Veronika Shulman is the Communications Manager at Get Lit-Words Ignite- an organization that sparks innovation and teen literacy and engagement in Los Angeles youth, meanwhile stemming dropout rates, through enriching urban public high school curriculum through classic poetry and spoken word literature.
Her crazy passion and dedication to this mission reverberates from everything she does. Veronika not only teaches but transforms lives through poetry.
What is the most beautiful thing you've noticed this week?
Young poets doing a cypher (a loving & competitive freestyle) in full voice and passion, in a conference room, in Liberace's old studio in West Hollywood.
What does it mean to be interesting?
It means digging very deep into yourself and sharing your uncensored voice, however raspy or strange. It means finding your inner Luna Lovegood or Stevie Nicks. In a quote that is controversially attributed to a few different poets, "Speak the truth. Even if your voice shakes."
What is the most pressing question that you've had today?
How can we get major Hollywood celebrities and individual donors to understand that Get Lit is the answer to the arts education crisis and literacy crisis in America? How can we use the internet to tell our stories?
What do you believe is the largest influencer of individual suffering in the world?
Prejudice. Ignorance. Fear. Hunger, for many things.
Individual happiness?
Openness. Diversity. Flower crowns. Soulful music. Mentorship. Freedom.
What does a sustainable life look like to you?
Good food, good friends, healthy family, and owning a car.
What is your favorite thing about the human face and why?
Hair. I love all different kinds of hair. Does that count? I also love lips. And septum piercings.
What was the last moment you felt completely at peace?
When I was in high school, making the costumes for our dance company.
If you had a megaphone, what one story would you tell to the world?
If you walk by a black boy on the street, you don't need to lock your car doors. He is not trying to rob you. He's just trying to get to school.
What has been the most pivotal moment in your life so far?
Working on a project with Get Lit's young poets and editing their manifesto for the United Nation's Global Goals was pretty rad and kind of a lifelong dream come true. Meeting Lin-Manuel Miranda was also very moving. He's one of my greatest heroes.
What is the very first thing you do in the mornings?
Coffee, coffee, coffee. It's a ritual and an addiction that gives me so much back. Sometimes a bit of meditation.
What one word describes you?
Cactus.
What one word describes this world?
Symphonic.
Describe your work process.
I am grateful to say I love my job. I do the marketing materials and outreach for Get Lit, as well as the social media. I also help our executive director implement programs and mentor our youth in creating their own chapbooks, CVs, and college apps. As the saying goes, "It takes a village." We are a village at Get Lit.
Describe your relationship with technology.
Love/dislike. I love Instagram...all other technology makes me anxious.
What, when, why, and where was the last book you read?
Patti Smith, Just Kids, at various cafes including my beloved Sqirl in Silverlake.
What is one important thought or idea that demands to be heard?
The thought that countries are just arbitrary labels. There is a Thoreau quote I love: "All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the morning."
Who would you be most interested in seeing answer these Curiosity Conversations questions next?
Saul Williams, Patti Smith, Kenny Scharf, Stephen Sondheim. If mortality weren't a thing, Jean Michel Basquiat & Walt Whitman.
Get Lit - Words Ignite is a nationally recognized organization founded to stem dropout rates and spark dramatically increased literacy among youth in Los Angeles. Through an innovative curriculum that fuses classic, iconic poetry with students' original spoken word responses, Get Lit places the greatest poets of our time in dialogue with over 20,000 teens each year who transform their lives and communities through art and social consciousness.
Join the #LiteraryRiot at http://www.getlit.org.