community leaders, video game creators, the old Asian ladies who pick up bottles at the park. Like every single one of them has such a cool story and it's hard not to be motivated by them.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: Can you tell us a little more about Messy Roots?
[00:16:54] Speaker B: Messy Roots is both a love letter to my hometown Wuhan and to all the wandering younger Lauras out there looking for a safe place to call home. It started out as a webcomic actually that I had created in 2020 called the Wuhan. I know. It was in response to a lot of anti Asian racism happening in San Francisco and also around the world during COVID 19 I wasn't a full time artist then, but I needed an outlet for all, you know, the messy emotions I had just seeing Asian people beat up on the bus or wondering if my parents in Texas were safe, or just praying that I don't get a WeChat message from a relative that one of our family members in Wuhan had died.
For most of my life growing up, nobody knew where or what Wuhan was. And I was pretty fine keeping it that way. Growing up in a town that didn't have many immigrants, it was way easier to hide yourself and to blend in.
But during COVID Wuhan suddenly blew up as a household name and for all the wrong reasons. I grew up remembering, you know, the hot and dry noodles, which is called Ruo Ga Mien, that always fill the streets every morning. You know, the glint of the Chanjiang river that flowed through the city and through towering white bridges.
You know, the crisp air of the countryside of my grandparents farm. And of course my grandparents who raised me when my parents were studying in the US Then Wuhan has such a deep, close part in my heart. So it was very, very heartbreaking just to see all the hate that I got during COVID So I made this comic to share what I loved about my hometown and also to call out the awful bigotry towards my people during that time. And never, never in a million years did I ever expect that that comic would be shared with millions of people around the world. Like, you know, I was not a full time artist then. At the time I would just share random comics I made for fun and I get like 5 pity likes from friends and family, right? So it was such a mind blowing moment for it to go viral and to get this outpour of love from other Wuhanese immigrants that felt similar.
You know, other people who just wanted to pour out support for me during this really hard time and said that after the pandemic they'd love to visit Wuhan and just try out the hot and dry noodles for themselves. And that love ultimately is what inspired me to expand the comic into messy roots as a full on graphic novel. I was very lucky to get a lot of interest from publishers and that's why I ended up quitting my job to become a full time artist and writer. Ultimately I just wanted to transport readers to my hometown through the book so they can just fall in love with everything I fell in love with. And I wanted to write to all the young people out there to know that, you know, your search for identity at home is different and it's complex and that is totally okay. But if you let your voice just shine above all the doubts you know, you'll realize that the right people and places will just naturally gravitate towards you, no matter how messy your roots are.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: What is your favorite thing to read?
[00:20:20] Speaker B: Graphic novels, of course.
I'm a huge, huge sucker for a good queer sapphic rom com. I love horror and thrillers of any kind. You know, books, movies, TV shows, and any book that tugs at my heartstrings.
One rule I've taken into my writing is if a book can make you physically ball like a baby or just leave you gasping for air on the floor as you're just laughing, you know your butt off, then, then it's done its job.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: I think that's a great way to measure a good book. Thanks, Laura. Laura's message about embracing the mess is a great reminder for all of us, don't you think? So, what are we reading for the Readathon this year? I'm reading A Heart and a Body and a World. Again. It never gets old. You should check it out. It's written by Deb Coletti. I'm finally starting the Hunger Games series. It's about time. And I'm reading the Trials of Apollo now. What about you, listener? Have you picked out your books for this Friday's Readathon?
Well, that's it for today's episode of if youf Knew Me Mondays. Big thanks to both of our guest authors, Deepa and Laura. And to our 6th, 7th and 8th grade field reporters, Lucas, Lucien and Luca. And a big thank you as well to the park day families, students and extended community for participating in this year's Readathon. Before we close out this podcast, we want to remind you to keep reading, keep learning, and don't forget, your story matters. Once again, we're your hosts, Logan, Noam and Shay. Thanks for listening and catch you next time around on if you Knew Me Mondays. Happy Readathon.
