Interview With Erin Horan, LEI volunteer
What would a writing space for youth be without volunteers? We sat down for an interview with Erin Horan who has been volunteering with us for 2-3 years. Originally from Boston, she currently works as a Development and Communications Associate at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.
Who are you?
My name is Erin Rose Horan and I’m a writer living in Lakewood, Ohio. I work as a Development and Communications Associate at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. I’m a native of the Boston, MA area.
What is your role with Lake Erie Ink?
I volunteer with Lake Erie Ink’s writing programs, which means I help students engage with the activities, express themselves, explore their creativity, and hone their writing skills. By validating the students’ unique voices, I also help them develop self-confidence.
How long have you been working with us?
I’ve been involved with Lake Erie Ink for 2-3 years now.
Why do you continue to work with Lake Erie Ink?
I continue working with Lake Erie Ink because it is a truly special place! The staff have been so welcoming to me from Day 1. I’ve never felt like an outsider. There is a truly beautiful energy around LEI and I believe its work is so important for kids. Not only do I have fun in the sessions themselves, as an active participant, but I learn how to be a better teacher from observing and interacting with program staff (and I learn a lot from the kids, too!).
Can you speak to one moment in one of the writing programs that really stands out?
A young girl (middle school, I think) wrote a really mature poem about how her relationship with her mother was changing as she got a little older. The relationship between the two characters was not explicitly identified as mother and daughter, but there were enough subtle clues in there that you could sense who these people were. It was such an elegant and poignant picture of how strange it feels to no longer share all of your innermost thoughts and feelings with someone who still thinks you’re telling her everything, and how confusing it is to sort through what you want and need out of that relationship as it changes. I was totally floored by this girl’s talent and it reminded me how special Lake Erie Ink is: to give young people that space to explore feelings they may not otherwise have the opportunity to acknowledge, and to share those feelings in a supportive environment.
Transformation, A Creative Community Challenge
After the success of our One Summer Day…Creative Community Challenge, we can’t help but wonder what might happen on One FALL Day! We are excited to announce the theme for our Fall Creative Community Challenge:
“Transformation”.
LEI invites you to share your stories! Respond to the theme (transformation) with a poem, story, comic or artwork. Are you up for the Challenge?
A couple things to know before submitting:
- Work will be displayed in a local storefront window.
- Select pieces will be chosen to be published in an anthology
- Open to creators ages 1-99 and ages 101+. (If you are 100, just lie about your age)
- Select pieces will be chosen to be published in an anthology at the end of November. 100 years old, just lie about your age).
- Must be original and respond in some way to the theme.
- Poetry, fiction, nonfiction, comics and other artwork welcome.
- LEI will make final decisions about editing and publishing.
- Writing has to be less than 500 words long.
How to submit:
Fill out the form below:
If the form isn’t working, you can access it by clicking here. Additionally, feel free to email the submission to us directly at creativecommunitychallenge@gmail.com or mail the submission to us at
2843 Washington Blvd.
Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118
Getting Ready for College
Save the dates, folks-College Essay is back and better than ever! With future workshops 9/16, 9/30, 10/14 and 10/28 we are dedicated to inspiring and instructing personal narrative for all teens across NEO. Each of these ZOOM courses will be held 6:30-8:00 at $10 a session. Come to one, some or all of these sessions-we will meet you where you are at!
Conversation with Chris
We recently sat down and had a conversation with Chris Garson, published author and long time Lake Erie Ink volunteer, and his experience volunteering with us, what he does when he isn’t volunteering at Ink Spot and a little impromptu career advice.
Learn more about Chris by clicking here!
Who are you?
I’ve lived in Cleveland Heights since 1991 and I grew up in shaker so I’m native to the east side. I love it here. I worked for Progressive Insurance from 1984 to 2010 and I retired in 2010 to start writing. I actually started writing in 2002 when I did it on nights and weekends. Progressive was a great place to work, I have a lot of good friends there, but after 25 years I was ready to move on and do something else and I’ve been really happy writing since then.
I stumbled across Lake Erie Ink in the weirdest way. I was working on a website using wordpress and there were two people sitting at a table near me who were also talking about wordpress. I eavesdropped on them and it turned out to be Cynthia Larsen! They were working on the Lake Erie Ink website. I learned a little about it then and Cynthia said “Well, you should stop by sometime.”
A few months went by and I needed something to do. I liked my writing but I spent a lot of time at home. I needed to be out with other people so I decided to stop in and see what it was all about. That was 8 years ago and I’ve been there ever since.
I spent a lot of time in Ink Spot. I’ve done Tuesdays and Thursday since forever and love doing it. Its awesome working with the little kids and helping them find their voice and learn how to express themselves.
It’s just been the perfect pace for me to spend some of my time because of my love of writing. Hopefully I have some helpful information to impart. Working with kids always feels great. Just doing volunteer work feels good!
Is there one particular story that stands out?
I’m always fascinated by how the kids imagination work and their understanding of the world. I had this student a couple years back Gabe, he was a real cutie. He wanted to be an entrepreneur so bad. He was always making cards and games and trying to get people to buy his stuff. He was curious about my writing. He wanted to know if I made a lot of money writing. So I told him I’ve been doing it for about ten years and I’ve made about 150 bucks.
He asks is that a lot?
I go if you want to take your family out for dinner you can get a nice meal but if you actually want to support a family probably not.
He’s like good to know, I’ll work on selling my games!
Did you ever buy a game?
I did – I have bought some of his stuff. I try to support the kids whatever they do.
We had one student my first or second year who wrote a 400 page novel. He’s about 12 years old. So I was always encouraging him, asking him about it. He was going to sell it on Amazon. I’m proud to say I was his first paying customer.
I have the book today. I got him to autograph it, his sister who was a future ink spotter, and the artist of the book.
That’s special!
Yeah. And what’s also cool, that family’s been a great family in Ink Spot. I’ve enjoyed watching four of their kids come through the program over the years. They’re great kids, great parents, a great family.
We talked a lot about how nice the kids are, something we don’t say enough, but there’s a lot of great parents out there. I find that the parents who want their kids to go to Lake Erie Ink and enjoy the Ink Spot and other programs are the kinds of parents we wished we all had. The kinds of parents who care about their kids, are investing in their education and fostering their imagination. I met so many great parents like that over my years there that they really deserve a big shout out to for getting kids to attend things like Ink Spot.
Mary Bethune 6th Grade Anthology
Click here to view the full PDF!
This is the creative work of the fourth graders in Ms. Uter & Ms. Inzana’s ELA Class at Mary M. Bethune School. During the 2019-2020 school year, teaching artist, Cynthia Larsen from Lake Erie Ink: a writing space for youth, taught the sixth grade how to write personal narratives.
The creative work of these students and their teachers was funded by a TeachArtsOhio grant
from the Ohio Arts Council. We would like to thank the OAC for supporting the arts and creative
expression at Mary M. Bethune School. We also want to thank the students, teachers, and
principal for supporting creative expression in the classroom.
One Summer Day…
One Summer Day… people of all ages from all over met our creative community challenge to respond to a prompt with a piece of writing or artwork. We had over 50 submissions from ages 8-80. From drawings to poetry, sculpture to story we were blown away by how this project turned out.
The pictures are nice, but it’s even better in person. We displayed all submissions at a Coventry storefront in Cleveland Heights. Go check it out now at 1812 Coventry Rd, Cleveland Heights, OH 44118.
Fall Ink has Arrived!
Just because we have to stay home doesn’t mean we can’t have fun!
This summer, we worked hard to create meaningful, safe and fun ways to stay creative. We are continuing our programming through fall with a series of evening online workshops for teens. These workshops are split into 2 sessions:
Session 1: Week of August 31 – Week of October 5
Session 2: Week of October 12 – Week of November 16 (week of Nov. 30 for NaMoWriMo)
Learn more about our Evening Ink programs by clicking here!
One (Last) Summer Day
Today is the LAST DAY to submit your work in our One Summer Day Creative Community Challenge! Respond to the prompt (one summer day) with a poem, story, comic or artwork. Are you up for the challenge? Submit your response and learn more about the challenge by clicking here.
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Poetry out Our Window Anthology
Click here to view the full anthology.
Check out our Poetry out Our Window anthology – a collection of poetry from the popular online summer camp!
Summer in August
Od Perry-Richardson and Matt Haberbusch team up to give you Comics Week – a full week of nonstop virtual comics fun for grades 4-8! Cancel your afternoon plans August 3-6 because we’ve got Comic Creatures 3:30 – 5 PM and Comics Journaling 5:30 – 6:30 PM. Click here for more details about the specific programs and click here to register!
