Dave Eggers

And I was always trying to give them assignments I guess I would want myself.

And the other thing that we do is interview people outside in the community.

But then the other one that I'd broken classes with is like interview each other, base a character on each other, or you can do an exact portrait of your peer.

And...

These were all volunteer students doing this as an elective in the evenings, but when they're 15 years old, they would write these exquisite miniatures of each other, and they would read them out loud.

And you could see kids, like, going, you know, flush red, kids crying, like, just their jaws on the ground.

And you realize that...

For most people, you never have anyone notice everything about you and write it down artfully.

And they would learn what it's like to listen to somebody, what it's like to sublimate your own writing to, like, honor somebody else or exalt somebody else.

Do them justice, right?

Get it right.

See things about them that are unique and beautiful.

And then for the recipient...

for most people, that might be the most detailed written account of who they are outside of a diary.

Yeah.

Because there's so few opportunities to just really listen and then also make art from it.

And so we do a lot of oral history too where

Kids interview their parents that might've immigrated here from elsewhere.

And when you see that process where they get an excuse to really listen, there's an oral historian, Dave Isay says, listening is an act of love.

You know, we're in a position where we get to interview people and talk to people a lot, but most people have very few opportunities.