SHEPHERDS DAYCARE LAUNCHES FIRST-SEASON PHOTO SERIES AND INVITES TOPANGA CANYON LOCALS TO TELL THE STORY OF THE LEGENDARY WOODLAND HILLS KARATE BOYS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SHEPHERDS DAYCARE LAUNCHES FIRST-SEASON PHOTO SERIES AND INVITES WOODLAND HILLS LOCALS TO TELL THE STORY OF THE LEGENDARY WOODLAND HILLS KARATE BOYS

A photographic portrait of youth, friendship, discipline, mythology—and the community that remembers them

TOPANGA CANYON, CALIFORNIA — Shepherds Daycare announces the first (pilot) season of its photographic series exploring the lives and mythology surrounding the legendary—or, as some locals remember them, “infamous”—Woodland Hills karate boys.

The project began with a simple photographic question: Who were these boys when they weren’t practicing karate?

The first-season photographs look beyond belts, uniforms, competitions and martial-arts technique to explore the world surrounding the young men: their friendships, families, schools, neighborhoods, hangouts, rivalries, ambitions, personalities and everyday routines.

For Shepherds Daycare, the karate dojo is only the beginning of the story.

The deeper subject is a particular kind of Southern California childhood—the experience of growing up in Woodland Hills within a community where reputation could travel quickly, friendships could become legends, and ordinary afternoons could eventually become stories that people told years later.

The project also considers the relationship between these lived experiences and Mitchell’s portrayal on Shepherds Daycare. That portrayal provides another perspective through which the boys and their world can be examined. The series is interested in the space between representation and memory: between the person someone remembers, the person a photograph captures, and the person who actually lived the moment.

Rather than presenting one definitive version of these young men, Shepherds Daycare wants to collect many versions.

Because local history rarely belongs to one person.

It belongs to the people who were there.

It belongs to the parents who drove them to practice. The classmates who sat beside them at school. The neighbors who watched them grow up. The friends who knew what happened after practice. The competitors who remember a tournament differently. The shopkeepers who saw them around town. The siblings who witnessed the family stories. And the people who may remember an entirely different side of the boys from the one that became part of local mythology.

NOW SEEKING: 1,500-WORD LOCAL ESSAYS

As part of Season One, Shepherds Daycare is inviting Topanga Canyon residents, former residents, classmates, teammates, coaches, parents, friends and other community members to contribute a 1,500-word personal essay about what they remember or know about the Legendary Woodland Hills Karate Boys.

The prompt is deliberately broad.

We are not asking writers to produce a perfect historical account. We are asking them to tell us what they remember.

Where were these boys in the landscape of Woodland Hills?

What were they like away from karate?

What did people say about them?

What did they care about?

Who were their friends?

What was their reputation—and did that reputation match the reality?

What moments do you remember that outsiders would never know?

Writers may approach the subject through memory, biography, neighborhood history, personal experience, photographs, family stories, school memories, sporting events or observations from everyday life.

We are particularly interested in the details that usually disappear from official histories: the places where people gathered, the jokes nobody else understood, the cars in the parking lot, the walk home after practice, the friendships that lasted and the ones that didn’t, the personalities behind the uniforms, and the small incidents that eventually became part of a much larger story.

ESSAY PROMPT

“THE BOYS BEHIND THE BELTS: WHAT I KNOW ABOUT THE WOODLAND HILLS KARATE BOYS”

Write approximately 1,500 words about what you personally remember, witnessed, learned or were told about the Woodland Hills karate boys.

Your essay can begin anywhere.

Perhaps you remember seeing them around town.

Perhaps you went to school with one of them.

Perhaps you trained alongside them—or competed against them.

Perhaps your parents knew their parents.

Perhaps you remember a particular tournament, neighborhood, school, party, friendship, argument, achievement or ordinary afternoon that says something about who they really were.

Tell the story from your perspective.

What was Woodland Hills like at the time?

What was the social world surrounding these boys?

How did karate affect their identities and friendships?

Did the discipline of martial arts shape the way people viewed them?

Did their public reputation differ from their private personalities?

What did Mitchell’s portrayal get right, get wrong, leave out, or transform?

Were there different versions of the boys depending on who was telling the story?

Most importantly, what do you remember that deserves to be remembered?

Writers are encouraged to distinguish between what they personally witnessed and what they heard from someone else. If you are uncertain about a detail, say so. Memories can conflict, and those differences are part of the story. A recollection does not have to be presented as an established fact in order to be meaningful.

We are interested in honest memories rather than sensational stories.

If you use names, photographs or stories involving other people, please consider their privacy and avoid presenting unverified accusations or rumors as fact. The purpose of this project is to build a richer community portrait—not to manufacture one.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

Writers may use any or all of the following questions as starting points:

• Who were the karate boys, as you remember them?

• Where did they spend their time?

• What was the Woodland Hills community like around them?

• What did they do when they weren’t training?

• Who were their closest friends?

• What were their personalities really like?

• How did parents, teachers and coaches perceive them?

• How did other young people perceive them?

• Were they admired, feared, teased, respected—or something different depending on who you asked?

• What role did competition play in their social lives?

• Did karate bring them together or create rivalries?

• What locations are inseparable from your memories of them?

• Are there photographs, yearbooks, newspaper clippings or other artifacts that help tell the story?

• What stories have survived through the years?

• Which stories might be exaggerated?

• What do you believe people misunderstand about them?

• How does Mitchell’s portrayal compare with the people you remember?

• What should a younger generation understand about these boys and the world they came from?

WHY THESE STORIES MATTER

Every community creates its own mythology.

Sometimes it begins with a group of friends. Sometimes it begins with a sports team, a school, a neighborhood or a local competition. Over time, individual memories merge into a collective story.

The Woodland Hills karate boys have become part of that kind of conversation.

Season One is an attempt to look behind the mythology.

The photographs provide one record. The community essays will provide another.

Together, they can create something more complicated—and potentially more truthful—than either photographs or memories could provide alone.

Shepherds Daycare is particularly interested in the contradictions.

The champion who was shy.

The intimidating kid who was funny.

The disciplined athlete who hated practice.

The best friend nobody remembers.

The rivalry that became a friendship.

The story everyone knows—and the person who remembers it completely differently.

Those contradictions are not problems to be edited away. They are part of what makes local history human.

SUBMISSIONS

Local writers are invited to submit approximately 1,500 words under the working title:

“The Boys Behind the Belts: What I Remember About the Woodland Hills Karate Boys.”

Submissions may be personal essays, first-person recollections, historical reflections or community memories.

Writers should include their name, approximate connection to Woodland Hills and, where relevant, their relationship to the karate community or individuals discussed.

Photographs and supporting materials are also welcome, provided contributors have permission to share them.

The Shepherds Daycare Season One project will use submitted material to help build a broader cultural portrait of the people, places and memories surrounding the Woodland Hills karate boys.

Because the goal is not to create a single legend.

It is to discover the many stories hiding inside one.

Shepherds Daycare — Season One

The photographs remember the faces.

The community remembers the lives.

Now we want to hear the stories.

END