826LA
Encyclopedia
826LA is a Los Angeles
-based nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills and helping teachers inspire their students to write. Programs are structured around the beliefs that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success. There are two locations: 826LA West in Venice and 826LA East in Echo Park.
The 826LA Board of Directors consists of Miguel Arteta
, Mac Barnett
, Joshuah Bearman
, Nínive Clements Calegari
, Dave Eggers
, Jodie Evans
, John T. Gilbertson, Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal
, Keith Knight, Melissa Mathison
, Salvador Plascencia
, and Sally Willcox.
There are 6 other 826 National
chapters; San Francisco (826 Valencia
), NYC (826NYC
), Seattle (826 Seattle
), Chicago (826CHI), Ann Arbor (826 Michigan
), and Boston (826 Boston
).
. The store also sells anthologies of work by 826LA writing students, new and back issues of Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern
, The Believer
, Wholphin
and other McSweeney's publications. The store also sells a special series of Poketo
wallets, celebrating the work of artists and students alike. The short stories written by 826LA students line the inside of Poketo's artist wallets, and then illustrated with a Poketo artists' interpretations of the stories http://poketo.com/shop/projects/826-la-collaboration/.
Workshops: 826LA offers writing workshops that cover a wide spectrum of subjects, all designed to strengthen students’ skills, foster their creativity, and give them an opportunity to execute projects that showcase their work. Working professionals teach all the offered workshops, and class sizes are kept small to ensure individualized attention. These workshops focus on a variety of topics. Recent classes have covered crafting college-application essays, designing imaginary countries, preparing for the SAT
, reviewing runway fashion, and writing love poetry from the perspective of leopards.
Among its many collaborative workshops is Sunday Afternoon For Kids, held at the Hammer Museum
in which artists, writers and performers teach their craft http://hammer.ucla.edu/programs/programs/cat/12.
In School Support for Teachers: 826LA also sends volunteers into school throughout Los Angeles. Tutors support Los Angeles teachers in their classrooms, providing students with one-on-one attention and feedback as they work on various writing assignments: sonnets, biographies, University of California
application essays, and more. In Spring 2006, Community Photoworks was created, an annual collaboration between 826LA and the J. Paul Getty Museum
. Seventh-graders students were taught the basics of photographic composition, explored Los Angeles with cameras, and wrote and polished artist statements. Their photographs and statements were displayed in a gallery exhibition in Venice http://www.getty.edu/news/press/center/community_photoworks06.html.
Field Trips: In the mornings, classes from around Los Angeles visit the 826LA writing labs to participate in engaging and spirited field trips. Teachers can choose from various field-trip plans, such as workshops in screenwriting and journalism, or request a custom-designed program. Field trips are tailored to complement any teacher’s curriculum.
The most popular field trip is Storytelling & Bookmaking, in which classes collaborate to write stories for Mr. Barnacle, the never-seen, always-cranky publisher behind Barnacle & Barnacle Books. With the help of a storyteller, illustrator, and typist, a class works together to create characters, a setting, and a plot for an original story. (A recent book chronicled the friendship between an injured mouse and a sandwich-making robot policeman.) The action builds to a thrilling cliffhanger, and then each student has an opportunity to write an ending, create an illustration, bind his or her book, and walk away with the finished product. Barnacle is notoriously hard to please, but our students’ work manages to earn his enthusiastic approval every time.
In the past few months, 826LA has been proud to present a series of Dead Author Readings, in which such deceased wordsmiths as Mary Shelley
and Edgar Allan Poe
have read from their works and answered questions from the audience.
Beginning in January 2009, 826LA will produce Tiny Vaudeville, a monthly series of live performances and good times at the Echoplex.
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
-based nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills and helping teachers inspire their students to write. Programs are structured around the beliefs that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success. There are two locations: 826LA West in Venice and 826LA East in Echo Park.
The 826LA Board of Directors consists of Miguel Arteta
Miguel Arteta
Miguel Arteta is a Puerto Rican director of film and television, known for his independent film Chuck & Buck , for which he received the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award.-Early life:...
, Mac Barnett
Mac Barnett
Mac Barnett is an American author of children's books living in Oakland, California.- Career :Mac Barnett is the author of several picture books and the Brixton Brothers series of mysteries. Time Magazine named his picture book Guess Again!, illustrated by Adam Rex, as the #2 Picture Book of 2010...
, Joshuah Bearman
Joshuah Bearman
Joshuah Bearman is a former staff writer and editor for the LA Weekly. He writes for Rolling Stone, Harper's, Wired, The New York Times Magazine, The Believer, McSweeney's, The Huffington Post and contributes to This American Life. Bearman was a contributing producer on the documentary, The King of...
, Nínive Clements Calegari
Nínive Clements Calegari
Nínive Clements Calegari is an educator in the United States. Following ten years of classroom experience in public schools, she became an author and founded a national literacy program.-Biography:...
, Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is known for the best-selling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and for his more recent work as a screenwriter. He is also the co-founder of the literacy project 826 Valencia.-Life:Eggers was born in Boston, Massachusetts,...
, Jodie Evans
Jodie Evans
Jodie Evans is a political activist, author, and documentary film producer. She characterizes her activism as working for peace and justice, environmental causes and women’s rights...
, John T. Gilbertson, Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal
Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal
Naomi Gyllenhaal is an American screenwriter. She has written the screenplays for several feature films, including Running on Empty , Losing Isaiah, and most recently Bee Season. She is...
, Keith Knight, Melissa Mathison
Melissa Mathison
Melissa Mathison , sometimes credited as Josh Rogan, is an American film and television screenwriter.-Career:She is perhaps most notable for writing the screenplays for the films E.T...
, Salvador Plascencia
Salvador Plascencia
Salvador Plascencia is an American writer, born 1976 in Guadalajara, Mexico.The Plascencia family eventually settled near Los Angeles in the city of El Monte when he was eight years old. Plascencia holds a B.A. in English from Whittier College and an MFA in fiction from Syracuse University...
, and Sally Willcox.
There are 6 other 826 National
826 National
826 National is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping students, ages 6–18, with expository and creative writing at eight locations across the USA...
chapters; San Francisco (826 Valencia
826 Valencia
826 Valencia is a non-profit organisation dedicated to helping children and young adults develop writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.-Overview:...
), NYC (826NYC
826nyc
826NYC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write...
), Seattle (826 Seattle
826 Seattle
826 Seattle is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. It is a regional chapter of the 826 National organization, founded by authors Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida...
), Chicago (826CHI), Ann Arbor (826 Michigan
826 Michigan
826michigan is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.-History:...
), and Boston (826 Boston
826 Boston
826 Boston is a nonprofit writing and tutoring center located in Egleston Square, a community situated between the Jamaica Plain and Roxbury neighborhoods of Boston...
).
Echo Park Time Travel Mart
826LA East resides in a Victorian salon nestled behind the Echo Park Time Travel Mart, a convenience store specializing in products imported from the past and future, such as Viking odorant, robot milk, mammoth chunks and Ricky Martin lunch boxes. The store and its initial line of products were conceived by writers Mac Barnett and Jon Korn, and graphic designer Stefan G. BucherStefan G. Bucher
Stefan G. Bucher is a writer, graphic designer and illustrator. He is the man behind the California design studio 344 Design .He is the creator of the popular online animation series Daily Monster , For 100 days he filmed himself drawing a new monster every night, based on random ink blots....
. The store also sells anthologies of work by 826LA writing students, new and back issues of Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern
Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern
Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern is a literary journal, first published in 1998, edited by Dave Eggers. The first issue featured only works rejected by other magazines, but thereafter the journal began to include pieces written with McSweeney's in mind. McSweeney’s has since published works by...
, The Believer
The Believer (magazine)
The Believer is a United States literary magazine that also covers other arts and general culture. Founded and designed in 2003 by the writer and publisher Dave Eggers, it is edited by Vendela Vida, Heidi Julavits and Ed Park...
, Wholphin
Wholphin (DVD)
Wholphin is a quarterly DVD magazine containing a selection of short films which have had little or no exposure elsewhere. It was created by Dave Eggers and Brent Hoff of McSweeney's publishing house...
and other McSweeney's publications. The store also sells a special series of Poketo
Poketo
Poketo is a design firm established in 2003 by Ted Vadakan and Angie Myung. The name "Poketo" , comes from the mispronunciation of the word "pocket" by Myung's grandmother. Currently located in Los Angeles, CA., Poketo specializes in designing limited edition art products, apparel, homeware and decor...
wallets, celebrating the work of artists and students alike. The short stories written by 826LA students line the inside of Poketo's artist wallets, and then illustrated with a Poketo artists' interpretations of the stories http://poketo.com/shop/projects/826-la-collaboration/.
Programs
Drop-in Tutoring: 826LA offers free drop-in tutoring Monday through Thursday, from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Tutoring is offered with a focus on personalized instruction, offering local students individualized help with their homework. Students come to the writing labs, where they work with tutors to complete their daily assignments, and often to embark on ambitious writing projects: poems, stories, comic books, and self-initiated research. Dogtown Books, an in-house publishing outfit, regularly publish these creative works.Workshops: 826LA offers writing workshops that cover a wide spectrum of subjects, all designed to strengthen students’ skills, foster their creativity, and give them an opportunity to execute projects that showcase their work. Working professionals teach all the offered workshops, and class sizes are kept small to ensure individualized attention. These workshops focus on a variety of topics. Recent classes have covered crafting college-application essays, designing imaginary countries, preparing for the SAT
SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
, reviewing runway fashion, and writing love poetry from the perspective of leopards.
Among its many collaborative workshops is Sunday Afternoon For Kids, held at the Hammer Museum
Hammer Museum
The Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Culture Center, or the Hammer Museum as it is more commonly known, is an art museum in the Westwood district of Los Angeles, California...
in which artists, writers and performers teach their craft http://hammer.ucla.edu/programs/programs/cat/12.
In School Support for Teachers: 826LA also sends volunteers into school throughout Los Angeles. Tutors support Los Angeles teachers in their classrooms, providing students with one-on-one attention and feedback as they work on various writing assignments: sonnets, biographies, University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
application essays, and more. In Spring 2006, Community Photoworks was created, an annual collaboration between 826LA and the J. Paul Getty Museum
J. Paul Getty Museum
The J. Paul Getty Museum, a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust, is an art museum. It has two locations, one at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, and one at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California...
. Seventh-graders students were taught the basics of photographic composition, explored Los Angeles with cameras, and wrote and polished artist statements. Their photographs and statements were displayed in a gallery exhibition in Venice http://www.getty.edu/news/press/center/community_photoworks06.html.
Field Trips: In the mornings, classes from around Los Angeles visit the 826LA writing labs to participate in engaging and spirited field trips. Teachers can choose from various field-trip plans, such as workshops in screenwriting and journalism, or request a custom-designed program. Field trips are tailored to complement any teacher’s curriculum.
The most popular field trip is Storytelling & Bookmaking, in which classes collaborate to write stories for Mr. Barnacle, the never-seen, always-cranky publisher behind Barnacle & Barnacle Books. With the help of a storyteller, illustrator, and typist, a class works together to create characters, a setting, and a plot for an original story. (A recent book chronicled the friendship between an injured mouse and a sandwich-making robot policeman.) The action builds to a thrilling cliffhanger, and then each student has an opportunity to write an ending, create an illustration, bind his or her book, and walk away with the finished product. Barnacle is notoriously hard to please, but our students’ work manages to earn his enthusiastic approval every time.
Events
In August 2008, 826LA hosted the Echo Park Lake Paddle Boat Regatta.In the past few months, 826LA has been proud to present a series of Dead Author Readings, in which such deceased wordsmiths as Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...
and Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
have read from their works and answered questions from the audience.
Beginning in January 2009, 826LA will produce Tiny Vaudeville, a monthly series of live performances and good times at the Echoplex.