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People Who Inspire Us
We the Dreamers: Hot Off the Presses 
What do quill pens, author Daniel Alarcón, and
mini-cupcakes from Miette have in common? They were all part of the
spectacular 2010 Young Authors' Book Project release party at the
Women's Building on June 2, of course. This year's publication, We
the Dreamers: Young Authors Explore the American Dream, is a
compilation of short essays on the American Dream written by fifty
juniors and seniors from John O'Connell High School. All fifty students
can now proudly count themselves among the esteemed ranks of our
nation's published authors.
The evening began with local literary star Daniel Alarcón congratulating the students and reading an excerpt from his gorgeous foreword to the book. He was followed by student editorial board members Cristian Soto, Karen Martinez, and Angelica Verdugo, who shared tales of their efforts to honor their classmates' voices, come up with an inspiring title, and ultimately make the book a reality. To quote from their introduction to the book,
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When you get published, a book is your voice—but it's a
voice that will be around forever. A book is more permanent than a song
or a film because it's a physical thing. It's an expression of you as a
person, and it will live on well past the time you will...Like the
process of crafting this book, finding the voice inside us to put into
these essays was the product of many weeks and forms of collaboration.
Nobody reaches a dream without help. Sharing each of our voices with so
many people has helped us better see the dream. It has helped the dream
to create us just as much as we created it.
Afterward, two of their O'Connell classmates, Ares Almendares and Niat Sebhatleab, read excerpts from their essays, leaving audience members slack-jawed with awe and reaching for their Kleenex.
All the newly published authors spent the rest of the evening using quill pens to autograph copies of their book for classmates, family members, 826 Valencia volunteers, and others in attendance. We the Dreamers is now available online or at the Pirate Store, and will soon be available in bookstores nationwide and on Amazon.com.
826 Valencia would like to give a huge shout-out to four incredibly generous local businesses for donating delicious gourmet food for the event: Miette, Beretta, Tartine Bakery, and Arzimendi Bakery. We are so appreciative of their efforts to help make the event extra-special for our students and their families.
For more on the many amazing things that go on for kids at 826, go to www.826valencia.org.
We've researched a number of blogs and websites that are places for young writers to publish their work, read about other young authors, find out about favorite books, and more.
Here are some URL's:
http://www.kidpub.com
http://www.mrsmagooreads.com
http://yareviews.wikispaces.com
http://www.stonesoup.com/archive
We had a marvelous time teaching our first food writing class at 18 Reasons in San Francisco. We were the first to offer a class for kids at theirintimate community space in San Francisco's Mission district!
18 Reasons is a non-profit engaging the community through food and art. They offer a year-round calendar of unique wine tastings, art shows, community dinners, food classes and interactive workshops.
In this 2 hour creative writing workshop for 3rd - 5th graders, we used all five senses and plates full of adjectives, metaphors and similes to learn how to write about food.
We mounted our final piece on special paper, as a love letter to our favorite food.
Here are some photos by the wonderful photographer, Blaire Sneddon!
Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case forcreating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.
His latest book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, a deep look at human creativity and education, was published in January 2009.
If you do anything today, listen to his talk. You'll be nodding and saying, "Yes!" Yes!" Yes!" all the way through.
In creativity we trust.