We offer free evening and weekend workshops designed to foster creativity, strengthen writing skills, and provide students with a forum for executing projects they might not otherwise have the support to undertake. Workshops range from the playful to the practical, and all are taught by volunteer writers, artists, educators, and publishing professionals.
PLEASE NOTE: Due to increased demand, enrollment for workshops are now determined by lottery. Once you have signed up for a workshop, please look for an email from workshops@826nyc.org, verifying that we have received your request. If you have not heard from us after 48 hours, feel free to call.
Our workshops are limited enrollment and often generate wait lists. With this in mind, please only sign up if you can make every session of a workshop. Thank you!
Epic! Tragic! Amazing!
3 Sunday sessions: January 25, February 1, 8 (2009)
12-1:30pm
Taught by 826NYC
For ages 6-9
Shrek and Fiona lived happily ever after. So did Sleeping Beauty and Prince Charming. But who wants to read about happily ever after (especially with Valentine's Day right around the corner)? Blech! Here's your chance to write a perfect recipe for not-so-happily-ever-after -- a tragic story. Characters and catastrophes not included.
Gumshoes on the Mean Streets
4 Thursday sessions: January 15, 22, 29, February 5 (2009)
6-7:30pm
Taught by Caroline Nuffort & Joan Kim
For ages 10-14
Your favorite pen disappears from your desk, a funny smell is coming from your neighbor's apartment, and your teacher, usually nice and cheerful, has been in a terrible mood for weeks. Do you ignore these signs, or do you try to get more information? If you have a nose for mystery, this workshop is the place for you!
Solving mysteries, large and small, requires detective work. Test your mettle as an amateur gumshoe in this class. You will snoop and sleuth your way towards solving a crime! At the end of this workshop you will take home a published book of case files.
Harriet the Spy Read Aloud
1 Sunday session: December 21 (2008)
12-2pm
Taught by 826NYC
For ages 6 and up
In celebration of the holidays, 826 volunteers and students (and parents, siblings, and friends!) will be reading Louie Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy and starting their own spy journals. Please join us!
The ULTIMATE Survival Guide
3 Tuesday sessions: December 2, 9, 16 (2008)
6-7:30pm
Taught by Sarah Pollock
For ages 9-11
Picture it: You're walking the hall, late for class, worried you're going to get yelled at by a teacher when a rogue bear comes bounding out of Room 122 and straight for you! What do you do? Do you lay down and play dead? Make an angry bear face? Who can remember? Arg!
You know what would have been helpful? A survival guide! A survival guide for ALL situations! Then you would have known what to do in a bear attack or how to make up an excuse for being late. And what if there were more Survival Scenarios? Like how to remember people's birthdays or what to pack when you expect to be stranded on a deserted island. Come in for three weeks and we'll compile all our vast knowledge to complete one Ultimate Survival Guide. Next time you see that bear, you'll be ready.
Pop-Up Poems!
1 Sunday session: November 16 (2008)
12-2pm
Taught by Shannon Kerner
For ages 6-9
Learn to make simple pop-up magic to delight your whole family. Write a poem to celebrate the season, then make your favorite turkey drawing jump off the page, or watch a leaf dance on the page!
Stealing from the City: Poetry for Urban Outlaws
2 Wednesday sessions: November 5, 12 (2008)
6-7:30pm
Taught by Laura Sims
For ages 10-14
Have you ever heard a conversation that sounded like music to your ears? Or read a line in a book that you wanted to steal for your own, original poem? If so, this workshop is for you! Students will learn & practice the art of "found poetry," pulling words and lines from: books, magazines, newspaper headlines, songs, overheard conversations on the subway, advertisement posters, political speeches and more to create their own verse masterworks about living in New York City. Students will be asked to bring their own found material to the second class – magazines, books, letters, postcards, journal pages, newspapers, etc. for cutting up the old to create the new! All other materials will be provided.
