Kenneth Chanko
Author
Exit Tickets happens to be set in a school where I actually taught, which is on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Every once in a while, I will walk by it, a rush of memories flooding my mind. Much like Mr. J (but, no, I am not from Indiana), I only lasted a year there, before getting a teaching job at a school in the South Bronx. I started an after-school chess club there, and I remain in touch with several former students. Now in their 20s, they are thriving—and it’s such a distinct pleasure to witness. They’ve inspired me as much as I hope I have inspired them.
PHOTO BY NICK CHANKO
My debut novel, Exit Ticket, was eleven years in the works. It was inspired by my ten years of teaching in Manhattan and South Bronx public schools. Before becoming a New York City public school teacher, I held several different writing and editing jobs and specialized in writing about film for various newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, New York Magazine, The New York Daily News, Entertainment Weekly and Parenting Magazine.
As a child, I attended P.S. 40 in Manhattan, just a block from StuyTown, where I was born-and-raised, before we moved to Parsippany, New Jersey, where I lived during my middle-school and high-school years. After graduating with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communication from UW/Madison, I headed back east, got married to a wonderful woman, raised two fantastic kids in StuyTown, and now I’m a published novelist. It all still feels somewhat surreal.
I always remember being read to as a child. Well, maybe not this particular book in the accompanying photo. I’d say I was only three years old there—that's me on the right, with my older brother on the left. I recall seeing both my father and mother reading throughout my childhood. Kids pick up on that; parents who just suggest or tell their kids to “go read a book” but then their kids never see their parents (or care-givers) ever reading a book themselves, well…those kids probably won’t grow up to become big readers. As for my keenness for writing, that came early, too. My mother bought me a typewriter when I was around nine or ten years old. I’d come down with scarlet fever and was home from school for a full week, if not longer. So my Mom thought I should be passing the time productively, and that’s when I started typing out (pretty bad) short stories, usually science fiction or hard-boiled detective stuff. I’m reasonably sure that my debut novel, Exit Tickets, is my best story yet.
Our family's beloved Tennessee, who recently crossed that Rainbow Bridge, liked to relax in front of our living-room bookcase. Our Great Pyrenees/Border Collie/Lab mix would genially allow guests to browse and even borrow books, but he made sure that any borrowed book was returned in good shape. If it wasn't, a low growl would be in the offing. More seriously, he was a great dog, a loyal companion, a friendly gentle giant. He weighed-in at 120 pounds. When he stretched out on our sofa, there wasn’t room for any two-legged family member. We got him as a rescue when he was all of eight weeks old, a mere seven-pound pup. He lived with us until he was twelve-and-a-half. We miss him dearly.
This is—well, was—the window of Jumel Terrace Books in Washington Heights, a truly singular literary oasis in Upper Manhattan. Sadly, it is now closed. But it would've been open when the Big Henry character from Exit Tickets was taken there by his Uncle Carl, who bought his nephew a paperback copy of Baldwin's Giovanni’s Room, the visit referenced in my novel’s penultimate chapter. I recall stumbling on Jumel Terrace Books one hot and humid day in late June when I was still teaching in the South Bronx. A few teachers would celebrate the last day of school by embarking on a “Bronx Walk-Out,” wherein we’d leave our school in the Morrisania neighborhood in the Bronx and walk all the way over to the Macombs Dam Bridge and cross it into Manhattan. During one of those walk-outs, circa 2010, the storefront of Jumel Terrace Books caught my eye, and we went in. A fascinating and fulsome repository of New York City history and Black literature, the store looked more like the owner's living room, which it undoubtedly was. It’s such a shame that it is no longer with us. I often wonder where all those books — many, first editions — wound up. I hope they are safe and sound somewhere.
One of the great joys of my teaching career was starting my Bronx school’s chess club. P.S. 134 had never had a chess club before. I took my ever-enthusiastic chess club kids on Saturday tournaments to other schools throughout the city. They loved the competition, and learning chess led to great improvements in their grades.
Here’s a link to an opinion piece I wrote for amNY about the many benefits kids derive from learning and playing chess.
Reel Life Before Teaching
Before becoming a teacher, I wrote about the movies for more than two decades. Archived below at these links are several (surviving) feature articles, most of which appeared in The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly, including interviews with everyone from Willem Dafoe and Kevin Smith to Christina Ricci and Billy Crystal. (Please be aware that some links below may have a pay wall.)