Join us next Tuesday, July 7, at 6pm here at 826michigan for the launch party for Two of A Kind. Jacqui will read her new book for children four to nine years old, and we’ll provide snacks, activities, and autographs! This event is free and open to everyone.
Published by Atheneum and illustrated by Matt Phelan, Two of a Kind tells the story of Anna, her best friend, and what happens when Anna must chose between playing with the “popular girls” or being true to her friend. It is a sweet, insightful story about the in-crowd, the outcasts, and the bravery it takes to be a real, true friend.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009 – Volunteers of the Month for July 2009
Rachel Feder and Sheera Talpaz!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 – Our First-Ever Yet-to-be-Titled Art Fair Film Festival
Regardless of whether or not Art Fair makes you want to gouge your eyes out, if you live in Ann Arbor, you can’t avoid it.* So why not make ACTUAL ART during Art Fair? (I.e., no art on sticks, no gazing balls, no paintings for your grandparents’ condo in Florida.)
* It should be noted: now that we are downtown, we actually LOVE Art Fair. TONS of people from all over the country stopped into 826michigan last year, learned about our programs, and bought supplies for their robots. It was WILDLY fun. We are excitedly anticipating Art Fair this year.
And so: We invite you to participate in the first ever Yet-to-be-officially-titled Art Fair Film Festival!
We’ve teamed up, once again, with our good friends over at HuRAI (Huron River Arts Initiative) to bring you YET ANOTHER fun, unusual night out. (Yes, this is the same group of people who helped us with 24-Hour Theater and the Love Hangover.) We are currently seeking filmmakers, artists, writers, actors, and other creative types to make short films that honor, roast, poke fun at, and exemplify the beast we all know as Art Fair.
Movies can be in any genre! This includes: horror, mockumentary, documentary, musical, spaghetti western, dramady, comema, action, romantic comedy, gangster, animation, epic, silent, foreign, or anything else you can think of.
Basic criteria / other information:
- Movies must be made the week of Art Fair: Monday, July 13 through Saturday, July 18 at noon.
- Movies must be delivered to 826michigan by noon on Saturday, July 18 on DVD.
- Movies must be no longer than fifteen minutes.
- Movies can be made individually or in teams. If you need help coming up with a team, we can do that.
- Movies must be original. You can’t videotape the last ten minutes of The Godfather and say it’s an Art Fair film (although there are many aspects of that which we would deeply appreciate).
- No NC-17 films. Shoot for something PG-13 or under.
- Yes, there will be an awards ceremony with ready-to-frame certificates. We’re not sure what the awards will be yet, but we do know you’ll want one.
For answers to questions or to sign up you and/or someone you know to participate, email me at amy@826michigan.org.
And everyone! Mark your calendars! Please come to the screening of the films: Saturday, July 18 at 8pm at 826. Bring your friends! (And $5 for admission.)
Monday, June 29, 2009 – A Summer that Gurgles and Bubbles
As I sit here in the back corner of the lab, listening to the gurgling and bubbling of the two dozen or so students who showed up for Drop-in Writing tonight, it’s hard to not feel excited about a summer that feels like it’s just beginning, which, technically, I suppose it is.
People often ask us if things slow down* in the summer. We love this question, because: a) we LOVE to laugh, and b) we LOVE to enlighten people about our summer programming. It does not slow down, it just changes a little. Sure, there’s no tutoring, no in-schools, no field trips, but there are lots of off-site programs, and on-site programs, and well, just read on. And, to keep this blog from getting unwieldy (which has been happening A LOT lately), I’ll keep all program descriptions to ONE SENTENCE. Think it can’t be done? (I’m not sure either!) AND I’m going to do it WITHOUT exclamation points! (Can you imagine??) Let’s go:
* Friends, we admit it: things have been a little slow for the last week or two, but that is because our air conditioning is broke, and it’s hot. And it is, we have learned, nearly impossible to move at full speed when it’s this hot and stuffy.
WORKSHOPS
We won’t put too fine a point on it: the Summer Workshop Schedule is here, and having just checked registration, I must tell you: it’s almost full, so sign up immediately before it’s too late.
BALDWIN CENTER
This summer we are sending seven of our best and brightest volunteers and interns to the Baldwin Center in Pontiac to teach sixty or so young people about playwriting, all culminating with a performance of the plays and the release of a chapbook in August.
OZONE HOUSE
We continue our annual summer writing workshop at Ozone House in Ypsilanti, a wonderful center that provides a safe and supportive environment for young people.
COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK
The peanut butter to our jelly, we continue our year-round partnership with CAN by leading writing workshops for young people at three CAN community centers all over the area.
YOUTHWORKS
Affiliated with CAN, we’re providing the writing piece to their employment and life skills based internship program for teens by hosting twice-weekly blogging (and more) sessions in our computer lab.
ANIMATION CAMP
An Academy-Award-nominated animator will teach a week-long animation camp for us next month, and the two-minute, stop-motion film they create will be shown at the Hiroshima Animation Festival next year.
DROP-IN WRITING
Right now, we have several dozen (the numbers have grown as I’ve typed) students of all ages writing about aliens, but more importantly, laughing, creating, and having fun; Mondays and Wednesdays from 6-7pm, ages 8-18 (semi-colons DO TOO count).
Taken MOMENTS AGO in our lab.
OH MY GOODNESS DOESN’T IT ALL SOUND SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, our summer programming looks exactly as good as using all those exclamation points felt. Do you know how HARD it is to NOT USE exclamation points?
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Aaaaahhhhh.)
Monday, June 22, 2009 – On Your Mark!
Registration is now open for our Summer Workshop Schedule. Quick! Before they’re all full! Get to it!
Sunday, June 21, 2009 – Summer Workshops!
Because you’ve all been SO wonderful, and SO patient, and SO excited to see what we’re doing this summer, I am happy to unveil for you: Our Summer Workshop Schedule!
Please peruse it at your leisure and determine the workshops you’d like to sign up for. You may even want to write them down. Registration for summer workshops opens tomorrow, Monday, June 22, at 7pm exactly. At that time, you will be able to sign up for all our stellar offerings. What are you waiting for? Check it out now!
Friday, June 19, 2009 – This Past Week and the Upcoming One.
Hello! We’ve had what some might call “quite the week.” The annual 826 National Conference happened in Ann Arbor this year, which means that we got to host this year’s idea-sharing, fun-having festival. Thirty-six staffers from the six other 826s all gathered together in our little city. Many thanks to: Newcombe Clark for lending us his sweet loft for our first night; Zingerman’s Roadhouse, Eat Catering, and Grizzly Peak for donating delicious foods and drinks (everyone was impressed!); Afternoon Delight for donating lovely (and enormous) muffins; Jenny Traig for hosting a cupcake extravaganza; Jerusalem Garden for donating a tasty lunch; and Laurie Blakeney from the Ann Arbor School of Yoga for donating a fun and stress-reducing session of yoga for anyone who wanted it. Which looked a little something like this:
The Ann Arbor School of Yoga is quite lovely, don’t you think?
One of the 826 staffers asked if we were going to be closed today to recover from, essentially, talking non-stop sixteen hours a day for three days. To which we replied: HA! AS IF. Because, friends, we have a BIG weekend coming up! I’ll break it down for you:
1. ROBOBANG TOMORROW NIGHT!
Townies and students alike are familiar with the Bang!, Ann Arbor’s monthly dance party. For the last eight years, the fine people of the Bang! have brought us ridiculous and fun themed dance nights at the Blind Pig.
THIS month, they present: the ROBOBANG! which, yes, will be as awesome as it sounds. AND, (arguably) even better than people in robot costumes dancing to great music, all proceeds benefit 826. AND, (arguably) better than that, a seven-and-a-half foot tall robot is currently being constructed.
Please join us at the Blind Pig tomorrow night for the ROBOBANG!, an event not to be missed! Doors are at 9:30pm, $8 / under 21 $11. And while you are certainly encouraged to dress like a robot, you certainly don’t HAVE to. Many thanks to Team Bang, Jeremy Wheeler, and Mariah Cherem for putting this all on for us!
2. SUMMER WORKSHOP SCHEDULE POSTED THIS SUNDAY!
It’s here! It’s here! The Summer Workshop Schedule in all its splendor and glory. Featuring an animation camp for teens, a very alliterative puppy poetry puppet performance, a screenwriting workshop, and a chance for young writers to share their secrets.
The Summer Workshop Schedule will be posted for all to see on Sunday at noon. REGISTRATION, however, opens Monday night at 7pm and is, as ever, online only. Hope to see you there!
Phew! Have a great weekend. We hope to see you and everyone you know tomorrow night for the ROBOBANG.
Monday, June 15, 2009 – Lights in the Trees!
I mean, who doesn’t find something magical about lights in trees? They bring out your childlike sense of wonder, don’t they? If you’re uncertain, we’ve got a good test: Join us Saturday, July 25, 7:30pm at Downtown Home & Garden, 210 S. Ashley, for our Summer Garden Party. We’ll have drinks and snacks, live bossa nova music, and dancing, and yes, lights in the trees.
The whole shebang is to celebrate that new publication of ours you’ve been hearing so much about, How To Rise or, I Put My Heart Into the Close. Featuring truly memorable memoirs, poetry, and some short fiction by forty-six graduating seniors at Ypsilanti High School, we couldn’t be prouder of this book. Volunteer Nicole Premo came in the other day and said, “I bought the book, and then I stayed up until two in the morning reading it … it’s SO GOOD.” Yes, Nicole volunteers here, so she could be biased, but Nicole is also not the type of person to say something like that if she didn’t mean it.
In addition to celebrating a year’s worth of dedication and hard work by all the students and volunteers involved in the project, the Summer Garden Party will also help us raise much needed funds to continue this program for schools in need of our free literacy and writing programs in the coming academic year. You know how every year we tell you about the AWESOME new publication we’ve put out, and we tell you about the INCREDIBLE stories the students shared, and we say how INSPIRING and EMPOWERING the whole process was for these students? Wouldn’t you like to be part of that? Come to the Summer Garden Party! Your ticket ($15 at the door, $10 advance, includes one drink ticket) will make it happen for next year’s project!
Get your tickets here before they sell out. Lights in trees! You don’t want to miss it.
Friday, June 12, 2009 – You Ask, You Receive: How to Write Like I Do.
There are a few things we hear over and over here at 826michigan. “Where’s the bathroom?”, “Do you guys really fix robots?”, “Can I have a cookie?”, and “When’s the next workshop schedule coming out?” are just a few. (Answers: In the back; Not exactly; Currently, yes, as I have no fewer than fifteen on my desk this very moment, and Tuesday, June 22 at 7pm.)
One of the questions we hear MOST, though, is: Do you have writing workshops for adults? Generally this is answered with a semi-defeated: “Not right now.” But TODAY, friends, it is answered with a resounding YES! We have a whole SERIES of workshops for adults this summer! We are pleased to present: How to Write Like I Do, a summer series of workshop for adults.
Are you ready? Here we go!
Saturday, July 11, 1-4pm
Steve Amick presents: Connecting with a Character, Connecting with your ReadersUsing empathy in your writing to develop deep characters that resonate and are remembered.
Steve Amick’s new novel, Nothing But a Smile, was called “pitch perfect” by the Associated Press and his first, The Lake, the River & the Other Lake, was a Washington Post Book of the Year. His short stories have appeared in McSweeney’s, Playboy, The Southern Review, The New England Review, Story, in anthologies and on National Public Radio. In support of 826michigan, he contributed to Unsquared and the monster protest song CD. The New York Times said, “Amick’s greatest strength is his generosity toward his characters.” Born in Ann Arbor in 1964, he received a BA from St. Lawrence University and an MFA in creative writing from George Mason University.
Thursday, July 23, 6-9pm
Susan Hutton presents: Make Your Poem Pop!Examine the way poets use literary devices to make a poem work, and learn to use them in your own work.
Susan Hutton’s first book of poems On the Vanishing of Large Creatures was published in 2007 by Carnegie Mellon University Press, and won Ploughshares‘ Zacharis Award for best debut book.
Thursday, July 30, 6-9pm
Jacqui Robbins presents: Writing and Publishing Your Children’s Picture BookBring that picture book you’ve always wanted to write out of your head and onto the bookstore shelf.
Jacqui Robbins graduated from Yale University with a degree in Theater and Anthropology, and from Erikson Institute with a Master’s in Child Development. She has taught writing to students ages six to sixty-five. Jacqui is the author of the picture books The New Girl…And Me (Simon & Schuster, 2006), which won a Parents Choice Silver Honor Award, and the forthcoming Two of a Kind (Simon & Schuster, 2009).
Thursday, August 13, 6-9pm
Julia Smilie and Jennifer Traig present: Write Yourself Into Existence: A Memoir BootcampFind the part of your life that makes the most compelling story, and then get started toward your first draft.
Julia Smillie is a national award-winning freelance writer and editor. Her work has appeared in publications nationwide, including Kiki Magazine, Self, St. Louis Magazine, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Commonspace, Lifestyles, The Knot, 52nd City, and others. Her essay “Mother Anger” is anthologized in Spike Gillespie’s book, Pissed Off: On Women & Anger.
Jennifer Traig, a longtime 826 tutor and workshop teacher, is the author of two memoirs—Well Enough Alone and Devil in the Details. She holds a Ph.D. in literature, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, JANE, The Observer, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Thursday, August 20, 6-9pm
Jeff Meyers and Corey Hall Present: Critiquing Contemporary CinemaLearn first hand from the MetroTimes’ critics the elements of a great review.
Jeff Meyers is the managing editor of Concentrate Media and Metromode Media. In addition, he is a film critic for Detroit’s MetroTimes. Jeff was the Creative Director for StageDirect (an Internet start-up in Portland, OR), a freelance writer, an adjunct instructor at Clark College and a theatrical director. Before that he spent eleven years working as a microbiologist. Jeff has written screenplays, stage plays, and in 2000 was a finalist for the Oregon Book Awards for his collection of poetry Hereafter. In 2009, he received a Detroit Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Media Award for his film reviews in the MetroTimes.
Corey Hall is also a film critic for Detroit’s MetroTimes, as well as a stand up comedian.
Each workshop is $60 per person per session, which includes coffee and Zingerman’s treats. If you register for at least two sessions, the fee is $50 per session. Do all proceeds benefit the free student programming at 826michigan? Why yes, yes they do. So, essentially, what we’re saying is that by improving YOUR craft, you’re also helping to improve the craft of hundreds of local students, which is, we think, pretty cool.
To register, please visit our Store page. Email rsvp@826michigan.org with any questions. Reserve your spot before there are no spots left!
Thursday, June 11, 2009 – UPrep Has Us Back; Chaos and Brilliance (Equal Parts) Ensues.
Three weeks ago, when 826michigan’s Marketing Development Production Team, Davisson, Davisson, Davisson, and Squirrel, ventured to University Prep in Detroit, we were not sure what to expect. Teacher Ben Curran had called us in because his Product Development Team was just not producing items worth purchasing, plain and simple. Last year’s Electric Toothbrush/Broom had been a phenomenal flop, as had the Camelhair PJs.
We explained to the students that Jimmy Jimmereeno (who looks remarkably similar to 826michigan’s publishing intern, Jared Hawkley), CEO of Everything You Could Ever Want…and More!, a gigantic department store, needed better products. Products that would sell. It was going to be A LOT of work, but we needed to make NEW products that consumers would actually BUY.
The students assured us they were up for the challenge, and immediately set to work BLOWING OUR MINDS with products like cat flip-flops and sprayable, light-up frosting. You have probably gleaned that we like sharing and appreciating ideas. We did plenty of that. It looked a little like this:
Marae, who later developed the Light-Up Tie, shares one of her early ideas.
Over the next few sessions, students shared ideas, nailed down target markets, and learned about advertising and writing to sell. Students also made models of their products.
Savannah shows off her model of the Quicker Better Faster Perfume Dispenser.
Things got slightly out of hand:
We’re not entirely sure how Kwesi came to be wearing
those metal hoops all over his head, but we do know that he kept
them on there for a LONG time. Same with Nicolas and that boa …
The fourth and final day of the workshop, students looked at examples from catalogs and wrote the copy for their products. I can honestly say, I haven’t laughed that hard in quite a while. (“Never walk again!” Nicolas wrote. “Use your new, improved Anti-Gravity Dreamer. Don’t throw your shoes away, these babies stick to everything! The Anti-Gravity Dreamer allows you to defy gravity. Painting the roof can be super hard, but the Anti-Gravity Dreamer gives you the boost you need! When a cat gets stuck in a tree, put these on and save a life!”) The students really GOT IT, and their mastery of the genre was awesome.
You know how I feel about bulleted lists. One of my favorites OF ALL TIME came with the copy for Flame Boy II:
Josiah wrote: With this suit you can be a super hero. You must be eighteen years or younger to take advantage of this offer. You can fly! It also has:
- an ice shield
- a camouflage system
- a bathroom police scanner
- x-ray vision
- 598 mph jets
- a bulletproof body
- HDTV
- a CD player
- cup holders
- wolverine nails
- a computer
- a radio
- an engine for a heart
- a candy dispenser
I’ve made bulleted lists in my time, sure, but none as entertaining as that one.
This morning, we got to deliver the finished catalogs to the students. You can’t imagine how pleased we are with the final product. The students were excited too, and in cases such as these, pictures are always better. So, here goes:
Shayna and Troi giggle over the hilarity of their classmates’ inventions.
Stasarahmy shows off her page in the catalog.
Take a look at the catalog here. (8.9MB PDF)
Many thanks to Ben Curran for inviting us back into his classroom! Thanks to the students, who came up with products that were roughly ten times cooler than we thought they would (and a hundred times cooler than what we could have done!). Thanks to 826michigan volunteers Colleen Davisson, Chris Hiltz, Rosie Iordanova, Angela Kujava, Frances Martin, Lauren Walbridge, and Bill Winters for sharing your varied departments of expertise with the students!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 – Michigan Science Theater 826
Why Chris Hiltz is Volunteer of the Month, part 362: Michigan Science Theater 826. Last Friday, we hosted our first-ever (but most assuredly not last!) Michigan Science Theater 826 workshop. In this workshop, for students ages 8-10, participants got to watch clips of old robot movies, and then write the soundtracks, including dialogue, sound effects, and music. Sound hilarious? It WAS. Want a good laugh? Check out the short films, which we’ve just posted on our YouTube channel!
Monday, June 1, 2009 – Volunteer of the Month for June 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009 – Maybe BIG Days Happen Once a Week Now.
Last week, as you all know, we had a BIG Day on May 14. THIS week, our BIG Day happened yesterday, May 20. We’re starting to wonder if this is a trend. Man-oh-man, we hope it is. We want to continue to test the bounds of how much fun and how many cupcakes we can pack into every week. Join us!
Yesterday’s first BIG Event happened at Hikone Community Center. Take a look at this:
Stacia hugs Colby before she reads yet another thrilling Goosebumps tale to her.
That’s right, that dog is wearing a party hat. And YES, it’s because our Volunteer of the Month, Colby, celebrated her sixth birthday yesterday. We came equipped with paw-print party hats, paw-print plates, and a whole bunch of cupcakes. Which, oddly enough, disappeared while the students were upstairs reading to the birthday girl. We found them here:
Shah’liah picked a good hiding spot … but not good enough!
Do you know what it looks like when twenty or so kids sing happy birthday to a dog? Well, I’ll tell you this much, it’s hard to get a good picture. But it looks something like this:
When the students sang, “Are you one? Are you two? Are you …” it went on for a little too long.
Because Colby doesn’t actually bark (except occasionally in her sleep).
Thirty-six cupcakes and three dozen hugs later, we rushed off to the cheer on 826michigan’s kickball team, Better Bot’s ONWARD ROBOTS! Friends, we are the losingest team in the league! (Although I’m pretty sure we have the most fun. And, between us, two of the games we’ve lost, technically we sort of won. But we don’t like to quibble. And we don’t need to get into that here.) The bottom line is, we have fun! And everyone loves an underdog, right?
Sarah “Jean Genie” Walker, a kickball pro, in action.
The weather was gorgeous, and our kicks, if not entirely successful, were well intentioned.
(Click for larger photo.)
Better Bot’s ONWARD ROBOTS! takes the field. See all those 1s and 0s for the team numbers?
It’s a binary code joke, get it? When we stand side to side, we can spell two to three letters!
Meanwhile, back at the lab, it was famed workshop leader Rachel Feder’s birthday too. Some of you may know Rachel as one-half of the leadership team of 826’s own Poetry Clique (now enrolled in our If There’s a Sonnet, I’m ON It workshop). The Clique brought in birthday poems, clay snails, and chocolate cake. What a way to celebrate! They also worked together to write this:
A Box of Crayons
The colors splash before me
As my hands whip across the page
A splash of blue, a splash of beige
A rainbow for all to seeA tall evergreen tree
The colors dancing brave
What’s over there? A polar bear!
White and — I don’t know — with snow!Bears and cake and colors thrive
A castle by the tree
The castle is by thee!
The yellow polar tree — I think I see a bee!
The meteor splashes like colors.
Hope you enjoyed the poem — goodbye!
Friends, do you have any idea how charming and delightful it is to show up to work in the morning and see something like THAT on the white board? I can tell you, it is wildly charming and overwhelmingly delightful, as are just about all things 826.
Happy birthday Colby and Rachel, and go go go Better Bot’s ONWARD ROBOTS!
Monday, May 18, 2009 – Our Dear Robot Baby Turns ONE.
Hard though it is to believe, it was exactly a year ago yesterday that the Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair began bringing affordable, quality robot goods to southeastern Michigan. And we’d like to say THANK YOU to the community at large for making our little store such a big success. Did you know we made FOUR TIMES what we had budgeted to make last year? Well, we did. And by “we did,” I mean to say YOU DID, because you, our faithful customers, are the ones who made that happen!
To celebrate, and to thank you, we are offering customers ONE ENTIRE PERCENT OFF of your Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair purchase this week. Buy a sticker for example, and you’ll get that sticker AND a penny! OR, if money is no object to you, you can trade in that one entire percent for a FREE MINI CUPCAKE at the Cupcake Station, conveniently located right across the street from 826michigan and the Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair.
Stop in today! We’ve got quite a bit of construction going on out on Liberty Street, so your walk will be scenic and musical. Furthermore, with this generous discount, now is the perfect time to stock up on the twelve steps of the Liberty Brand Robot Responsibility Training System. From cacti to plants to ant farms to sea monkeys, we’ve got everything you need to baby-step your bot to more responsibility! Your bot will be babysitting your children and carrying for your cashmere, worry free, in no time with the Liberty Brand!
Friday, May 15, 2009 – You Know, HAPPY Tired.
Things are pretty quiet around 826 this morning, and the dust of our twenty-four-hour whirlwind is beginning to settle. Two cups of coffee didn’t seem to stir up the creative juices, but the excitement of four amazing events should carry us through this blog. Ready to get started? Let’s do it!
1. YPSI HIGH BOOK RELEASE PARTY
The release party for our annual in-school publication is always one of our favorite nights of the year, and this one was no different. Readers of our newsletter know that we asked for, and GOT (thanks, anonymous donor!), a video camera recently, so look for a posting of the event on our youtube channel in the coming weeks.
There was much excitement, an overwhelming sense of accomplishment, and even some cheering:
Trudy Adams, teacher extraordinaire, along with 826michigan volunteers Sam Weiss, Katie Jones, Lauren Walbridge, and Jared Hawkley, poured out thanks and congratulatory warm fuzzies; special guest Dave Eggers gave an excellent and inspiring speech; and then, the much anticipated moment: students opened their wrapped books, and finally got to see the culmination of all their hard work:
Published authors Ashley, Jasmine, and James see the book for the first time.
James Simmons, Karl Wright, and Craig Swope gave excellent readings (again, video coming soon), but Katie McIntyre stole the show with her heartfelt and tearful reading about the time she spent at a juvenile detention center. Cookies and cupcakes were consumed, books were signed. Buy your copy of the book at the Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair or online in our store.
That’s Dave’s back in his brand-new Ypsi High t-shirt.
THEN …
2. AWAY WE GO PRE-RELEASE SCREENING!
We rushed over to the Michigan Theater for the special pre-release screening of Away We Go, which readers of this blog have certainly heard about. Okay, here’s the deal. We were fully prepared to tell you how much we loved it even if we didn’t ACTUALLY love it. But guess what? WE LOVED IT. WE LOVED EVERY FUNNY, SAD, TOUCHING MINUTE OF IT. And so did the other seven hundred or so attendees, judging by the guffaws and thoughtful silences.
Jeff Meyers, 826michigan workshop leader and film critic for the Metro Times, led a Q&A with screenwriter Dave Eggers, who discussed writing the script with his wife Vendela Vida, making the movie with Sam Mendes, and the wonderful (truly, truly) cast.
THEN …
3. THE VIP AFTERPARTY!
We ran over to Zanzibar for the VIP party where we ate delicious foods, drank magnificent cocktails, and engaged in even more stimulating conversation.
THEN …
4. COFFEE!
We went home, got a few hours of shut-eye, and returned to 826michigan bright and early this morning to have coffee and bagels with Dave and about twenty or so of our irreplaceable volunteers. We discussed tutoring, education, anecdotes, and petted the Volunteer of the Month (who happens to be a dog). Dave, as ever, inspired us all with his insights on working with students and 826’s important place in the community.
Twenty-four-hour periods like this do not come without a list of people to thank! Many thanks to Trudy Adams and the brilliant students at Ypsi High! To Focus Features and the Michigan Theater! And, as always, to Dave Eggers, a man we are proud to be associated with.
AND THEN …
We took a nap. Well, not yet, but trust me, it’s coming.
Monday, May 11, 2009 – Cataclysms, Convergences, Stars Aligning
What we are getting at with the title of this blog is: You know those odd days when for whatever reason, roughly a hundred (or, in this particular case, three) things are set to happen on the same date? The type of things you want to schedule over a year’s time, just to savor, and look forward to, and spread around? But then, you get excited they’re happening on the same day, because then it makes that day, like, a MEGA-day?
My friends, we are having one such day this Thursday, May 14, the convergence of two mammoth events and one visit from one of our very favorite people.
Thursday evening, at 5pm, we’ll be manning the release of How to Rise or, I Put My Heart into the Close, this year’s in-school publication. We could not be more excited about this event. In fact, if we were more excited, I would be VERY worried for our health, and our hearts, which would be beyond maximum capacity, and surely at risk of exploding. Forty-six students in Trudy Adams’s English 12 class at Ypsilanti High School have been working tirelessly with our volunteers for the last year on memoirs, poems, and stories which we will be picking up from the printer, literally, any moment now, that moment being thirty seconds after we get the call from Cushing Malloy, our wonderful printer. Student readings, cupcakes, good cheer, and an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. I don’t think you can ask for anything more on a Thursday evening.
You couldn’t, surely, but you will get more anyway. After the release party, we’re rushing to the Michigan Theater for a pre-release screening of Away We Go. The response for this screening has been so gigantic that we’ve moved from the two-hundred-seat screening room to the seventeen-hundred-seat main theater. Which is, if you didn’t know, one of the most LOVELY places EVER to see a movie. The movie — which stars Maya Rudolph, John Krasinski, Jeff Daniels, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Alison Janney, Catherine O’Hara, and more (as if that wasn’t enough) — follows a couple about to have their first baby. It looks funny and sad and touching and, basically, all the things you want in a movie. The screening’s at 7:30, and you can get tickets here until midnight Wednesday, at the Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair until showtime, and at the Michigan Theater Thursday night.
You’d think that was enough, but there’s more. This screening is a very special fundraiser for us, and therefore, it features one of the writers of the film, Dave Eggers, aka the writer/editor/philanthropist/all-around-great-guy who started 826. He’ll do a Q&A after the screening, and we’re having a VIP reception following that. Many thanks to our friends at Focus Features who set this up!
Phew! Am I right? I mean, PHEW. That is a SOLID day. We hope to see you there!
Friday, May 1, 2009 – Volunteer of the Month for May 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009 – GO.
Let the frenzy begin! Our shiny new Spring Workshop Schedule can be found HERE. Register away!
Friday, April 17, 2009 – "We're HISTORICAL."
The title of this blog is one of the things we heard from a student at our field trip this morning. Other things we heard included: “Tell Dr. Blotch to call me. I have some BUSINESS with him” and “You’re just trying to get us all GOOFED UP.” Also a student offered to give Dr. Blotch some of his boogers, to which Blotch responded, appropriately enough: “I’ve already had lunch.”
There was an usual amount of potty and/or gross humor today. Perhaps we were feeling light-headed from the lovely spring air outside. I am always the typist for the field trips, which means I type onto a laptop and everything I say is projected onto the wall for the students to read. Today, I did something I thought was SO funny, I did it about seventeen times during the workshop, and I am still so tickled with it, I’m going to share it with you now.
Blotch, our crotchety editor, as you may know, hates children in part because they smell like diapers. Nothing riles up a bunch of third graders like saying they wear diapers. So, every time the kids had to vote for something (main character, name, gender of the character), I typed “Raise your hand if you’re wearing diapers,” for everything that I was not voting for. Call me a third grader myself, but it was HILARIOUS. I’m STILL laughing about it.
Maybe we were all just acting a little goofy because Ms. LaRonde from Adams Elementary in Ypsilanti brought in twenty three of the most boisterous, most hilarious, and most energetic third graders we’ve ever had the good fortune to work with. As I’m sure you know, we LOVE doing field trips. They are madcap and ridiculous and A LOT of laughing happens. There is also, as you will see in the attached clip, quite a bit of screaming involved.
First, here’s the story they wrote. We think it’s pretty awesome:
Agent A the Armadillo had a very amazing power, but we’ll get to that later. Agent A the Armadillo lived in the awesome land of Amarillo, Texas. She worked with a lion named Agent L. Agent A had tan armor and lived in a big house filled with secret agent spy stuff. There were grappling hooks, a car that could turn invisible, and a special spy phone she used to communicate with Agent L.
Agent L could read minds. He was Agent A’s colleague, roommate, and best friend. He was a shape-shifting lion who always wore a special coat that was filled with crime reference books and tools. Agent L also had super strength.
Agent A picked up the Agent Communicator 3000. On the surface it looked like any ordinary ice cream cone, but if you pulled off the ice cream, there was a spy phone hidden inside. “We need to unlock the case of when and who kidnapped our boss, Super-Agent O(bama),” Agent A said.
“Hurry up,” Agent L responded. “Get all your spy gear together and meet me at the car!”
Unbeknownst to our heros, the evil Monogram was looking for revenge. Monogram was a mechanical monkey programmed for mathematical mayhem. He wanted to have a Math Off, but he changed the multiplication tables so that they were no longer memorizable.
Monogram sat in Fraction Forest, where he was preparing to dip Super-Agent O(bama) in fractions and make him lose his mind. “Muahahaha! If you had seven lives,” he said to Super-Agent O, “and I took away thirteen and then I gave you four back, and then I divided those lives by three hundred and twenty, how many lives would you have left?”
“You won’t get away with it! The agents are coming and I’ll remain a whole number no matter what!” Super-Agent O retorted.
“WRONG,” Monogram screamed, “It’s mathematically impossible!”
Meanwhile, Agent L and Agent A were at the spy car ...
And here’s the video:
I’ve said it before, and I hope to say it many, many times again: You REALLY should be here for all of this. This is what happens when students’ stories are approved. If you can watch that clip and think that writing can’t be presented as fun, engaging, and high energy, I really don’t know what to tell you.
Many thanks to Ms. LaRonde’s brilliant, funny, and incredibly creative class! We LOVED getting to work with you. Thanks, as ever, to our wonderful field trippers: Katy, Dan, Elaine, Evan, Ariana, Zeynep, Frances, and Chris. You guys are the best!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009 – Headed in YOUR Direction.
Warm up your laptops, flex your fingers, get your eyes ready, because coming this Sunday (Sunday Sunday) to this website (website website, it’s an echo, get it? It’s like we’re at a monster truck rally!) is our gregarious and amiable Spring (spring spring) Workshop (workshop workshop) Schedule (schedule schedule, that’s the last one, I SWEAR)!
Ready? Here we go: We’ve got a new workshop where students will write the soundtrack (dialogue, sound effects) to old sci-fi movies. We’ll have a workshop where the famous Todd R. Pebbles will teach students about the ART of the infomercial. Rachel and Sheera are teaching what is sure to be another delightful poetry workshop called If There’s a Sonnet, I’m ON It. We’ve also got a workshop that ENCOURAGES kids to act out, one that will help us elect a new robot president for 826michigan, and more. We’re PRETTY SURE you’re gonna like it.
So: Sunday at noon, we’ll post the workshops. At this time, you can peruse them leisurely and determine the two you want to choose. Then, Monday night, at 7pm, registration (chaos madness onslaught, what an odd echo) opens. Hope to see you there!
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