What is Literary Lots?

In August 2013, a new program called Literary Lots will transform four vacant lots in Cleveland into six-week summer program spots for children. Each lot will have a theme based on a specific children’s book and will become a space for art and for educational programming, bringing cultural institutions across the city together into inner-city Cleveland neighborhoods. These lots are a creative collaboration to “bring books to life” through the programs designed by artists, whether they are learning activities or fun games. Your donations will be used to help secure these lots, find artists to design them, and hire staff to run them. Most importantly, these lots will bring books to life for kids to enjoy them in and exciting ways.

We’re very excited about making Literary Lots come to life, but there’s a lot of work to be done! This November, we will be using Kickstarter as a platform to raise a goal of $5,500. Your support would be much appreciated! To show our thanks, we are offering some great rewards for your donations towards Literary Lots.

Who’s Behind All of This?

PROGRAM LEAD
Cleveland Public Library, Tracy Martin
Tracy began serving as the Cleveland Public Library’s Grants and Development Coordinator in February 2012. With nearly 10 years of experience fundraising in Cleveland’s non-profit sector and a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Administration and Leadership from Cleveland State University’s Levin College of Urban Affairs, she is excited to have the opportunity to put her past experience to work raising funds and friends for this great organization.

PROGRAM PARTNER
Land Studio, Gregory Peckham
Greg Peckham is Managing Director of LAND studio, a Cleveland, Ohio based non profit dedicated to creating places and connecting people through public art, sustainable building and design, collaborative planning, and dynamic programming. As Managing Director, Greg leads LAND studio’s organizational direction and sets its programmatic focus and priorities, identifying and selecting projects and opportunities that support LAND studio’s vision and mission. He also serves as the frontline staff leader for the organization, managing project teams and setting the pace for LAND studio’s public space agenda, while also assisting the organization with fund development, operations support, and overall management.

PROGRAM PARTNER
Ohio City Writers, Frank Lewis
Ohio City Writers is a non-profit creative writing center that organizes programs and volunteers to help youth, in grades one through 12, hone their skills with the written word. Their mission is to demystify writing, teach respect for the craft and encourage a lifelong passion for creating.

PROGRAM ARTIST
Strategic Urban Solutions, Julia Kuo
Julia Kuo is an illustrator based out of Chicago, IL. She has illustrated books for Simon & Schuster, Little Brown and Co. and Quarry Books as well as editorial pieces for the New York Times. She recently self published a book along with urban planner Justin Glanville called “New to Cleveland: A Guide to (Re)Discovering the City”. Julia also teaches at Columbia College Chicago and is part of a paper goods company called The Nimbus Factory.

PROJECT MANAGER
Strategic Urban Solutions, Kauser Razvi
Kauser Razvi has extensive experience in strategic planning, business process improvements and developing organizational structures and technical application solutions for government and non-profit organizations. She has worked on federal, state, and local government projects as well as a variety of projects for non-profit organizations. In addition to strategic planning and program development, one of the main focuses of her consulting work is to help organizations improve their organizational and technical infrastructures and to help use information effectively and efficiently to improve services they deliver. She has extensive experience in helping to organize and formalize “start up” programs and organizations including working with multiple agencies and stakeholders to frame ideas, goals and objectives and provide the client with a framework that can be used to launch organizations or start projects.