Abram Shalom Himelstein

About the Author

Abram comes to the Neighborhood Story Project by way of writing and publishing several books, including 1998's Tales of a Punk Rock Nothing. He has been teaching in New Orleans Public Schools since 2001,while moonlighting on projects like the New Orleans Bookfair and receiving his MFA from University of New Orleans. Abram is employed by the Literacy Alliance of Greater New Orleans, working on Literacy Projects including One Book, One New Orleans. At the NSP you'll find Abram at work teaching writing, fundraising, dealing with the printing, and distribution of books, and talking to reporters.

About the Book
The Neighborhood Story Project is a community documentary program in New Orleans, Louisiana. Based out of John McDonogh Senior High, we teach high school students how to write books about their neighborhoods. Through creative non-fiction, photography, and in-depth interviews, they then create detailed portraits of their communities. In June of 2005, we published five books that looked at the city from different vantage points. These books were celebrated with block parties in the neighborhoods and were the second best selling books at independent bookstores in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina. In the aftermath of the destruction, we are in the process of re-envisioning our work and our city.