ANGELY MOREL
YEARS AS MENTEE: 2
GRADE: Junior
HIGH SCHOOL: Manhattan Village Academy
BORN: New York, NY
LIVES: New York, NY
PUBLICATIONS AND RECOGNITIONS: Scholastic Art & Writing Award: Honorable Mention
MENTEE’S ANECDOTE: The first year at Girls Write Now I was diffident about sharing my pieces and thoughts. After learning how much Kate and I have in common and how nice and understanding she is, I just can’t stop sharing my stories with her. I can say that I have learned to be more confident toward everything I write and to feel free to express myself through my writing. Having Kate as my mentor has challenged me to try new things, like ramen! Which is something we now bond over.
KATE JACOBS
YEARS AS MENTOR: 7
OCCUPATION: Senior Editor, Roaring Brook Press
BORN: Grand Rapids, MI
LIVES: Brooklyn, NY
MENTOR’S ANECDOTE: Angely is a petite immigrant’s daughter from Manhattan, and I’m a tall midwestern girl twenty years older than her. But Angely and I are so alike! We love watching Netflix, and ranting about social issues, and ramen. Most of all, we both have a fierce love for our families and a strong sense of home. Our homes are very different, especially because Angely’s neighborhood is constantly changing and the block I grew up on hardly changes at all. But writing helps us share our different experiences with each other. My time with Angely is a real gift.
I wrote this piece because gentrification is an issue that has really hit home to me in the past year. As I grew older, I noticed how strongly I feel about my home and how it has shaped me.
I’ve shared the same bunk bed in the same small room with my older sister since I was three years old. The same bunk bed we turned into a fort when we were smaller, and the same bunk bed we sit on to watch The Handmaid’s Tale now. Our room still has the half pink, half purple walls from when pink was my sister’s favorite color and purple was mine. It’s where me and my sister sat together to watch movies all night, write in our journals, and do homework together. This small room is one significant reason why me and my sister are so close and why she’s my best friend.
This bunk bed in this room is where I have many of my memories at home. But my home is not just my apartment—it’s my neighborhood. While I was growing up, I knew everyone on my block. People were so friendly while they listened to merengue and bachata in the bodega, and while they shopped at other neighborhood businesses, they would stop to talk to their vecinos about the latest news from DR. The majority of the people in my neighborhood were from the Dominican Republic and we were proud to be Dominican. Everyone spoke Spanish and was very authentic. It’s where we brought a little bit of our motherland to feel safe and comfortable.
My home is the safe space where I feel comfortable to do anything, to just chill and be at ease, and to be myself. It’s the place where all my memories are and where my community is. It’s where I transitioned from a little baby into a teenager, where I had all my sleepovers with my cousins, and where I opened up all my presents on Christmas morning. It’s where I can be authentic and never forget my roots. I’ve lived in the same apartment since I was born. I went through puberty there, and my best times were in this apartment. When I feel sad and angry, this is the place where I feel the safest.
But now, in the neighborhood that I’ve called home, I often feel sad and angry at the world. Because the street I’ve lived on my whole life is changing. Latinos who have lived here for years have been slowly leaving or paid to leave; old apartments are being reconstructed to be more modern. Gentrification is taking away the homes and safe spaces of all the people in my community. Now most of the people I grew up around are gone, the bodega no longer plays merengue or bachata, the other businesses have either closed down or been bought out. There’s not enough Dominicans to talk to on the streets. Everything has changed—the culture and the people—gone.
Although sometimes I wish to have more of my own space and live like the girls in the movies with their big rooms and walk-in closets, without my small room and bunk bed, I wouldn’t have grown to be the person I am today and to appreciate and love my culture.
This house and this community have made me the person I am today.
There’s just no place I would rather call home.