Spring 2012 WORKSHOPS
***
Registration is required. To register for a workshop, click its “Sign Up” link. All workshops will be held at 826michigan unless specified otherwise.
Things to know about the Spring 2012 Workshop Schedule:
- Each student can only sign up for TWO workshops per semester.
- Yes, we are strict on ages.
- Workshops are so stellar, so spectacular, so amazing that they fill up quickly. Please give us at least 48 hours to confirm your registration. If after 48 hours you haven't heard from us, feel free to call or send an email.
- A sad reminder: the fact that you have filled out the registration form does not mean that you are "in" the workshop until you get a confirmation email from us. Remember all that stuff about how quickly workshops fill up? Sometimes they fill up while we are looking the other way, and we are unable to immediately change the status to "waitlist." (See #3.)
- When you get your confirmation email, write down the workshops you have gotten into on your calendar! It makes us feel sadder than almost anything when students sign up for workshops and then don't show.
- We love feedback! Let us know what you think of the schedule. Send an email to Catherine@826michigan.org to let us know what’s working for you and what isn’t!
Volunteers: If you would like to volunteer to help with a workshop, click on that workshop’s “Sign Up” link and then follow the “Volunteer” link in the yellow box on the upper right side of the page.
***
FestiFools Robot Laboratory @ the AADL
Led by the Robot Engineers & Mad Scientists from 826michigan and the AADL
All ages!
Sunday, April 1 2012, 2-4pm (one off-site session)
Please note that this workshop takes place in the Multipurpose Room of the Ann Arbor District Library Downtown Branch. This workshop is a drop-in program, so no pre-registration is necessary: Just come!
Come build a robot costume for Ann Arbor’s FestiFools parade with the help of the Ann Arbor District Library and 826michigan’s skilled robot engineers! We’ll supply everything -- all you need to bring is your want-to-be bot. After your robot is fully functioning, it can march beside our mad scientists in the parade down Main Street at 4pm!
Special thanks to AADL Youth and Adult Services Librarian Laura Pershin Raynor for organizing this wonderful event, and to Workshops Intern Extraordinaire Elissa Zimmer for wrangling in the engineers!
Drop-in Teen Writing Workshop
Taught by Carolyn Racine
Ages: 13-18
Tuesdays: April 3 to May 29 2012, 5:30-6:30pm
Michigan Avenue Branch of the Ypsilanti District Library
229 West Michigan Avenue
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
This workshop is a drop-in program, so no pre-registration is necessary: Just come when you can!
Writing workshops are a great way to hone skills and do creative work outside the school setting. We welcome all students to 826michigan’s workshops at the Ypsilanti District Libraries. At Drop-in, we’ll experiment with writing prompts, get constructive feedback on poems and stories, learn new techniques, discuss creative writing with other teens, and have plenty of opportunities to publish!
Carolyn Racine recently received her BA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. She has already announced to her students at Ypsi Drop-In that 2012 is the Year of Revision. It's going to be spectacular.
Drop-in Youth Writing Workshop
Taught by Chantay Woods
Ages: 8-12
Wednesdays: April 4 to April 25 2012, 5:30-6:30pm
Whittaker Rd. Branch of the Ypsilanti District Library
5577 Whittaker Road
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
This workshop is a drop-in program, so no pre-registration is necessary: Just come when you can!
Writing workshops are a great way to hone skills and do creative work outside the school setting. We welcome all students to 826michigan’s workshops at the Ypsilanti District Libraries. Go on a new writing adventure every week (or whenever you can make it). We do everything from imagining the future, to creating monsters, to writing collaborative poems!
Drop-in Writing Time!
Taught by Becca Pickus and Audie Shushan
Ages: 8-18
Mondays: April 9 to June 4 2012, 6-7pm
*No session on Monday, May 28
This workshop is a drop-in program, so no pre-registration is necessary: Just come whenever you can!
Writing is not all five-paragraph essays! Writing can just be a good way to express your creativity. In this ongoing, drop-in program, we invite you to join our mad scientists every week to sharpen your creativity and skill with a variety of fun, informal writing exercises, including exquisite corpses, story starters, and a healthy dose of hilarity.
Becca and Audie's favorite shared pastimes include eating sushi every Thursday night, pretending to write at Ann Arbor coffee shops, and facilitating creative arts workshops in Michigan prisons. They are also separate people, who like, respectively, soccer and purple, and have a debilitating fear of dinosaurs.
The Almost Automatic Problem Solver
Taught by Anna Prushinskaya
Ages: 11-14, 15 students
Tuesday, April 10 2012, 6-7:30pm (one session)
Are you out of hot chocolate? Have you lost your unicorn? Has someone stolen your lunch and hidden it in hard to reach places all over the school? In other words, do you have a problem you can’t quite solve alone? Have you been trying, and it just won’t budge? Have no fear. In this workshop, we’ll learn about a handy Almost Automatic Problem Solver and practice busting open a few problems to reveal amazing stories and poems. Come with sleeves rolled up.
Anna Prushinskaya is a writer, and her story “An Almost Automatic Problem Solver” appeared in Sonora Review. She also works at University Musical Society.
You can find out more about her here.
Story Problems: A Prose & Poetry Workshop for Young Adults
Led by Robert Schuster, Katrina Santos, and Tim Hodgson
Ages: 13-18, 12 students
Wednesdays: April 11 to June 6 2012, 6:30-8pm
Please note: This workshop meets weekly throughout the academic year, but new students are welcome to join the group at any time
Have you ever wanted somewhere you could go to give and receive feedback on a short story, novel, poem, or prose you’ve written? Have you ever needed encouragement or advice for overcoming writer's block or experimenting with your writing? Have you ever wished people would treat your great American novel/sci-fi epic/Harry Potter fanfiction with the interest and respect it deserves? Do you just want to know if your jokes are as funny, your metaphors as evocative, and your stream-of-consciousness as . . . stream-y as you want them to be? If the answers to these questions are yes, maybe, or any other sort of affirmative, then this workshop was made just for you! Join our Young Adult writing workshop in its second full year and take part in all the exciting conversations, readings, publications, and the occasional rant on all things epic.
Robert Schuster is the Story Problems founder and long-time workshop leader. He’s a graduate-school-hopeful, a writer, and a musician. He majored in English, Creative Writing, and Political Theory, with a minor in Talking About Books And Music Until Your Ears Fall Off. He loves Southern Gothic literature, the bass guitar, science fiction, death metal, the Secret of NIMH, and chocolate, but not necessarily in that order. Currently, he is working as an ACT instructor, at a desk job, and as a volunteer for Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair.
Katrina Santos studies English and Creative Writing at the University of Michigan. She objects to Comic Sans and to hurricane jokes, but likes candy, comic fiction, and writing under the nom de plume Kristina Sanchez.
Tim Hodgson received a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Grand Valley State University and currently works as an Assistant Editor at the University of Michigan. When he isn't working or volunteering, he can often be found writing stories and scribbling ideas in a notebook around Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.
Legends from the Caves
Taught by Will Purves
Ages: 10-14, 15 students
Thursday, April 12 2012, 6-7:30pm (one session)
What if you were a member of a small stone-age tribe? Where would you think you came from? What might you hunt and eat? How would you tell stories and what stories would you tell? Join other cave people in a workshop designed to tell stories in a different way: building them from the experiences of a very difficult daily life, constructing them as a group, and committing them to memory.
Will Purves (Volunteer of the Month Nov '10) is a local writer, educator, and teacher who has worked with aspiring writers for many years. He is an experienced test, essay, and writing coach and has worked with 826 as a workshop leader and tutor. Will's most recent publication is his novel Fairmont Forever. More details at raveneducation.com.
Invention Convention
Taught by Richard Sheridan with help from Jessica Morton and Catherine Calabro
Ages: 7-9, 15 students
Tuesday, April 17 2012, 6:30-8pm (one session)
Welcome to all innovators, movers, and shakers! We’re turning 826michigan into Menlo Park Laboratory for the evening, and we need your help to fill our log books with 400 (give or take a few) new inventions. After each experiment, you’ll have the chance to reflect in your own inventor's log book about your progress, and you’ll get the chance to present your findings at our showcase at the end of the evening! We’ll provide the building materials and you provide the inspiration for your invention.
Rich Sheridan is CEO and co-founder of Menlo Innovations, an Ann Arbor software design and development firm created in the spirit of Edison's "Invention Factory" in Menlo Park, New Jersey. Jessica Morton is a law student at the University of Michigan. She has invented dozens of brilliant workshops for 826michigan.
This workshop is full. (You can put your name on the waiting list, though.)
The Secret Language of Objects and Colors
Taught by Jaimien Delp
Ages: 8-10, 15 students
Wednesdays: April 18, 25, and May 2 2012, 6-7pm (two workshop sessions and one public reading)
Have you ever looked very closely at, say, a frog, and realized it isn't really green at all, but an intricate mixture of colors and patterns that only appear green from a distance? Or have you ever leaned over the edge of a dock by the lake and stared for a long time until you could see creatures in the sand, creatures you might never have noticed at a glance? Our first workshop is all about paying attention to the things we overlook everyday, discovering what they're really about, and finding new language to describe them in the poems we’ll write.
Our second workshop will investigate the hidden life of colors and what those colors mean to you. What does the color turquoise taste like? Does purple have a scent? When you think of green, what feelings come to mind? Is blue actually a sad color, or is it something else completely? We will write poems dedicated to electric orange, magenta, white, or any of the other colors that you think deserve a shout-out, revealing your own ideas and feelings along the way.
Jaimien Delp received her MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan, where she is currently a Zell Postgraduate Fellow. She spends her summers on the creative writing faculty at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. When she isn't writing poems, she is most likely daydreaming about becoming a professional surfer on an island inhabited by wild dogs.
Old Blotch’s Book of Impractical Cats: A Poetry Workshop inspired by T. S. Eliot
Taught by Alyssa Selasky and Mrs. Periwinkle
Ages: 7-9 years, 15 students
Thursday, April 19 2012, 6-8pm (one session)
How would you address a cat? Does your cat have a secret name only she knows? Is your cat a Cat About Town or is he a Theater Cat? Who is this Macavity: The Mystery Cat? These are some of the important questions we will examine in this poetry writing workshop inspired by T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. We’ll create our own pet poems, too, using personification, simile, and meta-fur. Need not love cats to attend.
Alyssa is a dog lover studying English and Creative Writing at the University of Michigan who believes that cats have been underrepresented in 826workshops. When she is not reading Amy Wilson’s blog or hanging out at drop-in tutoring, she enjoys Captain Crunch, W.B. Yeats, and nail polish.
Dear Colby: Sage Advice in Troubled Times
Taught by Mary Roderique and Colby
Ages: 9-11, 8 students
Tuesday, April 24 2012, 6-7:30 pm (one session)
Colby the Service Dog has always been known to dish out fabulous advice. So she’s doing it again: she’s writing an advice column that will be published pronto. But she has too many submissions and needs help. At the workshop, we will sift through Colby’s mailbag and choose some letters to answer. Clearly, some people (and dogs) really have problems. If you like dogs and are kind of an opinionated know-it-all, she could use your help!
This column will be published on the 826michigan website after the workshop, addressing important questions like: “I ride the bus to school. There are assigned seats. The person who sits next to me farts the whole time! What do I do?” and “Colby, I noticed you are so smell so nice. My brother does not. What grooming advice would you offer?” Seriously, Colby needs help. She doesn’t have thumbs.
After working as a classroom teacher in New York City and Bloomington, IN, Mary Roderique moved to Ann Arbor for the desirable weather conditions. She teaches reading for Ann Arbor Public Schools, works as a Writing Workshop Consultant for teachers in Michigan and Indiana, and blogs about raising young readers and writers. She also works with Colby the Service Dog to lead a Volunteer group, Noah's Team of Ann Arbor. Mary and her family enjoy playing round after round of Zingo (under duress) and hosting brunch.
Colby Roderique, a CASE (Canine Assistant Special Educator) dog, has been working in Michigan for seven years. She is friendly, flexible, and very furry. She is constantly recognized all over town as a former 826 Volunteer of the Month (May '09). When not at 826, Colby enjoys napping in the sunny spot by the big picture window at home and reminiscing about being 826 Volunteer of the Month (May ’09), which she still remembers fondly even though no cookie and punch reception was held in her honor for this impressive award.
This workshop is full. (You can put your name on the waiting list, though.)
The Institute for Monster Studies
Taught by Professor Scott Beal
Ages: 6-8, 15 students
Thursday, April 26 2012, 6-7:15pm (one session)
What makes a monster a monster? Would you like to recombine existing creatures to invent your own? Take field notes on a newly discovered monster? Tell the monster's side of the story? This workshop will give you the chance to investigate monsters from a safe distance and avoid (nearly) all uncomfortable gnashing.
Scott Beal's extensive monster studies are documented on the scholarly CD, I'm Not a Philosopher, I Am Just a Green Monster: Songs of Monster Protest, which is now sold out from the Liberty St. Robot Supply and Repair.
This workshop is full. (You can put your name on the waiting list, though.)
S.W.A.L.K. (Sealed With A Labrador Kiss)
Taught by Mary Roderique and Colby
Ages: 6-9 (grades K-3), 10 students
Tuesday, May 8 2012, 6-7:15pm (one session)
Colby, for one, is sick of newfangled correspondence: Texting. Emailing. Tweeting. Long ago, in the 1980s, people used to write letters, lick a stamp, and send them in the mail. Although Colby was born in 2003, she misses those days of handwritten correspondence. Come learn more about writing a friendly letter on fancy stationery. Colby will share tips and will personally lick all the envelopes. Be sure to bring a few addresses with you!
After working as a classroom teacher in New York City and Bloomington, IN, Mary Roderique moved to Ann Arbor for the desirable weather conditions. She teaches reading for Ann Arbor Public Schools, works as a Writing Workshop Consultant for teachers in Michigan and Indiana, and blogs about raising young readers and writers. She also works with Colby the Service Dog to lead a Volunteer group, Noah's Team of Ann Arbor. Mary and her family enjoy playing round after round of Zingo (under duress) and hosting brunch.
Colby Roderique, a CASE (Canine Assistant Special Educator) dog, has been working in Michigan for seven years. She is friendly, flexible, and very furry. She is constantly recognized all over town as a former 826 Volunteer of the Month (May '09). When not at 826, Colby enjoys napping in the sunny spot by the big picture window at home and reminiscing about being 826 Volunteer of the Month (May ’09), which she still remembers fondly even though no cookie and punch reception was held in her honor for this impressive award.
This workshop is full. (You can put your name on the waiting list, though.)
Letters from the Capital: Reimagining The Hunger Games
Taught by MicKenzie Fasteland
Ages: 13-18, 15 students
Tuesday, May 15 2012, 6-8pm (one session)
Whether you’ve read one book or the entire series, you’ve probably got some strong feelings about Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games-- and we want to hear about them! In The Hunger Games, we get to see Katniss’s horrified reaction to District Twelve’s reaping for the 74th Hunger Games, but what about Rue or Glimmer or one of the other nameless tributes? How did they feel when their names were called? In this workshop, we will use details from the first novel to write a series of short scenes that describe not only each District’s reaping ceremony but also each tribute’s reactions to the fateful moment she or he is chosen. Whether you want to expand on the backstory of a favorite minor character or create one of your own, bring a copy of the book and prepare to explore the world of The Hunger Games!
MicKenzie Fasteland is a graduate student in English and Women’s Studies and spends most of her time playing video games and hanging out with her dogs.
Robot School 101
Taught by Elaine Reed
Ages: 8-10, 15 students
Thursday, May 17 2012, 6-7:30pm (one session)
Do you spend enough time every day at school to consider yourself an expert on the topic? Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair is looking for a few consultants to help in the design of a brand new robot school. We’re going to need to imagine everything for our halls of bot learning: Where will the school be located? What subjects do robots study? What are the trickiest robot spelling words? How about a lunch menu? And let’s not forget recess! Join artist Elaine Reed as she instructs a robot art lesson (we’ll draw our bot pupils and teachers!) and helps us to write the story of a typical day at robot school.
Elaine Reed has volunteered at 826michigan for about four years, helping out with field trips and leading her ever-popular workshop “My Life as a Robot” six times! Elaine is currently Artist in Residence for the Bedside Art Program with the Gifts of Art Program at the University of Michigan Hospital, as well as a part time Program Coordinator Assistant to the University of Michigan Turner Center for Geriatrics. She enjoys mixing creative art with creative writing, and, most importantly, SHE LOVES ROBOTS!
Inspiration Sold Separately: Storytelling through Catalogs and Found Artifacts
Taught by Julie Judkins
Ages: 12-15, 15 students
Saturday, May 19, 2-3:30pm (one session)
Catalogs aren’t junk mail! They’re actually on-going sagas in disguise. Just who are the people buying those clothes and furnishing their homes? What are their stories? In this workshop, we’ll explore how the things we collect tell volumes about our inner lives. Taking inspiration from real life auctions and fictional found object narratives, we’ll re-purpose images from catalogs and magazines to tell stories visually and with minimal text. You’ll never flip through J. Crew the same way again!
Julie Judkins is a librarian at the University of Michigan. Her most recent catalog purchase was a pan that produces dinosaur shaped muffins.
NUMBER 1 FANDOM: Fabulous Fan Mail Without the Stalkerish Pitfalls
Taught by Catherine Calabro
Ages: 11-13, 15 students
Tuesday, May 22 2012, 6-7:30pm (one session)
What do you do with the love that you feel for your favorite writer? Have you read every single one of her books, waited in line for hours to meet her at book signings, and attended conventions in her honor? Have you dressed as him for Halloween, named your pets after characters in his stories, or considered moving across the country to be closer to his hometown? If you’ve done any of these forms of hero worship—or if anything on this list made you think Good idea! —come to this workshop for some help with writing a letter to your literary idol. We’ll practice putting our fervor into words by working on a series of letters (letter to a minor celebrity, letter to someone you just like okay, and/or a fan letter you wouldn’t want to receive) before drafting the real thing. Bring your big foam finger and all the love in your heart.
Catherine is Program Coordinator at 826michigan. She has a cat named YoYo, but she’s often dreamed of adopting a terrier she’d call Arthur Dent.
Trial of the (late Fifth/early Twenty-First) Century: Socrates Takes the Stand
Taught by Dave Hopkins
Ages: 13-18, 15 students
Thursday, May 24 2012, 6-7:30pm
Our old friend Socrates is on trial again for corrupting the minds of the youth and for being impious to the gods through his Facebook posts and activist Tweets. In this workshop, we’ll present you with all of the facts of the case and then ask you to write persuasive arguments as to whether or not Socrates should be convicted of a crime. You’ll learn about one of the most useful art forms: rhetoric. Join us and learn to persuade others of your opinion.
Dave Hopkins is a junior at the University of Michigan studying Political Science and Philosophy. He is interested in the history of philosophy and how it relates to events in modern history. He enjoys reading, writing, cycling, and attending trials of famous philosophers.
Smell and Tell: An Olfactory Writing Class
Taught by Michelle Krell Kydd
Ages: 8-10, 15 students
Wednesday, June 6 2012, 6-7:30pm (one session)
Though you can’t see them, smells are all around us. Smells tell stories. We know it’s spring when we smell flowers. We know we are going to taste something delicious when we smell cookies baking. Some smells are stinky and those can be the most fun to write about (grown-ups are known to eat stinky things and say they are scrumptious!). In this workshop, we’ll use imagery to describe unidentified scents before learning the true identity of some secret smells. Then we’ll use our smell descriptors to write a poem and make a (sweet) scented keepsake to take home!
Michelle Krell Kydd is a writer and trained “nose” in flavors and fragrance. She is editor of an award-winning blog on smell and taste called Glass Petal Smoke. She has smelled many wonderful and stinky things in her lifetime; she loves the smell of lilacs and hopes she never smells limburger cheese again!
This workshop is full. (You can put your name on the waiting list, though.)
Twisted Places
Taught by Scott Beal
Ages: 11-14, 15 students
Thursday, June 7 2012, 6-7:15pm (one session)
Suppose you wake up to find that all your furniture's been rearranged, or that snow has buried the entire neighborhood, or that the moon is on fire. How do you respond? In this workshop we'll twist familiar places into bizarrely unfamiliar ones, and then write poems exploring how our lives are changed as a result.
If 826michigan woke up to find that Scott Beal were missing, our world would be terribly, irreparably twisted.
This workshop is full. (You can put your name on the waiting list, though.)
