Don P. Hooper is in the building!
On September 25, 2024, Don P. Hooper, a writer and filmmaker as well as the author of our school’s 2024 Community Read “True, True” came to talk to the high school about his life and his time as an author.
During this time he spoke about what inspired him to become an author, mentioning, “wanting to share my voice to others” and “what was happening in the world.” He saw the main character of Gil as allowing him to do this. “I think (Gil) was just a mix of everything I was seeing from teens speaking up during 2020 before that and after BLM and other movements that happened during that time.” he said. “So I draw a lot from the teens from the news.”
Don P, as he asked us to call him, saw the novel as a way of delivering truth to the world and this is why he called the novel True True. “What is the truth?” he said. “At one point in the story a lie is told. That Gil had started the fight, and that isn’t the truth. So what is truth in the story? Is that what the media says? Because the media is saying this is the truth. Is what the politicians are saying the truth? Is it the ministry? The bullies? Whose truth matters?”
Students then had the opportunity to also interview Don P, and ask him questions about the steps of becoming a writer. “I think the most important step is the most cliché one of never stop writing. The reason I say this is because writing is tedious, it’s stressful at times and I think the most important thing is to finish. If you can just write a short story or a poem, know that you accomplished something. If you can just write a line for that day, know that you accomplished something!”
With this students had even more questions when it came to writing such as how does he overcome writer’s block, to which he says “I’ll probably always have writer’s block but at the same time I don’t believe in writer’s block. I feel like I can always write. It just comes down to if I can write what I want to write at the time. So if I can’t write, I go on a walk or on the train and I start writing the first thing I see. If I see someone on the train I start writing about what could be their story. Realizing that if I just put one sentence down on the paper I wrote for the day! So it’s just like whatever I can write, I just write.”
Sophomore, Deborah Akintunde believed that the visit was worth it. “It was fun” said Deborah.” I usually don’t like people talking but it was interesting and good to learn about his academics. Sorta a full circle moment for us as students to learn about his academics”.
Jaslene Elegar, a junior, thought Don P.’s visit was also inspiring. “I like how concise Hooper was when describing the aspects he wanted to incorporate into the novel” said Jaslene “What he was saying was easy to follow and kept me interested.”
Senior Nivialee perhaps summed up everything best. “It was overall interesting,” said Nivialee.
Overall the author visit went splendid! Should we have another community read? Brianna Brito, a senior, says “It was a pleasure meeting Don Hooper and witnessing the passion and inspiration behind his book.” And based on other student opinions they believe so as well.
